Singin' In The Rain (1952)

It has been raining cats and dogs here,  in Jakarta. well, i guess i've found my mood to do another writing about my top ranked favorite musical films : Singin' In The Rain, yay!

The Movie was voted as the highest ranked musical in 10th Greatest Film of all time by Entertaintment Weekly. and yes, i've got to agree with this one. Anyhow, the song "Singin' in The Rain" the one who sung by Gene Kelly, was recorded at the same date on my birthday, June 5th! Hooray!

Singin' In The Rain has a nice story with terrific scores and remarkable dance sequence, wrapped with an epic punchline and strongly played character. 

I might say that besides gene kelly's superb choreography (well, of course, he's amazing) Singin' In The Rain wouldn't be complete without Jean Hagen who played Lina Lamont! 

She had this shrill, annoying screeched voice. And also very, very dumb. My favorite villain.

Gene Kelly was co star with Donald O' Connor, played Cosmo, and Debbie Reynolds who played as Kathy Selden.  I read some of the facts about Singin' In The Rain, and it said that Debbie Reynolds have had a hard time to learned the choreography, Fred Astaire who's on the same set is the one who help her with the dance.

Some also said that she can't sing, that her voice was dubbed by Jean Hagen who played Lina Lamont, and correct me if i'm wrong, they both were dubbed over their role's voice!

So, Debbie was dubbed the screeches voice of Lina Lamont's singing in Would You, while Kathy Selden's part in "Would You" supposedly Debbie singing, was dubbed by Betty Noyes who has far greater voices than she did. And the idea of the movie was that Kathy dubbed all of Lina Lamont's voices in the film of the film while Lina is actually dubbed Kathy's part in this actual film. huh 

Later Debbie Reynold said that Singin' In the Rain and childbirth are the two hardest things in her life. And the child she gave birth to was Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia Organa. Whoa! 

Another amazing things about this film was the high difficulty of the choreography combined with only one take, continuous shot of the actors dancing through the numbers like in "Make Em Laugh" and "Singin' In The Rain". I noticed that "Make Em Laugh" was a crazy full of energy and cosmo's eyes is soooo blue. while "Singin' In The Rain" was giving me a very happy feeling from the first time i watched it. 

Singin' In The Rain story line was based on the music scores and numbers,so they add the plot later. But, they actually did a great job in script writing. Singin' In The Rain got a plenty of epic line : 

But the best thing about this film was the finale. I almost cry when Kathy turned away after Don (Gene Kelly) shouted from the stage 

"Ladies and Gentlemen stop that girl, that girl running on the aisle! stop her! That's the girl whose voiced you heard and loved tonight, she's the real star of the picture! Kathy Selden!" 

and then they sing "You Are My Lucky Star" in the finale. Even though, her voice were dubbed, but the ending sure is the best of Debbie Reynolds. Ah.

An American In Paris (1951)

Another good musical from the 50’s i enjoy is An American in Paris. Well, what can i say? The song was written by Gershwin brothers and the dancing part was coreograph by Gene Kelly himself. Directed by Vincente Minelli. Well, compared to another Kelly’s movie like Singing in The Rain (well, i love that one too) there are some parts from An American in Paris is better than Singing in the Rain. Well i actually confused which one is better because both were toooo good! 

Henri, Jerry and Adam do a number By Strauss

The movie opens with a lines from each of the male character perspective, telling about themselves. Jerry Mulligan the painter, Adam Cook the pianist and then Henri Baurel the gentlemen.  The director had a persistence way in telling each of the changes of perspective yet,  it all come back to 3rd person’s view.  Gene Kelly played as  Jerry Mulligan, the leading character. I always remember his first line : “This is Paris. And i’m an american who lives here”.  Jerry was an ex G.I. When the war is over he decided to stay in Paris to become a painter.  An American In Paris had few good lines like : “Brother if you can’t paint in Paris, you better give up and marry the boss’ daughter”  or “Let’s just say I’m old enough to know what to do with my young feelings”.  

But this one’s probably the best :

“I don’t want you to discuss my work, i’m not interested in your opinion of my work. If you say something nice it won’t make me feel any better, if you don’t it’ll bother me. Thank you. Good day.”

- Jerry Mulligan

Alright so, back to the plot. For short, the three man met at the cafe below Jerry’s apartment. Jerry was introduced to Henri by Adam. Jerry was on his way to sell his painting, later he met a gal and managed to get to know her. Her name is Lise,  she was 19 year old in the movie. Boy i’m 19 ._.  Lise was played by Leslie Caron. I really like her face and her dancing. Jerry didn’t know at the time that Lise was actually Henri’s fiancee. He was devastated when he knew Lise was going to leave him.  

ever meet a folks trying get to know you this hard? nah, don't think so

The Musical Number

Compared to Singin’ In The Rain, An American in Paris might have a too much portion of musical number in the movie (except for the An American in Paris ballet in the finale) that could make you boring.  But it all pay off with songs from Gershwin brothers plus Kelly’s Coreograph in “By Strauss”, “Our Love is Here to Stay”,  “I Got My Gal (who can ask for anything more)”, “S’ Wonderful” etc. The best number i think was the duet ballet in "Our Love is Here to Stay". Leslie Caron was just perfect in playing her character. 

and then sealed it..... with a kiss 

An American In Paris Ballet

This one’s is probably the best feature to put in the finale. I love the fact that it was captured beautifully so the audience can enjoy the show like we’re watching a ballet show live not through a motion picture.  The plot for the ballet itself was actually quite random because it didn’t have an actual story behind it. It was just Jerry’s fantasy when Lise leave him for Henri. So yes, it was random. But beautifully random. 

Jerry and Lise in silhoutte

here's a link to see An American In Paris Ballet