Synopsis
Includes:
Singin' in the Rain (1952), MPAA Rating: G
Musicals Great Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit at MGM (1996)
What a Glorious Feeling: The Making of Singin' in the Rain (2002)
Singin' in the Rain: Raining on a New Generation (2012)
Singin' in the Rain
Hollywood, 1927: the silent-film romantic team of Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) is the toast of Tinseltown. While Lockwood and Lamont personify smoldering passions onscreen, in real life the down-to-earth Lockwood can't stand the egotistical, brainless Lina. He prefers the company of aspiring actress Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), whom he met while escaping his screaming fans. Watching these intrigues from the sidelines is Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor), Don's best pal and on-set pianist. Cosmo is promoted to musical director of Monumental Pictures by studio head R.F. Simpson (Millard Mitchell) when the talking-picture revolution commences. That's all right for Cosmo, but how will talkies affect the upcoming Lockwood-Lamont vehicle "The Dueling Cavalier"? Don, an accomplished song-and-dance man, should have no trouble adapting to the microphone. Lina, however, is another matter; put as charitably as possible, she has a voice that sounds like fingernails on a blackboard. The disastrous preview of the team's first talkie has the audience howling with derisive laughter. On the strength of the plot alone, concocted by the matchless writing team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Singin' in the Rain is a delight. But with the addition of MGM's catalog of Arthur Freed-Nacio Herb Brown songs -- "You Were Meant for Me," "You Are My Lucky Star," "The Broadway Melody," and of course the title song -- the film becomes one of the greatest Hollywood musicals ever made. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Musicals Great Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit at MGM
This is a documentary film about the work of a legendary producer of musicals. After winning his laurels in 1939 as the assistant producer of The Wizard of Oz, MGM set up a whole studio for Arthur Freed. He began his career as a singer/songwriter and as an actor, (he appeared with the Marx Brothers on stage before World War I). He wrote numerous ballads which have now become part of the "standard" repertoire, including the title songs for his productions Singin' in the Rain, and Pagan Love Song. Anybody who was anybody in musicals from 1939 to 1960 worked with him. Among the approximately 40 films he produced were the Oscar-winning An American in Paris, and Gigi. This documentary features interviews with some of the performers who worked in his studio, such as Mickey Rooney and Cyd Charisse, and includes all the footage available of the reclusive Freed. Highlights of the film include letter-boxed excerpts from his films, and a computer-graphics assisted explanation of how Fred Astaire's floor-to-ceiling dance in Royal Wedding was made. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
What a Glorious Feeling: The Making of Singin' in the Rain
No synopsis available.
Singin' in the Rain: Raining on a New Generation
No synopsis available.
