SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952) made me HAPPY! - Movie Reaction - FIRST TIME WATCHING

Hello Everybody!
This movie was basically pure joy
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0:00 - Intro
1:36 - Reaction
34:38 - Review
Starring:
Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell, Cyd Charisse, and Douglas Fowley
Written by:
Adolph Green and Betty Comden
Directed by:
Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly

[@RolyPolyOllieReactions]

I'm singggggggin in the rain!!! Just singggggggggggin in the rain! What a glorious movie this was! Such a happy time from start to finish with great songs and some GREAT locations/dances (I'm talking about that giant cloth one in particular cause wow). If you have any more musical suggestions please let me know! Thanks for watching! Have a great day :)

[@taramills2289]

Across the Universe. It's a musical set to Beetle's music and it's fantastic. So good. Please check it out.

[@zatminskpust2413]

The rocky horror picture show..... Its diferent but very special....

[@christopherleodaniels7203]

and it looked so good because it was one of the last few films shot in three-strip Technicolor.

[@RLucas3000]

Craziest fact: Jean Hagen actually dubbed Debbie Reynolds dubbing her! Crazy! Jean got a well deserved best supporting actress nomination from this movie. One more crazy fact: Debbie made Good Morning look so effortless but she wasn’t a real dancer when she got the role. Gene Kelly forced her to rehearse the dancing endlessly, til the blood dripped out of her shoes every night when she left rehearsal!

[@alexayaoihd7984]

I think that you need to react at Oliver 1968 and West side story 1961 are a drama musical but old and.. Oliver has an music scene that the actor was mid wake - mid with dream and he sing all at the first. And for see more big scenary just the grat movie soap opera, Gone with the wind

[@jamesa.romano8500]

2:15 -- And that, ladies and gentlemen, is young Rita Moreno as Zelda Zanders, who at 90 years old is STILL kicking ass and taking names, most recently on Netflix's One Day at a Time and in the new West Side Story (the remake of the film for which she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, the first Latina to do so).

[@bowwowbuddy]

Came on to make sure Ms. Moreno got her deserved shout-out. Thanks!

[@Loweene_Ancalimon]

WAIT I never computed that ZZ is played by Rita Moreno !

[@katwithattitude5062]

"Green Dress Woman" is the legendary Cyd Charisse, who had just had a baby a few weeks before filming this. And Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, made two years after this, is also one of my absolute favorites!

[@ethan5757]

Actually she was in “Brigadoon” two years after Singin in the rain

[@katwithattitude5062]

@@ethan5757 I guess I wasn't clear. I wasn't saying Cyd was in SBFSB. I was suggesting it for another movie musical. To be honest, I wasn't all that wild about Brigadoon.

[@ethan5757]

@@katwithattitude5062 all good, yeah brigadoon wasn’t all that amazing

[@vincegay986]

Charisse was Kelly’s favorite dance partner.

[@Vinterfrid]

Her son Tony was born in late August 1950 - I seriously doubt he was just a few weeks old when this film was shot!

[@BigGator5]

"Gee, I'm glad you turned up, we've been looking inside every cake in town." Fun Fact: 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 0400 and ride three different buses to the studio. Sometimes, to avoid the commute, she would just sleep on the set. Taskmaster Kelly Fact: Debbie Reynolds remarked many years later that making this movie and surviving childbirth were the two hardest things she'd ever had to do. The filming experience was particularly unpleasant due to her harsh treatment by perfectionist Gene Kelly. Decades later, Kelly expressed remorse about his behavior: "I wasn't nice to Debbie. It's a wonder she still speaks to me." Don't Smoke Fact: For the "Make 'em Laugh" number, Gene Kelly asked Donald O'Connor to revive a trick he had done as a young dancer: running up a wall and completing a somersault. The number was so physically taxing that O'Connor, who smoked four packs of cigarettes a day at the time, ended up in a hospital bed for a week after its completion. He suffered from exhaustion and painful carpet burns. Unfortunately, an accident ruined all of the initial footage, so after a brief rest O'Connor agreed to do the difficult number all over again. Lesson Learned: Don't Smoke!!

[@billolsen4360]

I think Kelly was a smoker too, but didn't do it much on screen.

[@IzsakJoraszZ9]

The great irony of this film is that the gal who played Lina was actually using her normal voice in her "dubbed" moments (with few exceptions).

[@shermanlin5554]

Oh the coin flipping scene was a reference to actor George Raft in the 20s who always flipped a coin. He played gangsters and was himself involved as well. Remember when the film came out in 52 it was only 25 years after sound movies debuted so the for the audience it was a nostalgic look back. Just imagine how you look back at late 90s movies and music now. Cheers

[@melenatorr]

His girl is Cyd Charisse, who was called "Beautiful Dynamite" by Fred Astaire - one of the great dancers of the period! George Raft, though famous as a gangster actor (who turned down a lot of roles that Humphrey Bogart picked up) was also a dancer (so was James Cagney, another famous gangster actor). Here's a taste of him: kzbin.info/www/bejne/joW4fIaabtaEZ6c

[@vincegay986]

I’m always mindful that one failure to flip the coin properly meant another retake of a very elaborate shot.

