My sister Midette posted this on her FB page some time ago:
My reply to her post was…maligo sa ulan.
Why is it that when we were young kids, we were allowed by our parents to bathe in the rain, and run half naked in its downpour, while when we became parents, we forbade our own kids to do so? Why are we afraid to let them do the things that used to be fun and carefree for us?
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Lately, I have been watching old movies after I searched for the Top 100 movies of All Time. I saw that Singin’ in the Rain was always included in the list of different people. So I downloaded it, and I was blown away by the sheer genius of the talented Gene Kelly. He was not your handsome Cassanova-type, but boy, was I charmed when I watched him sing and dance and smile. If I had lived in the 1950’s, I may have fallen head over heels with the dashing Mr. Kelly. I couldn’t take away the silly grin on my face while watching him perform the theme song of the movie.
Somehow, I felt like wanting to sing in the rain with him too. Now I wouldn’t have felt this euphoria if I hadn’t had experienced the rain, would I?
I think that my kids missed a big fun chunk from their childhood.
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Movie Review : Singin' in the Rain (1952)
The Story:
In 1927, Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are famous on-screen romantic pair. Lina, however, mistakes the on-screen romance for real love. Don has worked hard to get where he is today, with his former partner Cosmo. When Don and Lina's latest film is transformed into a musical, Don has the perfect voice for the songs. But Lina - well, even with the best efforts of a diction coach, they still decide to dub over her voice. Kathy Selden is brought in, an aspiring actress, and while she is working on the movie, Don falls in love with her. Will Kathy continue to "aspire", or will she get the break she deserves?
My Review:
Granting that the film was made in 1952, it could still hold a candle to most of the trash we now watch at the movie theatres. It is called a classic and one of the greatest movies ever made simply because of the talented genius of the cast. A joy to behold, it took me back to those days of watching LVN pictures--when pure fun means just singing and dancing in the rain. If you couldn't be charmed by this movie, I don't know what else could.
Trivia:
The rain consisted of a mixture of water and milk so it would show up better on film but it caused Gene Kelly's wool suit to shrink.
While the film makes a central point of the idea that Kathy's voice is dubbed over Lina Lamont's, what is not told is that, ironically, in some of these songs - notably "Would You" and "You Are My Lucky Star" - Debbie Reynolds, the actress who plays Kathy, is actually dubbed by Betty Noyes. However, Reynolds' own singing voice can be heard on the outtake footage of "Lucky Star" as performed next to the giant billboard of Gene Kelly.
In the "Would You" number, Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) is dubbing the voice of Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) because Lina's voice is shrill and screechy. However, it's not Reynolds who is really speaking, it's Jean Hagen herself, who actually had a beautiful deep, rich voice. So you have Jean Hagen dubbing Debbie Reynolds dubbing Jean Hagen. And when Debbie is supposedly dubbing Jean's singing of "Would You", the voice you hear singing actually belongs to Betty Noyes, who had a much richer singing voice than Debbie.
Gene Kelly insulted Debbie Reynolds for not being able to dance. Fred Astaire, who was hanging around the studio, found her crying under a piano and helped her with her dancing.
Working days sometimes stretched to 19 hours.
Only 19 when cast to play the film, Debbie Reynolds lived with her parents and commuted to the set. She had to wake up at 4:00 a.m. and ride three different buses to the studio; sometimes, to avoid the commute, she would just sleep on the set.
Donald O'Connor admitted that he did not enjoy working with Gene Kelly, since Kelly was somewhat of a tyrant. O'Connor said that for the first several weeks he was terrified of making a mistake and being yelled at by Kelly.
Filming of the Cyd Charisse dance number had to be stopped for several hours after it was discovered that her pubic hair was visible through her costume. When the problem was finally fixed, the film's costume designer Walter Plunkett said, "It's OK, guys, we've finally got Cyd's crotch licked."
A microphone was hidden in Debbie Reynolds' blouse so her lines could be heard more clearly. During one of the dance numbers, her heartbeat can be heard, mirroring what happens to Lina Lamont in the movie itself.
Studio technicians had to cover two outdoor city blocks on the backlot with tarp to make them dark for a night scene, and then equipped them with overhead sprays for Gene Kelly to perform the title number. Their efforts are all the more remarkable since there was a severe water shortage in Culver City the day the sequence was shot.
After they finished the "Good Morning" number, Debbie Reynolds had to be carried to her dressing room because she had burst some blood vessels in her feet. Despite her hard work on the "Good Morning" number, Gene Kelly decided that someone should dub her tap sounds, so he went into a dubbing room to dub the sound of her feet as well as his own.
Debbie Reynolds remarked many years later that making this movie and surviving childbirth were the two hardest things she's ever had to do.
Was voted the 10th Greatest Film of all time by Entertainment Weekly, being the highest ranked musical.
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