Good Morning

We have spent some time looking how the producers of Singin’ in the Rain were able to incorporate some old vaudeville slapstick comedy and song and dance routines into the movie.  We have pointed out that these routines accurately represented the type of material used by Hollywood in the early days of the talkies.  We have focused on the work of Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor, two very talented performers.  We think we have come to realize that, while Gene got most of the publicity, Donald was his equal as a singer, dancer and actor.  In 1952, when the movie was made, Gene and Donald were seasoned professionals. However, there were three stars who received top-billing.  One of those individuals was not a “star” when the picture was first released at Radio City Music Hall in New York on March 27, 1952.  In fact, she was still just a teenager who had never starred in a motion picture before this performance.  Her only credits up to that point included an uncredited role in June Bride (1948), a minor role in The Daughter of Rosie O’Grady (1950), an on-screen role as Helen Kane in Three Little Words (1950), with Kane’s voice dubbed in, a featured role in Two Weeks with Love (1950), singing “Aba Daba Honeymoon” with Carleton Carpenter and a small role in Mr. Imperium (1951).  She knew nothing about dancing.  Her name was Debbie Reynolds.

The film was released on March 27, 1952, just a few days before Debbie’s 20th Birthday, April Fool’s Day, 1952.  According to Wikipedia, “Debbie Reynolds was not a dancer when she made Singin’ in the Rain; her background was as a gymnast.  Kelly apparently insulted her for her lack of dance experience, upsetting her.  In a subsequent encounter when Fred Astaire was in the studio, he found Reynolds crying under a piano.  Hearing what had happened, Astaire volunteered to help her with her dancing.  Kelly later admitted that he had not been kind to Reynolds and was surprised that she was still willing to talk to him afterwards.”

We can see from her first scene with Gene Kelly (where he jumps into her car to escape a crowd of admirers) that Debbie Reynolds had stage presence and was not in awe of anybody or anything.  She was still, in part, a spunky tom-boy from Texas who could hold her own in the schoolyard with any boy.  She was “unsinkable” long before she played the role of Molly Brown.

In the movie, Betty Comden and Adolph Green created a plot twist that permits the studio head and stars to attend a preview performance of their latest silent movie, The Dueling Cavalier.  It is a total bomb; and the characters played by Gene, Donald and Debbie spend most of the early hours of the next day crying in their beer.  However, they hit upon a plan–turning the silent movie into a talkie and making it into a musical.  They are so proud of themselves they don’t realize that the sun has come up on a new day.  That is the set up for the song, “Good Morning,” a song written in 1939 by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed for the screen version of the Rodgers and Hart Broadway hit show, Babes in Arms.  (Don’t even start; yes, we understand; why would anyone monkey with one of the best scores written for a Broadway show?  Please don’t throw any more rotten tomatoes at the screen; you will just hurt your computer.)

One more note from Wikipedia:  The studio started shooting the song and dance routine at 8am and didn’t finish until 11pm.  “Reynolds feet were bleeding.  Years later, she was quoted as saying that ‘Singin’ in the Rain and childbirth were the two hardest things I ever had to do in my life.’ ”