[@alisonm2796]

Debbie did sing for herself in Good Mornin'. She was dubbed for the ballads. Also, if no one mentioned it, the coin flip is an homage to George Raft in one of his gangster roles. It was a classic reference. Yes, LaLa Land was a reference to this movie and all the other great 50's musicals.

[@philliplozano7587]

Debbie Reynolds was in fact a career singer and actress with a lovely voice. But she was only 19 when she was in Singing In The Rain, and had little professional experience. She was only dubbed over in "Would You," and one portion of "You Are My Lucky Star." Impressively, she had no professional dancing experience before doing the film. She worked so hard to keep up with Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor that she burst the blood vessels in her feet and had to be carried away from the set.

[@lanolinlight]

What you are seeing, in terms of image quality, is roughly how the film looked in its initial release to theaters. The notion that old films are of lesser resolution or image quality stems from seeing old, degraded prints. The camera negatives of these films often carry as much resolution as any modern digital image. Restorations turn back the hands of time.

[@thomaspearson6215]

i noticed the star wars posterin background , did you know Debbie Reynolds is Carrie fisher's mother . another fact, while filming the rain scene Gene Kelly came down with the flu and his temperature hit the 100's .

[@ZeroOskul]

Gene Kelly was to dance what Jackie Chan is to Kung Fu. He taught Donald O'Connor to dance with his whole body at the same time, and he took off like a rocket with it and famously went on to play Buster Keaton, recreating all his great comic stunts. Kelly, of course, choreographed the whole thing, even "Make 'em Laugh", and he directed all the dance numbers. A!

[@janetnwonderland]

From what I understand, Debbie Reynolds was dubbed during one part of the song, "You are My Lucky Star." And her voice was also dubbed for the entirety of the song, "Would You?" They didn't think her voice was sultry enough. Also, in the parts where Kathy, (Debbie Reynolds), was "dubbing" Lina Lamont's, (Jean Hagan's), voice, it is actually Jean Hagan speaking. That is her real voice. Very beautiful. And by the way, a wonderful and fun review as always.

[@Sopmylo]

The movie is broadly accurate in its depiction of attitudes towards sound movies c 1927-1930.

[@TheRatsCast]

For the full contacts; Debbie Reynolds was not a singer when she first started acting, so yes she was dubbed during this movie. She later took scene lessons, and was able to sing later on in her career. In fact; when she was performing in Vegas, she sang with her daughter, Carrie Fisher (Princess Leah of Star Wars fame). Debbie died the day after Carrie did. It was the most tragic two days in entertainment history. We lost not one, but two legendary actresses back to back. RIP; Debbie and Carrie

[@janleonard3101]

She was only dubbed for "Would You?" and part of "You Are My Lucky Star."

[@cieranthane1]

And we also lost George Michael a few days earlier. It was a three-way punch that gutted me.

[@charlieeckert4321]

When Louis B. Mayer introduced Gene to Debbie Reynolds, he asked her if she could dance. She said no, and Gene said, "You're killing me L.B." Debbie needed lessons 8 hours a day to learn the routines. One day Fred Astaire found Debbie sobbing under a piano wanting to quit. Fred encouraged her to keep at it because he knew this was a wonderful opportunity for her. One thing Gene appreciated was her strength. In the You Belong to Me number she was holding her body weight on her arms very easily.

[@geraldmcboingboing7401]

Great reaction, Ollie!!!!! This is my favorite movie musical. Jean Hagen (Lina Lamont) was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

[@vincegay986]

The director Sydney Pollack described Hagen as the tentpole from which this picture hangs. Lena’s nastiness and lack of talent drive all the major plot points. If she isn’t believably and compellingly stupid and mean, the whole tent collapses.

[@Karthos1000]

My school's drama group did this in my brother's senior year. He was the understudy for the second male lead (the one who did "Make 'em laugh", and the guy playing him fractured his leg during one of the dance routines, so my brother had to step in [and get a crash course of three years of tap dancing in three weeks] and play the part, sing the songs, etc.) It was the only show that had ever sold out. The student body is about 1500, the auditorium holds 3000, and every single show sold out, bringing in a lot of much needed money for the drama department. They did the raining effects and everything too, with a high school budget and a single stage. It was pretty damn impressive. (A few years later, my sister [a much more talented actor than my brother] got to play Juliet in Romeo and Juliet.) Both of them were more interested in the tech side of things. My brother went to film school where he got one of those degrees you see in the credits of movies (though it turns out that even with that degree, it's as tough to break into movies from that side as it is from the acting side) and my sister majored in lighting design, which is a stage production thing. (She knew she'd never be able to make a career out of it, but she can make some decent money in her town, where the Oregon Shakespeare festival takes place every year, now that the director who hated her is out, and someone who likes her [any sane person] is back in charge.)

[@les4767]

Ok...If you loved this film, I highly recommend "An American In Paris." Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant(who gives Cosmo a run for his money being the comic sidekick who gets all the best lines), Epic sets, a soundtrack and songs by the Gershwin brothers...and, hands down, the greatest ballet sequence ever filmed. You'll thank me, my friend. Peace.

