Principal cast: Gene Kelly; Donald O’Connor: Debbie Reynolds; Jean Hagen;

Directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, colour 4:3 transfer Time 99mins

SYNOPSIS

Immortalised by the title song (and dance sequence!) this film is considered, arguably, as the greatest Hollywood musical ever made; and while I have always struggled with the ‘musical’ genre in general, the strength of the storyline of this particular film along with some memorable performances make this movie more than watchable.

The storyline’s strength lies in its ‘potted’ history of the evolution of the ‘talking’ film and the problems encountered with its introduction, leading to some genuinely comedic situations. The principal ingredient of the comedy is the casting of the magnificent Jean Hagen as the silent star who, while blessed with reasonable acting skills, is dogged by a ghastly speaking voice and very mean vanity and jealousy streaks. Her genuinely comic performance - which earned her an Oscar nomination - is backed up by Millard Mitchell as the studio boss, and a pleasantly competent Donald O’Connor as Gene Kelly’s buddy (it’s very pleasing to find that he is much more talented than my childhood memories of him in the dreadful “Francis the Talking Mule”). Of the musical pieces, his song (Make Them Laugh) is the most lively and, at times, quite funny - certainly athletic! Debbie Reynolds is surprisingly competent in both acting and dancing as Gene Kelly’s love interest. The film also proudly displays the gorgeous sight of Cyd Charisse’s famous long legs!

Did I forget someone…? I have to admit that I have never been a great fan of Gene Kelly. Though he is clearly an extremely talented dancer, I guess I have always been more in the Fred Astaire camp in terms of dancing style; plus I always felt that his singing voice was average at best. However, his performance in this film is most engaging and enjoyable and the quality of the songs compensates for any perceived lack of singing talent - the only segments in the movie irking me being the extended dance sequences.

It is interesting to note that virtually all the songs in the film are ‘hand-me-downs’ from previous musicals. The song writing team of Arthur Freed (lyrics) and Nacio Herb Brown (music) penned all of the songs (why did they leave out their best song - Temptation?). More information about the musical score can be obtained from the bonus materials disc.

While the DVD has been produced with a 5.1 soundtrack, it is neither a particularly startling nor important feature of the package as a whole. While at it; I should complement the distributors on the solid crush resistant packaging for the collection, although part of the text on the back of the outer card box is nearly obliterated - a problem I have noticed on the same collection elsewhere.

EXTRAS

Good grief! Where do I start?

DISC 1

Feature length audio commentary by cast, crew, writers, (our own?) Baz Luhrmann and film historian/author Rudy Behlmer

Reel Sound - featuring excerpts from the earliest era of the ‘talkies’ comprising Don Juan 1926 (sound effects), The Jazz Singer 1927 (singing/music), The Lights of New York early 1928 (the first all ‘talkie’) and The Broadway Melody mid-1928 (the first all singing/all talking). Short, but interesting

Singin’Inspirations - through the use of a self-generated command, the film screen will ‘flag’ scenes with an icon, with a ‘drop down’ sub directory of film and text explaining the inspirations for certain scenes in the film - ingenious, but I only found/noticed two icons throughout the entire film. Hmmmmmm

PLUS theatrical trailer; list of Awards and Recognitions, and Cast and Crew Index.

DISC 2

Musicals Great Musicals - The Arthur Freed Unit at MGM: an 86-minute documentary looking at the Hollywood ‘musical’ at MGM and Freed’s involvement in the evolution of the genre

What a Glorious Feeling - The Making of “Singin’ in the Rain”: a 36-minute documentary hosted by Debbie Reynolds featuring interviews with cast and crew

Excerpts from feature films where songs originally appeared: 12 songs featured (including Temptation!)

“You Are My Lucky Star”: a scene from the film that was finally removed prior to its release. Here Debbie Reynolds sings the song

Photo Gallery

Scoring Stage Sessions: various audio takes of particular songs that are featured in the film - 26 tracks with a number repeated

Languages menu

OVERALL

I can certainly understand the attraction of this film - despite my misgivings about ‘musicals’ and other gripes mentioned earlier, I couldn’t honestly fault it. The added value of this 2-disc collection is that it is packed with fascinating documentary information to make it a valuable piece of movie history.

The film has a very enjoyable and plausible storyline including a nice comedic script; very capable cast; engaging musical score (but give me George and Ira Gershwin or Irving Berlin anytime!) and is backed up by a sensational package of special features to make this collection a ‘must have’.