 
(1952) Doo-de-doo- doo...
The switch to talkies proves a smooth one for Gene Kelly’s silent
swashbuckler Don Lockwood (“Dignity! Always Dignity!” he declares,
after flashbacks reveal his low beginnings as Western stuntman and third-rate
hoofer), but the nasal screech of his screen inamorata, Jean Hagen’s
Lina Lamont, calls for dubbing by Hollywood hopeful Debbie Reynolds, while
sidekick Donald O’Connor knocks himself out (literally) to “Make
‘Em Laugh” and Kelly and Cyd Charisse dance the Broadway ballet
to end all Broadway ballets. Voted one of the 10 Best Films of All Time
in a 2002 international critics’ poll, Singin’ in the Rain
boasts more great song, dance and joie de vivre (especially in
the iconic title number) than just about any other musical, and, as written
by Broadway wunderkinds/über-buffs Betty Comden & Adolph
Green, it’s also the funniest movie of all movies about movies. But
it was no instant classic — An American
in Paris was the new gold standard for musicals and the frothier,
much- less- self-
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important Rain got shafted at Oscar
time (only Hagen and its musical score were even
nominated) — and, in fact, Comden & Green
originally balked at the assignment: to devise a
story around the songs of Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur
Freed, the latter, not-so-coincidentally, the project’s
producer. First pondering a singing cowboy saga for
Howard Keel, the writers’ lightbulb came on
when they realized the songs worked best in their
own era (roughly 1928 to 1931, during that shaky
silence to-sound transition), an idea that excited
both themselves and old pals Gene Kelly and Stanley
Donen, who’d already co-directed the movie version
of their Broadway smash On the Town.
Fifty years later, Singin’ in the Rain is still
to most people what Pauline Kael called it: “Just
about the best Hollywood musical of all time.”
This vibrant new 35mm print (from a negative derived
from the original 3-strip Technicolor separations)
uses the film’s original multi-track orchestral
recordings (originally mixed into mono) to create
true Dolby digital stereo for the very first time!
A WARNER BROS. RELEASE.
Running time: approximately 103 minutes
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