[@johnfraley8544]

The water was not heated during the Singin' in the Rain number because it was shot in the afternoon during the summer. The entire set was covered in tarps to make it dark. While shooting they suddenly lost water pressure when the neighbors got home after work and turned on their sprinklers. Gene Kelly actually performed with a fever of 103 degrees! Talk about a dedicated trooper.

[@Wellch]

He supposedly said The Show must go on,

[@lisathuban8969]

So, this is based in reality. Lots of silent movie stars had their careers ruined when sound came along because their voices didn't match what the public thought they should sound like. Also, there are several well-known cases of Hollywood suppressing a career for their own reasons. One of the best known examples was the woman who was Snow White's voice in the Disney classic. She was given no credit onscreen, and was never allowed to do anything else. As for the film quality, I'm guessing you have not seen a lot of color movies from the 1950's. There were some films in color from the 1930's on, but there were a lot of improvements in film technology around the 1950's. So, yes, this film looked just like this back then as well. If you look at more A-List movies of that era, you will see lots of beautiful, crisp, colorful cinematography. They may of re-mastered it, but it was pretty good looking to start with. Other musicals? I think you'd like 1. "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying". Daniel Radcliffe, Mr. Harry Potter himself, starred in the recent Broadway revival of this very funny musical. or, 2. "The Music Man", lots of great songs in this one. The Beatles even did a cover of one of the songs from this. One last thing. All of these songs are NOT from the film, they are basically pop music from the 1920's. There are several Hollywood musicals which are more or less made up around great music. "Kismet" is a good example of this as well, but, yeah, the songs are ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD (or so).

[@rayevarney]

The Music Man is fantastic

[@YolandaAnneBrown95726]

Another underrated Gene Kelly movie is "What A Way To Go!" with Shirley MacLaine, Dick Van Dyke, Robert Mitchum and Paul Newman. It's a hilarious comedy from 1964, with beautiful Edith Head costumes.

[@peterphilly4148]

The fashion show sequence was something that was actually done in movies of that period, for example in the 1939 version of "The Women" (a movie you might enjoy, btw). T movie is in black and white, except for the fashion show sequence that was shot in Technicolor.

[@derekseven1647]

Debbie Reynolds who plays Kathy seldon in the movie. She is Carrie Fisher / princess Leia's mother in real life

[@glennwisniewski9536]

How about a shout out to actress Madge Blake (the gossip columnist at the beginning)? Blake would later be very busy as a regular on TV's Batman (Aunt Harriet), Leave It to Beaver (Larry Mondello's mother), The Joey Bishop Show (Joey's mother) and The Real McCoys (Flora MacMichael).

[@auntvesuvi3872]

Thank you, Oliver! ☔ I deeply adore this one... and it really sets a standard for musical comedies. How cool to see Carrie Fisher's mom, Debbie Reynolds, in the flick that kick-started her long career?! #RolyPolyOllie #StanleyDonen #GeneKelly #SinginInTheRain

[@wrorchestra1]

I've seen a few films with a live orchestra. It's less surreal, more enveloping. Really something you have to experience yourself.

[@rayevarney]

Agreed - many local symphony orchestras perform occasional scores, so you can watch the film and hear the full orchestral score.

[@etherealtb6021]

The coin flip is a reference to a gangster George Raft played in the early 30's. Debbie was only dubbed for Would You, where she was supposed to be singing for Lena. If you note, there's a difference. Debbie had several hit records. Great singing voice. Those are cloche (French for bell) hats the ladies are wearing. Big trend in the 20's!

[@leannerose6181]

Ah Debbie Reynolds, the mother of our Space Mom Princess Leia, Carrie Fisher😁 Gene Kelly is incredible, and Donald O'Connor is hilarious. Even more hilarious is Jean Hagen, AKA Lina Lamont the triple threat🤣(can't act, can't dance, can't sing) It's incredible that the silent film era was only about 20 some years away from when Singin' in the Rain was made, but even in the 1950's, silent films must've seemed like ancient news, due to their not being shown in cinemas, and before being shown on TV. It's incredible that we have more access to silent cinema TODAY than they did in the 50's😎

[@markjone671]

That silent film you said you wanted to watch...you actually can. Only it's not silent and it's in colour. The clip was taken from Gene Kelly's earlier film The Three Musketeers made in 1948. There's a lot of impressive and athletic stunt work in that movie.

[@itzakpoelzig330]

Yes! Please watch it Ollie!

[@Panzer4F2]

The Three Musketeers rocks ! Gene Kelly is so damn smooth.

[@luminiferous1960]

Debbie Reynolds actually sang her own songs including in the Good Morning sequence. However, when Debbie Reynolds is supposedly dubbing Jean Hagen (who played Lina Lamont) when singing, it is actually a woman named Betty Noyes dubbing Debbie’s singing. And when Debbie is supposedly dubbing Jean Hagen’s speaking voice - “Until the stars turn cold..” - that beautiful voice is actually Jean Hagen’s real voice! Debbie Reynolds had a number one hit single in the U.S. and number two hit single in the UK entitled "Tammy" in 1957. This song came from the movie "Tammy and the Bachelor" which starred Debbie Reynolds as Tammy and Leslie Nielsen as Peter Brent.

