History Film / SinginInTheRain

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 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...]]

* ArtisticLicenceHistory: Once ''The Jazz Singer'' is a smash hit all the movie theatres are ''instantly'' installing sound equipment, the studios are racing to adapt and actors are struggling to make the transition, all within the space of a few months. In reality -- as is portrayed in the beginning of the film -- sound was first regarded as a fad that wouldn't last, and it wasn't until 1929 that the studios really adopted 'talkies' as a standard feature; the first ''full-length'' talking picture, Film/LightsOfNewYork, was released in 1928. Even until the mid 1930s, most Hollywood films were produced in dual silent and talking versions, and cinemas only gradually adopted the equipment necessary to play 'talkies'.

* TheBeautifulElite: Given this is Hollywood, of course the cast is of good looking people. The "Beautiful Girls" number is all about this.

* BreakTheHaughty: Lina is humiliated at the end when it's shown that [[spoiler:she doesn't do her own voicework, after she arranged for extensive press coverage claiming otherwise]].
* BrokenAesop: InUniverse. Cosmo has a cute moment of this early on, when he tries explaining to Don that the pseudo-romance with Lina is the price of fame:

** This accidentally happens in ''The Dueling Cavalier'', when acting made for silent movies is given sound, and poorly done sound at that.

** And another on during the after-party:

* DoomedNewClothes: Don's tux and Lina's dress for ''The Royal Rascal'' premiere. Before the end of the night both are ruined; Don's via rabid fan girls and a car door, Lina's via an ill-aimed cake.

* EndOfAnAge: The film is a sped up summary of the death of UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfHollywood and the massive overhaul that ruined the careers of many silent actors:
** Lina's image as an elegant leading lady simply ''can't'' survive once audiences are actually confronted with her real voice; she goes to desperate and ruthless lengths to safeguard her public persona, but ends up exposed and a laughing stock.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Lina won't even look at Don when he politely introduces himself because she thinks he's just a stuntman, but the minute she hears he's going to be a star she's all over him, while Don is repulsed by her behavior. This establishes her as shallow and fame hungry, and him as someone who hates "Hollywood Fake" people - even if they're rich and gorgeous.
* EurekaMoment: Cosmo realizing they can simply dub over Lina, after he and Kathy mock some of the sound issues at the premiere.

* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: Lina's a downplayed example. She does look attractive on-screen [[NiceCharacterMeanActor in her silent films]] and is able to convince audiences she had the personality and voice to match, but in reality, she's fame hungry, delusional, and not very loving. [[JustifiedTrope Although she ''was'' treated pretty unfairly during the creation of the Dancing Cavalier, and she had a right to be upset at not getting any credit.]]

* ForgottenFramingDevice: InUniverse, ''The Dancing Cavalier'' begins with a modern guy getting bumped on the head and dreaming he's in 18th century France, and ends with him ''still'' in 18th century France.

* LoopholeAbuse: Lina's contract regarding management of her publicity means that R.F. and the studio can't call her out on her claims that Kathy's voice is hers, for fear she'll sue them. [[spoiler:R.F., Don and Cosmo ''can'', however, manipulate her into making an utter fool out of herself and expose the truth, via a handy curtain raise.]]

* LoveTriangle: Lina, Don and Kathy.

* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Everyone spends the first three-quarters of the film mocking and dismissing Lina for being "dumb, or something." In the final act of the film, however, she proves cunning enough to hire a lawyer to ReadTheFinePrint of her contract and [[LoopholeAbuse exploit a loophole]] that says she's allowed to control her own publicity: she gives interviews to multiple major newspapers making big claims about her singing and dancing prowess, smugly pointing out to R.F. that if the studio publicists attempt to contradict her to the media, it would infringe on her right to manage her publicity and she can sue. She uses this to blackmail R.F. into removing Kathy from the credits and force her to keep working as Lina's (uncredited) voice for the rest of ''her'' five-year contract. Thankfully, she [[DidntThinkthisThrough doesn't quite think the whole thing through]].

