Singin' in the Rain

Perhaps the best movie musical ever made, Singin’ in the Rain is a laugh-a-minute comedy that sparkles with both the large-scale dance numbers that made Gene Kelly a star and comic vignettes that will leave your toes tapping.

Musician Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) has worked his way up from being a song and dance man to one of the top movie stars of the silent era. He suddenly finds his career in jeopardy: studio bosses insist that his next production features synchronized sound, but it becomes abundantly clear that his egocentric co-star Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) does not have a voice suited for the new medium. After Don recruits an aspiring “serious” actress (Debbie Reynolds) to dub the parts, he raises his co-star’s anger even further when he starts to fall for her.

This sparkling romance, set during the advent of "talkies," is a love letter to movie-making, humorously capturing the difficulties of transitioning to new technologies and the impressive creativity of the studio system.

Part of our "Technicolor Musical Matinees" series. Courtesy of Warner Bros. and Swank Motion Pictures.