[@e.s.9080]

It took me a minute to recognize the "You Are My Lucky Star" song as being what Sigourney Weaver was nervously attempting to sing while setting up a trap for the alien in "Alien". Also, these movie musicals were shot and processed in Technicolor, a vivid and sharp color image process that no longer exists sadly. That technique is what gave these films such a dreamy like quality..

[@user-rh2io7gm1l]

Who names their kid Sigourney?

[@bryanCJC2105]

I never used to like "oldie" movies, being a 70s/80s kid until I started working at a video store called Video West in West Hollywood in the 80s. All of the employees were aficionados of the "cinema" (except for me). Over time, the employees and several celebrity customers taught me about "cinema" and I was exposed to lots of cool old movies, including many foreign films, that were played in the store. This movie came on and I couldn't help but sing along. It was so much fun. Now I'm an aficionado of the "cinema". Thank you Video West. This is one of my favorite movies. You just can't help but feel good no matter what kind of day you've had. Donald O'Conner (Cosmo) is my favorite character. I feel like he's often overshadowed by other actors but he was a Hollywood jewel and was in many awesome films. Another fantastic actress/ dancer is Cyd Charisse. She was the vixen in the green dress with the long cigarette. She is one of my favorites also. Check her out in "The Band Wagon" w Fred Astaire for a very famous dance number.

[@itsjuliescottyay]

If you want to see the first time “Singing in the Rain” was in a movie, you can find the production number featuring the song on KZbin. It’s from the 1929 movie “The Hollywood Review” and the singer that had the hit record is there to sing the number as the dancers perform. His name was Cliff Edwards (Ukulele Ike), and he is also remembered for being the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Disney’s “Pinocchio.”

[@JordangeVision]

Great musical, one of the first I ever did on stage. I played Don's vocal coach, so I had to memorize all those rhymes, haha. Always puts a big smile on my face watching this, watching your reactions only made those smiles bigger. I love that you watch everything from all eras!

[@hollytooker507]

Debbie had a big hit with the song “Tammy” from one of her movies. She later played Molly Brown, Titanic survivor, in another musical.

[@plastique45]

The film is the epitome of the Technicolor film technique. To achieve this beautiful look, the process used THREE individual film strips. 1 Red, 1 Green and 1 Blue. The light coming in through the lens would be split into three through a prism. That however meant that the film required tremendous amount of lights to properly expose everything. The cameras where also huuugeee. P.S. The subject treated in this film is a real issue Hollywood went through. Big silent film stars like Rudolph Valentino sounded terrible and were laughed at in the theatres. Sound ruined many actors' careers.

[@itzakpoelzig330]

Excuse me while I geek out for a minute: Rudolph Valentino never made nor attempted to make any sound films. He died in 1926, before the technology had really caught on. He didn't sound terrible, but he did have an Italian accent which would have limited his choice of roles in the sound era (no more cowboys or English lords, etc). He had a very pleasant voice, in fact, and you can hear it on the Internet Archive in two recordings of him singing (El Relicario and Kashmiri Song are the titles). John Gilbert is the silent star whose career was most famously ruined by sound. He was said to have a "squeaky" or "gelded" voice. Actually his voice was perfectly fine (he made a number of talkies which you can watch), and the real trouble was that he was being actively sabotaged by Louis B. Mayer, of MGM, whom he had once punched in the face. The talkie that gets laughed at in this movie is a direct spoof of Gilbert's first sound film, 'His Glorious Night', down to the lines, costumes, and scenery. Another career lost to sound was Buster Keaton's. In this case, his voice wasn't too high, it was unexpectedly low. Keaton had a rather "froggy" voice and lower class accent which didn't at all meet up with people's expectations of what he would sound like. But again, the voice was only a fraction of the problem. Keaton was also drinking too much and had recently sold himself to MGM, which didn't know how to properly utilize his talents. A third career lost during the change-over to sound was Lon Chaney's. He was that very rare thing, a character-actor mega-star. He made one sound picture and it turned out that he had exactly the voice everyone wanted and expected, and on top of that he could even do voice tricks like ventriloquism and various accents and pitches (he plays a sweet old woman for part of the movie, and a gravelly voiced gangster for the rest). He was all geared up to have an amazing second career in the talkies - but died just then from throat cancer. The switch from silents to talkies is one of the most interesting points in Hollywood history, and is just stuffed with stories of tragedy and triumph.

[@davehelms1398]

Debbie Reynolds (Kathy) was only 19yo, if she look familar, she is 'Princess Laya's' from Star Wars mother IRL

[@gmunden1]

Debbie Reynolds has been in many Hollywood films. She also starred in aChristmas film "Susan Slept Here". She also starred in the "Tammy" films and "The Unsinkable Molly Brown". She also starred on TV and stage.

[@philipholder5600]

This is one of my favorites movies. It was great to see how much fun you had watching it.

