Singin' In the Rain (1952)

Credits: Director: Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen Producer: Arthur Freed Choreography: Gene Kelly and Carol Haney Screenplay: Betty Comden and Adolph Green Cinematography: Harold Rosson Music: Arthur Freed, Gene Kelly, and Nacio Herb Brown (lyrics); Roger Edens (arrangement)

Cast: Gene Kelly: Don Lockwood Debbie Reynolds: Kathy Selden Donald O'Connor: Cosmo Brown Jean Hagen: Lina Lamont Millard Mitchell: R.F. Simpson, the producer Rita Moreno: Zelda Zanders, Lina's friend Douglas Fowley: Roscoe Dexter, the hysterical director Cyd Charisse: Dancer in "Broadway Melodies" fantasy

Key Terms/Concepts this Week:

Reflexivity; intertextuality; Technicolor; widescreen; exhibition; Cinerama; Stereoscopic 3-D; Cinemascope; aspect ratio; the Supreme Court ruling of 1948; the blockbuster; the “small film”; the decline of the studio system

Background on the Film

Singin’ in the Rain is being offered to you for several reasons. First, it is nearly a documentary of the American cinema at a particularly fraught point in its history: as it made the transition from the silent film to the sound film in 1926. Second, Singin’ in the Rain represents the three subsystems that made up the classic studio system: the star system, the system of genre films, and the factory system of production. Third, Singin’ in the Rain represents one of the premier genres that derived from that transition to sound: the film musical. Fourth, its picture of the film industry includes the audience as well as people behind the screen. Thus, the film shows us that exhibition as well as production is an important part of the film industry. And, finally, Singin’ in the Rain illustrates the qualities of the classical Hollywood narrative: the moral nature of the characters, the dramatization of their conflicts, the organization of plot events, and the resolution of the story are all typical of classical Hollywood films. For all these reasons, it serves as a fitting culmination to this course; it is a reflexive film that allows us to meditate on Hollywood, cinema in general, and the particular films and concepts we have studied throughout this semester.

Selected Film Musicals:

Musicals with Gene Kelly: The Pirate (1948), On the Town (1949), An American in Paris (1951)

Musicals with Fred Astaire: Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Swing Time (1936), The Band Wagon (1953)

Other musicals: 42nd Street (1933), Goldiggers of 1933 (1933), Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), All That Jazz (1979), Fame (1980), Pennies from Heaven (1981), Flashdance (1983), Dirty Dancing (1987), School Daze (1988), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Chicago (2002).

Discussion Questions

1. For a while, except for MTV-style videos and animated cartoons such as The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, the movie musical seemed to have become a dead letter. The critical acclaim that has greeted the recent releases of Moulin Rouge! and Chicago seems to suggest that the musical may be experiencing a revival. Why do you think that today’s audiences seem to have become interested again in traditional musicals like Singin’ in the Rain?

2. Gene Kelly’s singing and dancing performances are an unquestionably important part of the film. How would you describe his style of dancing? For those of you who have seen Fred Astaire dance, can you describe the difference between his mode of dancing and Kelly’s? Kelly always said that he was more comfortable dancing with men than with women. Is this evident in the film? If so, how? Where? And why do you think his particular dancing style lends itself to this preference for male partners?

3. The film’s key musical performance—and the single most memorable dance number in cinematic history—is the  “Singin in the Rain” sequence. As you watch this scene on Monday night, consider the following questions (and, as a possible blog response, single out one of these questions for discussion):
   • how does this sequence exemplify Kelly’s interest in using dance as an “expression of characters’ moods and feelings.” How does this musical number illustrate Lockwood’s mood--and his emotional development-- at this particular moment in the narrative?
   • how are sound effects used in the sequence, particularly the sounds of Kelly’s tap dancing?
   • how does this sequence illustrate what Peter Wollen describes as an “escalation of movement?” In other words, how does Kelly—and the camera that follows him—become more active and vigorous as the number progresses?
4. The other key musical number in the film is the big production number entitled “Broadway Rhythm.” Some critics argue that it’s part of a masterful use of a Chinese box-like structure, since it functions as a film-within-a-film-within-a-film. Others argue that it’s “pretentious” and flagrantly violates the film’s overall emphasis on naturalness and spontaneity. What do you think?
5. Singin’ in the Rain, like all movies, is about life, not just about making movies. Since classic Hollywood films were meant to support social values, they were designed to showcase characters who modeled socially desirable traits. What admirable qualities does Don Lockwood have? What cluster of values does Kathy Selden represent? Lina Lamont? How are Don’s dilemma and its solution marked by his acceptance (or rejection) of those values? What life lessons are we meant to learn from this film? How do these lessons relate to real-life issues during the 1950s?
6. According to Peter Wollen, “The core issue in the film is . . . the relationship between sound and image.” How does Singin’ in the Rain represent that relationship? In real life, do you tend to believe what you see or what you hear? In watching a film, which do you tend to pay most attention to? How does Singin’ in the Rain make use of that tendency? How does the film’s assertion square with the fact that Debbie Reynolds’s singing voice was dubbed in the actual film?
7. According to Peter Chumo, “Creating the show and creating Don’s new identity are the two central issues of Singin’ in the Rain.” How would you describe that new identity? What steps are needed to create it? How is the dual-plot structure of the story involved in this development?