"Singing in the Rain"

Directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen

It’s hard to imagine, looking back from a distance of over seventy years, that our Film of the Week, “Singing in the Rain,” was not a raving success after it premiered at Radio City Music Hall in 1952. Perhaps the problem was that the film followed so fast on the heels of Gene Kelly’s outstanding tribute to Cole Porter’s music in An American in Paris the year before. Whereas American in Paris won seven Academy Awards in 1951, Singing in the Rain received only two nominations, and those for supporting actors only, and won not a single Oscar in 1952. Both films were produced by Arthur Freed, who was pumping out great films for MGM largely by using a hands-off approach to film-making and by allowing his “talent” — this included the directors and choreographers — to do what they (and not the studio executives) do best. And in the case of Singing in the rain the directors and choreographers were the same two talented men, Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. Anyone can see how fabulous the outcome of Freed’s “method” was in these two wonderful film productions, bang! bang! one after the other.

Arthur Freed really stretched his wings when MGM elevated him to the rank of producer, by the way. He had served, uncredited, as the assistant-producer of a little ol’ musical you might have seen called The Wizard of Oz in 1939. But Freed didn’t come to THAT film as a music or show biz newbie, by any means. He began his career as a song-plugger in Chicago in his youth. (Recall how many of the songwriters we have discussed here at Word & Song did that very thing, most famously for the Tin Pan Alley publishers in New York.) It was in Chicago that Freed met up with a family named Marx, whose four boys who would soon be taking the film industry by storm with their zany antics. Freed followed the Marx Brothers on the Vaudeville circuit, as a writer and singer for their show. Eventually when Vaudeville was fading, he did a stint on Broadway and eventually followed the work to Hollywood, where talented songwriters were in high demand.

And it was his work as a songwriter which created the occasion of our film for this week. From reading along with us at Sometimes a Song, you likely know by now how very many songs most of the Hall of Fame composers actually wrote — far more than ever made it to their not-inconsiderable lists of hit songs. Well, Freed was a busy lyricist, and the suggestion arose among people “in the know” at MGM that Arthur had a nice stack of great songs from his Vaudeville and Broadway days collecting dust just crying out to be unpacked and put to use somehow in a big-screen musical. These songs included a little ditty called, of all things, “Singing in the Rain!” So the task was handed off to writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green to weave Mr. Freed’s old songs into a story, one which everyone agreed should be set at about the same era when the songs were written. And that era happened to coincide with the awkward change in Hollywood from silent to talking movies. Presto! And since the story was written to accommodate the songs, the songs just “fit” the story beautifully. The one missing link was a song to showcase the immense comic and athletic prowess of hoofer Donald O’Connor. For that Freed was agreed to write a song, which he called, “Make ‘Em Laugh,” and which was supposed to be “on the order of” Cole Porter’s song, “Be a Clown,” from another Freed production with Gene Kelly called “The Pirate.” As it turns out, Freed seems unwittingly to have composed his song not simply by taking inspiration from Porter’s song, but indeed by writing tune and lyrics which were too close to the original for comfort. To the credit of all involved, no one mentioned this similarity to Arthur Freed, though it was almost impossible to overlook.

Some stories about film and music composition will never be told, but it is true that Freed and Porter worked together on the music for “The Pirate,” and perhaps they had an understanding about sharing the songs. We can’t know, but what we can know is that “Make ‘Em Laugh” inspired Donald O’Connor to create a tour de force in comic dance. There is nothing in film like his dance routine for “Singing in the Rain,” and it’s all real, not created by hocus-pocus and special effects. As for Gene Kelly, he was always hands-on with the dance numbers and the dancers in his films. He had to be part big brother, part cheerleader, part coach, and part slave-driver to get the performances he did out of himself and the dancers he worked with. After filming “Make ‘em Laugh,” Donald O’Connor had a total collapse for several days; Debbie Reynolds, who knew almost nothing about dancing before working on the film, almost had a nervous breakdown from sheer fatigue and stress over working with Gene. And Mr. Kelly himself apparently did his “Singing in the Rain” street number with water pouring on him while he was running a high fever. What sacrifices great performers make for their art.

So despite its rather ho-hum reception on first release, Singing in the Rain has not only stood the test of time, but has racked up just about every non-Academy award possible for a film to receive. The American Film Institute has placed Singing in the Rain at the top of its list of Greatest Movie Musicals and fifth in its list of Greatest American Films of all time. The film was among the first twenty-five which the Library of Congress chose for preservation in the National Film Registry. And in the court of public opinion among film buffs, it ranks at or near the very top of all films ever made. The British Film Institute has placed it in their list of films that everyone should see before age fourteen. I agree! If you have seen this film (and who hasn’t?) but your children or grandchildren haven’t seen it, why not visit it again with the young ‘uns and become as a child again? Treat yourself and your family to a couple of hours of sheer music & dance magic, not to mention a healthy dash of that sure-fire comic ingredient recommended by Donald O’Connor in his big dance number: “plenty of hoke.”

And have a laugh on us this week!

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We were not able to find a free to watch version of this week, but wherever you find it, “Singing in the Rain” is worth watching again and again!

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