[@ellen6638]

Actually all the songs with the exception of make em laugh were featured in earlier films. The songs were written by Arthur Freed (this movie's producer) and his writing partner Ngacio Herb Brown. Mr Freed wanted a movie to be made using his songs. So he had Aldoph Green and Betty Comden write the screenplay. The reason the movie is set in the 20s is because they wrote the songs in the 20s.

[@puppyash9656]

TSince uou liked this absolute treasure of a movie, and especially the dialogue, I recommend you watch "What's up, Doc". It is a rollercoaster of a comedy starring Ryan O'neal/Barbara Streisand/Madeleine Kahn.

[@Lensmaster1]

It is an homage to the great screwball comedies of the '30s. It takes inspiration from the movie Bringing Up Baby, starring Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. If you want to get into it you can watch Bringing Up Baby first then What's Up Doc and see the connections.

[@vincegay986]

This is technically a jukebox miracle. All the songs were in Freed’s songbook, and had been heard in previous films. Reynolds had very little experience and next to no dance training before this movie. MGM signed her after she won a talent contest in Pasadena. Kelly was furious when Louis B. Mayer forced Reynolds on Kelly for SITR. Kelly and Carol Haney drove Reynolds to perfect the dancing. Haney is best showcased in The Pajama Game. The set for the title number is a representation of 1920’s Hollywood. On the days they shot this, water pressure went low in Culver City, where MGM was located. It’s now the Sony Pictures lot. Kelly, O’Connor, and Hagen are all amazing. Hagen did the singing for the Lena character, which means there are moments in which Hagen’s voice comes out of Reynolds’ mouth. I’ve always thought the studio head was weakly written and acted. The line about needing to see a sequence on film before greenlighting it is something Louis B. Mayer is supposed to have said more than once. There seems to have been a reluctance, though, to have this character resemble any of the far more colorful studio heads of the era depicted.

[@kittylynnlpn]

I think you would love the movie Summer stock. It starts Gene Kelly who played Don Lockwood and Judy Garland who played Dorothy in The wizard of Oz. It's a really awesome musical and has some amazing dance numbers. Just wanted to let you know I'm a new subscriber and I really enjoyed your reaction. I'll be binge watching your channel today

[@bowwowbuddy]

A comment on IMDb: "In the looping sequence, Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) is seen dubbing the dialogue for Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) because Lina's voice is shrill and screechy. However, it's not Reynolds who is 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."

[@strongdecaf3729]

I didn't realize how important the "static camera" is for me! I've never been able to enjoy more modern musicals that are so heavily edited that you can't really see the dancing and choreography. I like it presented as if we've got front row seats at a theater. Many amazing show tunes during the period were done in one take!! A different kind of musical I also like is Sweet Charity (1969) starring Shirley MacLaine with choreography by Bob Fosse. Got a little more 60s counter-culture edge to it. Was pretty much the last of the movie musicals, didn't do well at the box office.

[@DerekMckean]

Don't forget about the longer Dolly shots (tracking shots) that follow the actors too.

[@zedwpd]

Not the last movie musical to do well. Many examples from Cabaret to Chicago

[@HuntingViolets]

In fact, Jean Hagen sang for Debbie Reynolds in the scene where Debbie's character was dubbing Jean's character. Reynolds could sing, but they wanted a "richer" sound in a few places. And this was very early in her career.

[@ChicagoDB]

The great “song and dance” stars were tremendously talented!

[@VonPatzy]

COURT JESTER! 1955 Musical Comedy with the funniest man that time forgot - Danny Kaye! Also Basil Rathbone (what a name!) and a hilarious young Angela Lansbury who the world just lost weeks ago at age 96. It’s got word play and sword fights and bright colors. It’s like the 50s Princess Bride but funnier. Please please put this one on a list somewhere - anyone who has seen it knows whats up.

[@itzakpoelzig330]

I second this recommendation.

[@andreamiller3578]

The pellet with the poison is in the vessel with a pestle. The chalice from the palace has the brew that is true.

[@joseiregui9069]

Wow! Excellent movie My friend. Thanks for your reaction.

[@glen1ster]

28:23--the man tossing a coin is doing an impression of George Raft tossing a coin in Scarface (1932) (also see George Raft in The Ladies Man by Jerry Lewis).

[@Lensmaster1]

Arthur Freed, the producer had done a movie the year before called An American in Paris, starring Gene Kelly. That movie was written to feature the songs of George Gershwin as all the music. In the 1930s Freed was a movie song writer so he had a large catalog of songs himself. He thought if he could do a movie with all Gershwin music why not one made for his songs. And so, he created Singing in the Rain. It's strange after seeing this movie to watch random movies from the 1930s and here these songs pop up.

[@charlieeckert4321]

The only songs not written by Freed in the 30's were Moses Supposes and Make 'Em Laugh. Good Mornin' was sung first by Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in Babes in Arms.

[@robertocarbonvarela6387]

'Oliver!" (1968), "West Side Story" (1961) and "JesusChrist Superstar" (1973) are three of the greatest musicals/movies ever made... and my personal favorites. It would be great if you could watch them on the channel...

[@oliverbrownlow5615]

Three excellent choices.

