Singin' In the Rain 5 Star Movie
		Made: 1952 Cast: Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell Director: Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly Screenwriter: Betty Comden and Adolph Green Cinematographer:  Harold Hal Rossen Producer: Arthur Freed                     "People? I ain't people!"
	I have personally seen Singin' in the Rain more than any other movie in my life time. As a child growing up, my grandparents had many old movie musicals on VHS my sister and I watched all the time. Some of them like Meet me in St. Louis, Brigadoon, and Showboat (1951) have not stuck with me as much. They are fine movies, but nothing I watch all the time. Singin' in the Rain however is pretty much a perfect film, even if it had no music. It is not too dated by the times because it is based in a span of years going from the 1920's to the 1930's (from the perspective of people in 1952). Even the humorous banter, though stuck in some corny and old fashioned values, holds up extremely well. For that you can thank the screenwriter.     There are many classic scenes in the movie, and most of it has to do with great acting or cinematography. For example the microphone picking up the heartbeat of Hagen during the first use of sound in the movies - you can feel the actor and director trying to make new technology work and how they had to change to adapt. Any scene with Kelly and O' Connor dancing is a joy to behold and it makes one yearn for the day of tap dancing like no other. Both leads are great "actors" also followed by a convincing Debbie Reynolds (at 18 years old), Mitchell as the big boss Simpson, and Jean Hagen as Lenna Lamont, one of cinema's most underrated villains.     Of course you can't talk about this movie without talking about the songs. Many are pulled from older films though all seem relevant and modernized through this film: "Singing in the Rain", "Make 'em Laugh", and "Moses Supposes" are the best of the shorter tunes, while "Gotta Dance/Broadway Melody" and the "Beautiful Girls" montage incorporate abstract techniques bordering on a combination of nonsense and Busby Berkley style images. The longer musical numbers work well along side the shorter ones creating a seamless interpretation. Other musicals have tried to be this good but none really get as close as this film; maybe the closes calls are Swing Time, The Producers, Everyone Says I Love You, and Fantasia. As good as some musicals are it is just hard to beat this one.     My favorite scene is personally the "yes, yes, yes" and "no, no, no" being slowed down when the sound gets out of sync with the video on a first screening of the new "talkie" picture. That scene is truly one of the funniest in any movie ever made. Above all, the film is one of the most enjoyable movies to watch for people of any age. As a child, I enjoyed the humor and as an adult I enjoyed the visuals and what went into the making of the story. It is a very sarcastic movie, again screenwriter's Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and all of these things culminate in a great ending in which is a singer is falsely singing behind another, which is symbolism for how the movies work in the first place (lip syncing, false microphones). It is convincing, but as we see in Singin' in the Rain it's all "show" - only true love is real.