History Film / SinginInTheRain

* NotSoDifferent: Don and Kathy, as it turns out. Both described their theatrical backgrounds in glowing terms(Don repeating his motto of "Dignity, always dignity!" while Kathy claiming she was a stage actress, insisting that theater was a more dignified career than cinema), but their true paths to success in Hollywood were far less dignified(Don and Cosmo's vaudeville routines in middle-of-nowhere venues where the audiences would normally pelt them with tomatoes, Kathy working as a ChorusGirl [[JumpingOutOfACake who jumps out of cakes at Hollywood parties]].

* BigBad: Lina Lamont.

* MsFanservice: Kathy jumping out of a cake at the party, and joining the other ChorusGirls.

* ChandelierSwing: Don's character does one during his climactic fight scene in ''The Royal Rascal'' (which is actually, like much of the footage shown of ''Royal Rascal'', from the real-life 1948 version of ''The Three Musketeers'').

** The movie starts off at the premiere of Don's and Lina's fictional ''The Royal Rascal''. The footage shown is actually from a real film called ''The Three Musketeers'' (1948) starring Gene Kelly - which is in color and has sound.

* HiddenWire: While making ''The Dueling Cavalier'', Lina has trouble being heard. First, the microphone is hidden in a plant, and she can't be heard because she "can't make love to a bush!" Then, it's placed in a poof of her sleeve on her left shoulder. Of course, when she turns her head to say "No, I cannot love you", she fades out and back in. Then, they put the microphone in a giant brooch on her chest and get a nice background of her heartbeat.

* CreatorKiller: InUniverse, the preview of ''The Dueling Cavelier'' is disastrous, and has the potential to wreck the studio and the careers of everyone involved.

Then, fleeing a mob of fans one night, Don's rescued by self-described "serious actress" Kathy Selden (Creator/DebbieReynolds). She not only proves immune to his movie star charms but accuses him of having no artistic substance whatsoever: "just a lot of dumb show!" Don is incensed, but her words prove prophetic with the unexpected rise of ''Film/TheJazzSinger''. The studio abruptly (as in mid-take) [[FollowTheLeader decides to make the current Lockwood & Lamont picture a "talkie" too]].

* {{Arcword}}: 'Dignity', Don's claim to it is BlatantLies, Lina has the appearance of it but it quickly vanishes as soon as her fame is in danger, Kathy struggles with it after Don [[WhosLaughingNow catches her at her job]]. Cosmo, who never pretends to have any, is probably the happiest throughout the film. Kathy and Don are a lot better off when they realize they could lose a bit of dignity every now and then.

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal:
** "Well, here comes our lovely leading lady now!"
** For that matter, the lovely leading lady herself, Lina Lamont, as well as the team of Lamont and Lockwood. Had they thought to also give Don a name that starts with L, they could have had ComicStrip/TheLockhorns on their hands.

* AlliterativeName: Lina Lamont.

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: "Well, here comes our lovely leading lady now!"

* CuteButCacophonic: Lina has a face like a model but a shrill voice with a New Jersey/New York accent.

Faced with utter ruin when the now wildly-anachronistic ''Dueling Cavalier'' is hooted down at a test screening, Don, Cosmo and Kathy cook up a plan [[CrazyEnoughToWork so stupid it just might work]]: convert the whole mess into a fantasy musical. Of course, Don's erstwhile co-star can't sing any better than she can speak. Thus, inspired by a synchronization accident during the screening, Cosmo also invents dubbing, and arranges for Kathy to secretly record all of Lina's songs and dialogue. Inevitably, Lina discovers the ruse--and is suddenly threatening to ruin ''everyone's'' careers and potentially seize the studio. Maybe she's [[SmarterThanYouLook not as dumb as she looks...]]

** Cosmo's "Ridi, Pagliacci, ridi!" before "Make 'Em Laugh". (Translation: "Laugh, clown, laugh!") ''{{Pagliacci}}''[[note]]Pronounced "Pal-Yat-Chee"[[/note]] was an {{Opera}} fairly well-known at the time.

** R.F. is an affectionate parody of producer Arthur Freed, right down to his catchphrase "I can't quite visualize it..."

The result is a frothy but [[HorribleHollywood sledgehammer-accurate]] comedy set during the transition from silent film to talkies -- a period of major upheaval in the movie industry, as stars learned to cope with the novel concept of 'talking' and all its attendant requirements. Chief among them being, of course, that now they had to ''act''.

Don Lockwood (Creator/GeneKelly) is the current king of silent Hollywood, one-half (or perhaps [[TheLoad three-quarters]]) of the A-list team [[NameAndName Lockwood & Lamont]]. His "partner" is [[AlliterativeName Lina Lamont]] (Jean Hagen), a bottle-blonde, bubble-brained diva whose ego has long since turned Don off any thought of carrying their romance off-screen... not that he can convince Lina of that.

A classic 1952 {{Musical}} film from [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer MGM]], ''Singin' in the Rain'' happened when the legendary screenwriters [[Creator/ComdenAndGreen Comden & Green]] were given the keys to the studio's music vaults and told to pound out a script based on what they found inside.[[note]]The only totally original song in the film is the novelty number "Moses Supposes". "Make 'em Laugh" is generally considered a rip-off of Cole Porter's "Be a Clown", though he never complained.[[/note]]

A classic 1952 film from Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer, happened when legendary screenwriters [[Creator/ComdenAndGreen Comden & Green]] were given the keys to the MGM music vaults and told to pound out a script based on what they found inside.[[note]]The only totally original song in the film is the novelty number "Moses Supposes". "Make 'em Laugh" is generally considered a rip-off of Cole Porter's "Be a Clown", though he never complained.[[/note]]

[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/singing_in_the_rain_trio.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:''"[[EarWorm What a glorious feeling!]]"'']]

* TheQuietOne: Line comes across as this to Hollywood in public because of her awful voice, and no one wants to let her speak because of it. Needless to say, she gets pretty fed up of not being allowed to speak in public and it causes her to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard kick-start her own downfall]].

* PrettyInMink: Several fur wraps and capes are worn by the actresses, especially in the opening scene where Zelda wears an ermine cape paired with a dress trimmed with ermine tales, another actress wears a full length chinchilla cape, and Lina wears a cape trimmed with white fox including the huge collar (a style common in that decade and the next) to frame her glamorous (but silent) face for the crowd.

* RomanticRain: The titular song comes when a lovestruck Don goes skipping through a heavy rain after parting from Kathy, and the two lovebirds started a new life with their First Kiss at the doorstep while it was raining.

* SlowNo: Accidentally done in the premiere for ''The Dueling Cavalier when the film gets screwed up. Lina's line was even, "No, no no".

-->Hello. This is a demonstration of a talking picture. Notice: [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment it is a picture of me, and I am talking]]. Note how my lips and the sound issuing from them are synchronized together in perfect unison.

-->'''Kathy:''' Oh, no offense. Movies are entertaining enough for the masses but the personalities on the screen just don't impress me. I mean they don't talk, they don't act, they just make a lot of dumb show. Well, you know (she does some ''major league'' ''[[WorldOfHam silent acting]]'' ) -- like that.\\

--> '''Don:''' Call me a cab!
--> '''Cosmo:''' Okay, you're a cab.

-->'''Lina:''' Oh Donny! You couldn't kiss me like that and not mean it just a teensy bit!
-->'''Don:''' Meet the greatest actor in the world. I'd rather kiss a tarantula.
-->'''Lina:''' You don't mean that.
-->'''Don:''' I don't— Hey Joe, bring me a tarantula!