[@rabbitandcrow]

One of the greatest movies ever. And yes - what with this being such an important film - it was painstakingly restored. It now looks about as good as it would have when people first saw it.

[@gmunden1]

The film was made in 1952 but the story is set in the 1920's during the silent film Era. It was also the beginning of talking films so movie studios were in competition to keep up with this new technology.

[@user-vd2un3ro3e]

Those eggshell-shaped flapper hats were called cloche (sp?)... 🧝

[@SweetHooligan1848]

I think you'd like 'Gentlemen prefer blondes' (1953). In similar fun vein as this.

[@Lensmaster1]

Yes. A great movie

[@user-vd2un3ro3e]

Actually, in the song, "Would You", Jean Hagen's normal voice was really used, so technically, Jean was dubbing Debbie who was dubbing Jean! Got THAT?! Otherwise, Debbie Reynolds truly did her own singing... 🧑‍🦰🎙️👱📽️

[@contacluj758]

My recs for musicals would be "Fiddler On The Roof", "Jesus Christ Superstar", "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers"

[@majkus]

If you liked Donald O'Connor's energy here, you might want to watch a Danny Kaye film. Try 'The Court Jester', a great send-up of the swashbuckler genre. Going back in time, you might want to look at Clara Bow, an absolutely stunning silent film actress with a twangy New York voice whose career was killed by sound. Watch 'It' - Clara Bow was 'The IT Girl', and she was amazing.

[@oliverbrownlow5615]

In my opinion, the greatest of all of Danny Kaye's films is the musical *Hans Christian Anderson* (1952). Perhaps the greatest performance by Donald O'Connor in a musical other than *Singin' in the Rain* is in *Call Me Madam* (1953).

[@cliffchristie5865]

Some people thought that talking pictures wouldn't catch on, and some people just wanted to think they wouldn't. But, for better or worse, there would be no stopping it.

[@jorgezarco9269]

Stanley Donen also directed the Hitchcock style thriller Charade(1962).

[@johnandrews3151]

Francis The Talking Mule starring Donald O'Connor. There is actually a whole series of these movies starring Donald O'Connor but he does not dance in any of them! Although filmed in black and white, these films are among the best comedies of the 1950's! Must see good!

[@hawkmaster381]

I saw Gene Kelly on the Muppet Show back in the 80’s. Kermit asked him if we would recreate the famous rain dance. Gene refused because he said the movie version was perfect and he was afraid of goofing it up.

[@carment2930]

Some more musicals- An American in Paris, the original West Side Story, Fame, The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof.

[@oliverbrownlow5615]

Ollie already did *The Sound of Music* (1965): kzbin.info/www/bejne/hnfcmGipo7Fog6s

[@auapplemac2441]

The coin flipping is based on a trait actor George Raft used in earlier gangster movies - showed who was boss. It was used again in "Some Like it Hot." Also, Lina (Jean Hagen) actually did the dubbing for Debbie dubbing her - got it?

[@billr686]

I have a great suggestion for you. It's another MGM musical called "The Bandwagon." It's another classic, and it's the opposite flip side of Singing in the Rain. Instead of Gene Kelly, it stars his main competitor, Fred Astaire. Instead of satirizing Hollywood, it makes fun of Broadway. The final musical dance sequence inspired Michael Jackson for his "Smooth Criminal". And the co-star is Cyd Charisse, who was the dancer in the green dress! Studio execs were so impressed by her in SITR that they gave her a costar role in The Bandwagon.

[@larry6360]

Since you enjoyed this so much I think you should give ' Sweet Charity ' with Shirley MacLaine a shot. A musical from 1969 that has, in my opinion, one of the best Bob Fosse dance sequences of all time. It's called - Rich Man's Frug and is a very unique number. There are lots of other great song and dance numbers in it also. If you don't watch the movie, at least check out the sequence in the KZbin video for Rich Man's Frug. Great vid for Singing in the Rain. My mother loved this movie. She would have enjoyed this very much. ✌️

[@erinesque1889]

I would love to see someone react to Sweet Charity as well as Damn Yankees!!

[@robertjewell9727]

Debbie there's only one scene where Reynolds's voice was dubbed and that's during the dubbing scene in the actual film ironically enough. Kind of an inside joke.

[@e.s.9080]

A lot of big stars of that golden age of Hollywood were dubbed in musicals and not because they couldn't sing (they were vocally trained in speech and song) but more so, were dubbed by an artist who had more range and fit the tone of the song better and could emphasize it more than the movie stars' limited range. Reynolds could sing, but there is a difference between carrying a tune nicely and being a trained actual singer. It also likely made better financial sense to get some studio singer to do it, again for the betterment of the picture. Fans knew and didn't mind, nor did the dubbed stars. Those studio singers actually were in high demand and I'm sure were handsomely paid, if not getting the star billing, but were listed in the production credits. The rare exception to this rule was say...Lena Horne, Barbra Streisand, Julie Andrews (both actors and singers as their profession).

[@valogden]

I think you would enjoy the movie Holiday Inn for Christmas. It has Fred Astaire doing a number of dance numbers and of course Bing Crosby. It was the first time White Christmas was sung in a movie.

