Lowest Price Singin' in the Rain

- Lina Lamont (after being kissed by her leading man in a scene): "Oh, Donny, you couldn't kiss me like that and not mean it just a teensy-weensy bit."
- Don Lockwood: "Meet the greatest actor in the world. I'd rather kiss a tarantula!"
- Lina: "Oh, you don't mean that."
- Don: "I don't... hey, Joe, bring me a tarantula!"

As much as it pains me to admit it - primarily because Fred Astaire is my favorite hoofer - Gene Kelly's SINGIN' IN THE RAIN probably is the finest musical ever put on cinema with, in my opinion, THE WEST SIDE STORY and Astaire's TOP HAT and THE BAND WAGON just coming up short. Set in the early days of Hollywood, just as movies were transitioning from silent to talkies, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN deserves all the good, good rep it's garnered down the decades. It features marvelous dancing and singing and, damn, it's so funny. The sequence featuring a preview showing of THE DUELLING CAVALIER ("100% All Talkie"), as technical difficulties get the better of the poor picture, is hands down one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen - "No! No! No!" "Yes! Yes! Yes!" Not to mention, the sly digs at the film industry are as timely and on-point today as they were back in 1952. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN and, for whatever reason, LES GIRLS, are my two favorite Gene Kelly flicks.

Gene Kelly stars, co-directs, and choreographs. But it's not all about Gene Kelly. Other folks have a hand in. Donald O'Connor matches Kelly tap for tap as the wiseacre sidekick Cosmo Brown and he provides one of the film's best moments in the slapsticky and marvelously physical musical number "Make 'Em Laugh." Debbie Reynolds, perky Miss Burbank of 1948 and still a teenager when this film was made, exudes freshness and a sort of girl-next-door sexy that makes even jumping out of a cake seem wholesome.

Meanwhile, Jean Hagen hijacks scenes and submits possibly the best dumb blonde performance I've ever seen (sorry, Judy Holliday). Hagen is brilliant as self-absorbed silent film siren Lina Lamont whose screechy, nerve-jangling voice doesn't bode well for her next feature picture which is currently being converted into a talking picture. Her adoring fans, of course, had never heard her speak in public before. Lina's constant leading man Don Lockwood (Kelly) despises her and fears that the upcoming talkie - featuring Lina's voice - will sink his career. But then Don's former song-and-dance partner, Cosmo, comes up with a dilly of an idea...

"Dignity, always dignity" is Don Lockwood's response when interviewed about his life. In a gala opening of one of his movies, Don recounts his "dignified" backstory to the adoring public, even as the accompanying flashbacks give the lie to all that dignity. What this sequence accomplishes is to let you in right away that the tone would be very much tongue-in-cheek and breezy and even a tad subversive.

You look at what Kelly and O'Connor do in this movie and you marvel at the athleticism and sheer fitness level mustered up. About this movie I could toss all sorts of superlatives at the wall, and most of them will stick. There's a joyous energy present throughout, and a sense of grace and high-spiritedness and spontaneity. There's the tight and witty screenplay. And for period buffs, the painstaking recreation of time and place. Kelly and the crew worked their tails off to ensure historical authenticity. And if you're a movie buff, this is a homage to the golden age of cinema... and a wicked bursting of bubbles. Old song standards are dusted off and reinterpreted, and I'm particularly digging the exuberance of the musical performances in "Fit as a Fiddle (And Ready for Love)," in O'Connor's dynamic "Make 'Em Laugh" and in "Good Morning" and the title song itself, and the lotsa fun "Moses Supposes" (really the only original song here).

This is the 2-Disc Special Edtion and its loaded bonus features are by themselves worth the money: alternating audio commentary with Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor, Cyd Charisse, Kathleen Freeman, Co-Director Stanley Donen, Screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and Author/Film Historian Rudy Behlmer; 2 documentaries: "What A Glorious Feeling" (35 minutes, hosted by Debbie Reynolds as she fondly looks back at the film) and "Musicals Great Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit at MGM" (a focus on producer/song lyricist Arthur Freed's film works; 86 minutes); excerpts of 12 Arthur Freed/Nacio Herb Brown songs from the originating movies (including Ukelele Ike's rendition of "Singin' in the Rain" from THE HOLLYWOOD REVUE OF 1929); the deleted "You Are My Lucky Star" outtake (4 minutes) as Kathy Selden (Reynolds' character) serenades a billboard of Don Lockwood's; "Scoring Session Music Cues" - original recordings of the songs in the movie, including multiple takes and material either dropped or revised in the final film; a list of the awards the film won; a listing of the film's cast & crew; "Singin' Inspirations" is a pretty awesome option which, if prompted, will play additional hidden footage and feed you more fun facts about the film; "Reel Sound" is a brief text feature which touches on "several major transitional films made as the silent era turned to sound" (mentions THE JAZZ SINGER and THE BROADWAY MELODY); the theatrical trailer; and a Stills Gallery.

To top it all off SINGIN' IN THE RAIN looks visually stunning, being a vibrant technicolor extravaganza from MGM. Or as Kathy Selden describes Don Lockwood in his wardrobe: "You looked so dazzling in your green knickers, yellow sweater, and orange beret." I guess, another way to put it is like this: Dignity, always dignity. What a riot.Get more detail about Singin' in the Rain.