Well, it was as close as I could get to Gene Kelly's magical dance sequence when he was, literally, Singing in the Rain. They showed it on the 'telly' over the weekend and once again I was entranced. I think of Gene Kelly as the dancing equivalent of George Gershwin; they were both men who took their commercial creativity into the classics. The story, of course, is a load of delightful old tosh and perhaps the lack of even a slightly dark thread is the reason I don't rate it quite as highly as some other musicals - Gigi or Caberet, perhaps. Even so, the choreography by Kelly is a work of genius. The apparent simplicity of the Singing in the Rain sequence is a living, dancing, singing proof of the old adage that the essence of good design is simplicity. Apparently, Kelly danced that sequence over two days of filming with a temperature of 103 degrees! And poor old Donald O'Connor was hospitalised after his Make 'em Laugh number which still amazes even after this amount of time. Poor little Debbie Renolds, who before the film was a trained gymnast not a dancer, ended one sequence of filming with bleeding feet. The three of them were perfection but I cannot leave out Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont, the dreadful screechy blonde caught out by the invention of 'talkie' movies. According to Wiki, the scenes in the film where both her talking and singing voice were apparently being dubbed by Debbie Renmold's character, in actual fact they were spoken and sung by Hagen herself. Judged on that performance she was an excellent actress but she never quite made it to the big time.
What a truly great film, it remains in my list of Top Ten Films - along with the other 28!
Even better twist is that to make the rain more visible to the camera a small proportion of milk was added, as this water was recycled over the two long hot days it soured so by the end was leaping and twirling in thousand of gallons of cheese soup...
Posted by: Obligato | Tuesday, 15 November 2011 at 11:05
Did you ever notice that Make 'em Laugh is just a rip-off of Cole Porter's Be A Clown? Note for note plagiarism.
If you liked Cabaret, you'll like "Chicago".
Posted by: Dom | Tuesday, 15 November 2011 at 19:19
I wrote you a lovely note agreeing with you about "Singing in the Rain" and adding how wonderful "An American in Paris" is, also.
However, it appears to have vanished into the netherworld and I can't be bothered mentioning it again.
Posted by: Andra | Wednesday, 16 November 2011 at 04:38
Obli, yes I read about that and I gather it made his suit shrink, as well!
Dom, yes, I knew about the, er, borrowing of Porter's song. I saw the London revival of Chigago with the gorgeous German actress/singer, Ute Lemper, who has legs up to her armpits and who failed to reply to any of the letters I sent her!
Andra, darling, I keep telling you, take more water with it!
Posted by: David Duff | Wednesday, 16 November 2011 at 09:19
Andra doesn't need more water. My comment disparaging Kelly vanished too.
Posted by: dearieme | Wednesday, 16 November 2011 at 12:19
Disparaging Kelly!!!!
Dammit, Sir, you deserve a 'vanishing', can't you recognise genius when you see it?
Posted by: David Duff | Wednesday, 16 November 2011 at 12:51
Anyway, DM, I, too, suffered a 'vanishing' when 95% of my post above on Jens Weidmann "vanished". However, it's an ill wind that fails to blow someone's hat off and being forced to retype the whole bloody thing, naturally I kept it much shorter. Er, it wasn't you who 'vanished' it, was it?
Posted by: David Duff | Wednesday, 16 November 2011 at 12:58
Kelly exudes insincerity.
Posted by: dearieme | Wednesday, 16 November 2011 at 15:55
Hmmn! Thinking about it, you have a point, DM, that perhaps Kelly was not the greatest actor in the world but, come on, his creativity in staging great dances sequences, some very complex and others delighfully simple, was at genius level.
Posted by: David Duff | Wednesday, 16 November 2011 at 16:48
Here's true genius:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFabjc6mFk4
Posted by: Dom | Thursday, 17 November 2011 at 01:00
If you need to refresh your memory.
"Singing in the Rain" watch and enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=D1ZYhVpdXbQ
http://eclecticmeanderings.blogspot.com/
Hank’s Eclectic Meanderings
Posted by: Hank | Thursday, 17 November 2011 at 04:32
Thanks for that terrific clip, Dom, but your comment implies perhaps that Kelly wasn't up to Astaire's standard. I have no expertise in dancing - and my wife has the scars to prove it - but each, in my opinion, was the equal of the other. In any case, the world was just a tad better for having them.
Thanks, Hank, I really must get the hang of this YouTube lark.
Posted by: David Duff | Thursday, 17 November 2011 at 09:04