[@MichaelJohnson-vi6eh]

In the original West Side Story both of the female leads were dubbed even tho Rita Moreno could really sing.

[@starwarsmichael66]

On the original CD soundtrack for Singin in the Rain, there’s actually a recording of Debbie Reynolds singing all the songs . They sounds awesome, so I’m not sure why they cut her ballads and decided to go with a different vocalist.

[@philipholder5600]

Debbie Reynolds, is the mother of Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia from STAR WARS.

[@madizzle90]

I first watched this in a film class in college around ten years ago, and CTFU during the movie premiere scene.

[@billolsen4360]

7:45 They're like Han and Leia! Actually, Debbie Reynolds was Princess Leia's (Carrie Fisher's) mother. 16:16 If you enjoy that dance number, you'll enjoy this one too: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHOTnH53hb59hqs&ab_channel=2112floyd Gene Kelly dancing with Cyd Charisse in another musical made about the same time, Brigadoon. Cyd was the girl in the green dress in this movie at 28:11. There was an actor, George Raft, who played a lotta tough guy gangster parts in the 30's and flipping a coin was one of his trademarks.

[@daryn78912]

Don’t know if it’s been mentioned yet, but if it has, sorry for repeating. Debbie Reynolds is Carrie Fisher’s ( Princess Leah) mom

[@justinplayfair9827]

The actress who played Lina, Jean Hagen, actually dubbed Debbie Reynolds when Debbie was dubbing Lina in the movie when they needed her voice to sound more formal. Jean Hagen had to be a good voice actress to be able to produce such a horrible voice as Lina's!

[@Divamarja_CA]

One of the best movie musicals ever made! Don’t take my word for it but believe in the America Film Institute. It’s clever, beautifully written, choreographed, acted, shot, etc. Comden & Greene we’re spot-on with their skewering of tropes while paying an homage to the silent screen era. Oh, Fred Astaire is credited with filming improvements of musicals. He fought for the head to toe shooting of dancers. Until him, musicals were shot as dislocated heads and feet. The woman in white is not Cathy (Debbie Reynolds); it’s Cyd Charisse, a 50s musical staple. Cyd couldn’t sing and she was a wooden actress but she could DANCE her socks off and she could get the job done, acting-wise. The coin flipping thing was made famous, I believe, by 30s gangster film actor George Raft (a trained dancer, FYI). It was seen at the time as faintly menacing. You can also see Raft in comedy CLASSIC, “Some Like it Hot.” I was lucky enough to attend the 2012 TCM film festival and saw the 60th anniversary screening of this film at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, including an in-person interview with the incandescent Debbie Reynolds. Yes, this is one of my top 5 films of all time and have a lot to share about it!

[@Serkanfan]

Really loved your reaction! Its one of my all time favourite movies. Hope you react to more Donald O‘Connor movies, because hes so talented and so underrated, kinda like his role Cosmo in this movie 😊

[@brigittebos6384]

One of my favorite movie. I think you will love too Victor Victoria with Julie Andrews, Bring Up Baby. Both very funny

[@TheRatsCast]

I believe; Rita Moreno was the dancer with the big white veil; she was also the last in green. Debbie Reynolds wasn't a big dancer at the time either. She had to learn the moves in order to keep up with Kelly and O'Connor

[@katwithattitude5062]

Rita played Zelda, the first one introduced getting out of a car at the beginning and was also the one who ratted out Kathy to Lena.

[@rabbitandcrow]

One thing about this movie that's hard for modern viewers to get is that its made in the 50's about the 1930's so viewers would have had a sense of nostalgia about the silent movie transition, the songs, the costumes, etc.

[@asarishepard8171]

"lina! she cant sing, she cant act, she cant dance. THE TRIPLE THREAT."

[@80smoviesfan]

Really enjoyed this movie reaction This is one of the classic movies i watch once 1 two years. If you want to watch more classic Musical movies try out. On the town (1949) With Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. West side story (1961) Hair (1979) Some other classics i watch every 2 years are Boys Town (1938) Francis (1950) With Donald O'Conner Harvey (1950) I hope you gonna react to more classic movies. But don't forget the great franchises like star trek. I will be there for the Star Trek reactions coming.

[@oliverbrownlow5615]

I'd love to see a reaction to *Boys Town* (1938).

[@christinahilt2978]

Debbie Reynolds eventually does sing for herself. Check out the musical “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” and her voice over work as she voices Charlotte in the animated “Charlotte’s Web.”

[@oliverbrownlow5615]

Debbie Reynolds also sang for herself in *The Singing Nun* (1966).

[@billr686]

I think you really enjoyed it, because you set a new personal best in flicking your hair back!

[@jamessheridan4306]

Debbie Reynolds sings for herself throughout except for the song "Would You" where she is supposed to be dubbing Lena Lamont's voice. Actually, Jean Hagen sang it for herself, just without te 'Lena' voice. For some reason this still confuses some people to this day.

