Singin' in the Rain (1952) on Netflix
Approved19521h 43mComedyMusicalRomance
In 1927 Hollywood, silent film star Don Lockwood falls for chorus girl Kathy Selden as his studio moves to talking pictures. His screen partner Lina Lamont means to make the change too.
- Netflix4.6/5
- IMDb8.3/10285,925 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are the biggest stars at Monumental Pictures in 1927 and, according to the trade papers, a couple off screen as well. The romance is a publicity stunt; Don can barely stand Lina, who believes it is real. Studio head R.F. Simpson dismisses talking pictures as a fad until The Jazz Singer becomes a hit, and he orders Don and Lina's next picture, The Dueling Cavalier, converted to sound. Don has meanwhile met Kathy Selden, a chorus girl who mocks his screen acting and later turns up dancing at the studio party. Don's oldest friend, Cosmo Brown, is now musical director at the studio. The difficulty the studio faces is Lina's high-pitched voice.
Cast
Show all 20 cast
- Brick Sullivanas Policeman (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Gene Kelly filmed the title song sequence, spinning an umbrella and splashing through puddles, while sick with a 103 °F fever; contrary to a common myth it was not done in one take, and took two to three days to shoot.
- Donald O'Connor, a four-pack-a-day smoker at the time, had to stay in bed in the hospital for several days after filming the "Moses Supposes" sequence.
- After shooting the "Good Morning" routine, which ran from 8:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m., Debbie Reynolds' feet were bleeding; years later she said "Singin' in the Rain and childbirth were the two hardest things I ever had to do in my life".
- Debbie Reynolds was a gymnast rather than a dancer when she made the film; Kelly apparently insulted her for her lack of dance experience, and later, when Fred Astaire was in the studio, he found her crying under a piano.
- In the scene where Kathy is shown recording a line of Lina's dialogue, Jean Hagen's own voice was used, because Donen felt Reynolds' "mid-western" accent was not right and preferred Hagen's natural, cultured speaking voice.
- François Truffaut told Betty Comden and Adolph Green he had seen the film so many times he knew it frame by frame, and that he and fellow director Alain Resnais went to see it regularly at a small Parisian movie theater where it sometimes ran for months.
- Stanley Donen, who had asked Freed and Brown to write a song inspired by "Be a Clown", considered the resulting "Make 'Em Laugh" to be "100% plagiarism" of Cole Porter's song, though Porter never sued for copyright infringement.
- Unable to decide which of their three openings to use, the writers had decided to return their advance to MGM and admit defeat when Betty Comden's husband arrived from New York and suggested they combine all three openings into one.
