Singin' in the Rain

I'm clearly in the major, major minority. Honestly though, I didn't enjoy this. It's certainly worth noting musicals are probably my least favourite genre, but I'm still more than capable of finding entertainment with them - e.g. <em>'The Greatest Showman'</em>, <em>'The Sound of Music'</em> and others. <em>'Singin’ in the Rain'</em>, however, simply didn't connect with me. There's one, maybe two, good songs that I had already heard, while Gene Kelly (Don) is solid fun in the lead role. The premise, minus the music, is actually very interesting, what with the silent film transition era. Given it's a musical, though, they don't delve as deep into that as I wanted. None of the songs, aside from the previously alluded to "Singin' in the Rain", landed well with me, I kinda found them a chore to sit through to be frank. Elsewhere on the cast, aside from Kelly, I found Debbie Reynolds (Kathy) alright but Donald O'Connor (Cosmo) a little irritating - he tries too hard, for my liking. Jean Hagen (Lina) is likewise a tad annoying, though that's intentional with her to be fair. I will acknowledge that the film, aesthetically, looks excellent. I wish I liked it more overall, but I just didn't. Do feel free to ignore me!

There's a tendency with this film to just think of the genius that was Gene Kelly and his umbrella with the title song, but as a wonderfully enjoyable three hander between himself, Debbie Reynolds and my own favourite from this film Donald O'Connor, it is so much more the that. It just oozes charm and style. The plot centres around the aspirations of a silent movie company to make a talkie! Their long established stars "Don Lockwood" (Kelly) and "Lina Lamont" (Jean Hagan) have a successful on-screen (and in-press) persona as the dream couple - in reality they can barely stomach each other - but they must embrace progress and with the arrival of the sound equipment and new ideas man "Cosmo" (O'Connor) the challenge is on to make a smash hit. Anyone who's seen any silent movies will know that not everyone successful in that medium had the, shall we say - attributes - to make a go of this, and soon we have a bit of a battle going on between Hagan and Kelly's actual gal in this movie "Kathy" (Reynolds) for the big part! The settings allow the costumier to have a field day, and the three are very much in their elements trying out all these would-be scenarios from the creative head of "Cosmo". Songs? Well, where do you start? Betty Comden and Adolph Green hit a real purple patch with his - they trawled through musicals from the twenties and thirties and present us with the likes of "You Were Meant For Me", "Make 'em Laugh" and "Good Morning" as well as the theme song that get our feet a-tapping and our smiles a-raising. Reynolds' singing voice came courtesy of Betty Noyes, but the dubbing is perfect and it matters not a jot that she isn't actually singing. There is plenty of light-heartedness (and a healthy dose of jealous back-biting too!) and the dancing isn't perfect, which helps lots too. For much of the time, the routines look and feel natural, like pals making it up as they go along and having fun in the process. A lavish looking production and a wee bit of Cyd Charisse and Rita Moreno too - what more could you ask for...?