[@TTM9691]

Great reaction! Yes, sound was not a slam-dunk and it actually initially drove movie attendance down because the early talkies are almost all terrible. It wasn't until 1930 that they really started to figure out how to make good sound films. Also: switching the title cards into another language was easy. Movie studios didn't want to shrink their audience to just English speaking sound films when they could have an international audience with silents. Also some careers DID end because of their voices: Clara Bow and John Gilbert were two of the hugest sex symbols of the silent era but they did not make the transition into sound.

[@zedwpd]

Wikipedia disagrees with you. Clara Gordon Bow (/boʊ/; July 29, 1905 - September 27, 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom during the silent film era of the 1920s and successfully made the transition to "talkies" in 1929. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the film It brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl".[1] Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties[2] and is described as its leading sex symbol.[3][4] Bow appeared in 46 silent films and 11 talkies. With "talkies" The Wild Party, Dangerous Curves, and The Saturday Night Kid, all released in 1929, Bow kept her position as the top box-office draw and queen of Hollywood.

[@TTM9691]

@@zedwpd Who cares what Wikipedia says? Watch any documentary about Clara Bow, read any book about Clara Bow, or better yet: watch her talkies! You're talking about 1929, you know-nothing! People were going to see those movies just to see their favorite stars talk! ALL of the silent stars had box office success with their early talkies. It's POST-1929 you judge how they weathered the transition. She kept making movies into the thirties: all flops. So.....nice try! PS: Clara Bow was NEVER the "Queen" of Hollywood. She was a sex symbol that was actually shunned by the "royalty" of Hollywood. The Queen of Hollywood, throughout the silent era, was Mary Pickford (and her husband was the king: Douglas Fairbanks). No woman had more power or influence from 1910 to the late 20s, early 30s as Mary Pickford.

[@flarrfan]

The coin flip was a trademark of gangster actor George Raft, a big star in the 30s and 40s...

[@Progger11]

A lot of the best silent films actually *were* as awesome and full of stunts as you see depicted early in this movie. I highly recommend films like "Our Hospitality" by Buster Keaton, "The Gold Rush" by Charlie Chaplin, and "Safety Last" by Harold Lloyd if you want to see some absolutely mind-blowing stuff!

[@Shilohpreston]

In my country has titte "Deszczowa piosenka" (Rainy Song). Fun fact: Gene Kelly hates Malcolm McDowell for singing the title song in "A Clockwork Orange".

[@Albinsable]

Excellent review...you have a lot of happy moments to experience with the "classics"'.....my picks to start......."Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"...."Some Like It Hot".....so many more.....

[@ericjanssen394]

“This movie looks amazing, has it been remastered?” Yes, actually: 40’s/50’s Technicolor was in the business of turning it up to 11, and, like Wizard of Oz, Singin’s had big-budget original-negative restorations for Blu-ray. Another funny old-school Technicolor musical, and "sequel" to Singin' from the same writers, is 1953's “The Band Wagon”, as Fred Astaire has to save a Broadway show from its “genius” director.

[@MrTBoneSF]

The other reasons these three-strip (red/green/blue) Tecnicolor films look so good is that they've recently been able to use the original camera negatives to remaster. The three-strip process was great for shooting, but after a few years the individual strips would shrink by small amounts. Because you need three separate frames to recreate a single color frame, even a microscopic difference between them caused misalignment that made color "halos" appear around the edges of objects. For instance a white object might end up with a green edge on one side and purple on the other side. For all these years, they've had to use a fading second generation copy for re-issues and home video releases- and that copy would keep getting damaged as they created more re-release prints while the original negatives remained unused (and pristine). With digital scanning, it became possible to fix the alignment automatically on a frame-by-frame basis. The other benefit was they essentially have three (mostly) redundant copies of each 35mm frame so any noise, dirt, and scratches on any one strip could be detected by comparing it to the other two strips. The first movie to go through this modern remaster process with the original red/green/blue Technicolor camera negatives was The Wizard of Oz. Even though it came out in 1939, it looked as sharp and vibrant as anything shot with modern technology.

[@bigshow771]

I love the title song, but I honestly can't hear or think of it without Tom Holland's Lip-Sync Battle performance coming to mind. Ironic, since lip-synching is a plot point in the film. Really enjoying your channel.

[@leannerose6181]

Another musical recommendation: Oklahoma!

[@arturocostantino623]

You would like Band Wagon which is made the next year? with Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse who played the mob girl 😊

[@rabidsamfan]

It wasn’t remastered as far as I know. Film just looks that good.

[@ShadowBoxer1111]

You’d enjoy the dance scenes in White Christmas.

[@johnnehrich9601]

You ought to watch some silent movies, in particular, the comedies, which are all physical comedies because they were, well, silent. The great classic actors mostly or totally performed their own literally-death defying stunts. (Plus these movies are in the public domain so you can include as much as you want without worrying about copyright issues.) I'd recommend starting with Harold Lloyd's Safety Last, then Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr. and The General. Why these guys didn't get themselves killed is a wonder.

[@ym10up]

White Christmas is a pretty good musical movie if you're interested. Maybe you can do it for the Christmas

[@ZeroOskul]

31:56 Give them to Carol Channing... any time before 2019. That only got morbid because you waited soooo long to see this movie that I can't even point at Carol Channing for a laugh concerning Lena's hat!