#8: Singin in the Rain

Has there ever been a movie more aimed at entertaining its audience than "Singin in the Rain"? As I watched the film again, what I noticed was how it never seemed to let up, practically every scene had some way of energizing you out of its stupor, which is why it is still considered the greatest musical to come out of Hollywood.

I remember when attending my film class a few years ago, "Singin in the Rain" was the one film that practically all the students had seen, or at least have heard about. For those who haven't seen it, probably just know about the one title number which is immortalized by Gene Kelly with him dancing and singing in the rain, full of love and happiness in his heart. Little do those people know, that this is also the film that contains "Make em Laugh", "Good Morning", and countless others. It's hard to believe one movie can contain such talent, but it does.

True Gene Kelly is the obvious standout dancer in the group, but watch Donald O'Connor match him step for step in "Moses Supposes", or watch him in his own show stopper in "Make Em Laugh". Debbie Reynolds is no slouch herself as she joins the boys in "Good Morning, Good Morning", and even though Jean Hagen has no singing or dancing parts, she practically steals every scene she's in as the ultimate dumb blonde, (Hagen by the way was the only cast member to receive an Oscar nomination).

Watching "Singin in the Rain" is noticing just how much talent Hollywood had back then, everybody was a hoofer who worked night and day on making an entertaining film. Movies by then looked so effortless and fun, because that's how much the talent worked to make it look that way. Over the years, I've grown to have a new appreciation for musicals for the simple reason they are the type of genre designed to make you applaud from your seat. The performers are giving their all in "Singin in the Rain", and you can't help but smile and get excited at what they throw at you next.

Let also not forget that "Singin in the Rain" is probably the funniest comedy of the 50s as well, it's a dead on satire of the movie industry as it was changing from silent films to sound. Studios had to deal with a lot of things such as hiding microphones on actors, to getting the sound in sync, to having performers with badly sounding voices, it's all beautifully parodied throughout.

I don't think "Singin in the Rain" has any worry of losing its status as greatest musical ever, while I admire some musicals of today, I rarely get that feeling losing myself with excitement the way I do with this film or others of this great era.

"Singin in the Rain" is about having a good time at the movies and letting yourself be entertained by real professionals who practically broke their backs to make sure you were enjoying yourself. Yes movies used to do that.