Singin' In The Rain (1952)

 

Genre: Musical/Romance

Time: 1h 42mins

Director: Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen

Quick Summary: A silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his delusionally jealous screen partner are trying to make the difficult transition to talking pictures in 1920s Hollywood.

Pure fun and enjoyment. This is all this wanted to be, and that's all it is. 

Now, this isn't the best musical I've seen, the moments between a song and normal talking scenes are a struggle. As well, it lost my attention a few times throughout this in the more boring quieter scenes.

The colours in this are absolutely gorgeous! They pop right off the scene and everything is so pleasing to look at, bold and bright. Nothing clashes and works perfectly aesthetically. The set pieces are so well done too, everything looks so warm and cheery and that really fits well with this film. It wanted to be something that people could be happy about in such bad times, and it worked. 

As fun as this film is, It is very important. It shows what the transition from silent films to speaking films was like and how a lot of people struggled, as well as the many difficulties that came with it. History is shown in this, but it's rather amusing to see such an important breakthrough be shown through comedy. In most scenes there is something to laugh about; the struggles of getting the lead actress to speak into the mic, the actress's voices being too shrill for the equipment, and poor scrips being taken as a joke. There's slapstick comedy, outright jokes, subtle background gags, and physical comedy. They crammed so much into this to keep it fully entertaining and it worked.

The Choreography was amazing as well, everything being so grand and over the top, with nobody missing a single step. Something different with this film too is that all the dances seem to be more pointed towards athletic moves such as martial arts moves, than dancing itself. Even the costumes are amazing, with added technicolour enhancements these scenes are so fascinating to watch.

I was personally not too much of the romance plot in this, it didn't feel quite right to me. It was an old (Can I even call it old for when this film was made) cliche of two people who hate each other, and slowly fall in love. Which can be done right. Except their dislikes of each other came out of nowhere and were very extreme, then to me it felt like there was no progression to them warming up to each other. They were just in love suddenly? I just didn't really understand it and it felt forced from beginning to end.

8/10

"Hey, Cos! Do something! Call me a cab!

 OK, you're a cab."

"[after Don shows up late for a party]

Cosmo Brown: Don, how did you come, by way of Australia?"

"R.F. Simpson: Cosmo, remind me to give you a raise.

Cosmo Brown: Oh, R.F.

R.F. Simpson: Yes?

Cosmo Brown: Give me a raise."