* PimpedOutDress: Quite a few, this being one of the eras where gratuitous dress decorations were popular. One of the dresses in the opening red carpet scene is covered in ermine tails as though it was fringe. Later, we see a montage of the very latest Jazz Age fashions as part of the "Beautiful Girls" production number. Lina's last dress has a skirt [[FluffyFashionFeathers covered in feathers]] (and the rest of it is completely covered in silver sequins). Lina's dress in ''The Dueling Cavalier'' fits the mold of 18th century dresses, being covered with frills and flowers (which isn't that far off from the real dresses of that time, except they were even more decorated).

* 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 tails, 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.

* TheQuietOne: Lina 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]].

* RealityEnsues: Lina is savagely gloating about her scheme to force Kathy into dubbing for her, and then impulsively goes to make a speech to the audience who've just seen ''The Duelling Cavalier.'' Their confused reaction to hearing her real voice and their demands for her to sing wakes Lina up ''hard'' to the fact that, for her plan to work, Kathy needs to be her voice ''off''screen as well as well as onscreen. [[spoiler:And Don, Cosmo and R.F. very quickly ruin her plot by revealing that Kathy was singing for her, showing just how unlikely it would have been for Lina to actually pull her scheme off in the long run.]]

* RomanticRain: The titular song comes when a lovestruck Don goes skipping through a heavy rain after parting from Kathy, after they shared their FirstKiss at her doorstep while it was raining.

** Not only that, but in the songs "Would You" and "You Are My Lucky Star", Reynolds (and by extension, Kathy's voice coming out of Lina's mouth) is actually dubbed by Betty Noyes (although not because Reynolds' voice was no good), which is ironic, considering the premise of the movie.
* SanityBall: The one time Lina is on track about something is during the ''Dueling Cavalier'' filming scenes, when she finally gets fed up with Dexter's constant admonitions to talk into the mike and exclaims "WELL, I CAN'T MAKE LOVE TO A ''BUSH!"'' since she obviously has to turn to Don when she speaks to him.

* SelfProclaimedLoveInterest: Don and Lina are rumored to be together -— and Lina goes along with this, because she read it in the tabloids. A few scenes are devoted to Don trying to convince her it isn't true.

** Two real-life movies are being referenced. ''Film/TheJazzSinger'' (the first talkie) is mentioned. And in the final shot we see a billboard advertising Don Lockwood and Kathy Seldon, in a picture called...wait for it...''Film/SinginInTheRain''.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Zelda Zanders appears exactly four times, the first three with no lines; once as part of the red carpet procession of stars at the premiere of ''The Royal Rascal'' (accompanied by "J. Cumberland Spendrill III, that well-known eligible bachelor"); once dancing at the after party with some other rich old guy; once watching the "Beautiful Girl" sequence; and once when she sets the climax in motion, leading Lina to the sound studio where Don and Kathy are celebrating the last dub of Lina's lines with a long, passionate kiss.

* TwoGuysAndAGirl: Don, Cosmo and Kathy.

* ArtisticLicenseFilmProduction: It can be largely excused thanks to RuleOfFunny, but the film acts as though sound mixing and editing didn't exist in the 1920s. While editing out sounds that were mixed in with dialogue, like the constant rattling of Lina/Yvonne's pearls, would have been essentially impossible for the time, they ''could'' have edited out other unwanted noises, like Don/Pierre throwing his can aside and generating a thunderous crash.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: One of the models in "Beautiful Girls" is a tennis girl clutching [[GroinAttack two balls]].
--> Anyone for tennis? Well... this will make them cringe.

* RealityEnsues: Lina is savagely gloating about her scheme to force Kathy into dubbing for her, and then impulsively goes to make a speech to the audience who've just seen ''The Duelling Cavalier.'' Their confused reaction to hearing her real voice wakes Lina up ''hard'' to the fact that if she wants her plan to work, Kathy needs to be her voice ''off''screen as well as well as onscreen. [[spoiler:And Don, Cosmo and R.F. very quickly ruin her plot by revealing that Kathy was singing for her, showing just how unlikely it would have been for Lina to actually pull her scheme off in the long run.]]

* ArtisticLicenceHistory: Once ''The Jazz Singer'' is a smash hit all the movie theatres are ''instantly'' installing sound equipment, the studios are racing to adapt and actors are struggling to make the transition, all within the space of a few months. In reality -- as at the beginning of the film -- sound was first regarded as a fad that wouldn't last, and it wasn't until 1929 that the studios really adopted 'talkies' as a standard feature; the first ''full-length'' talking picture, Film/LightsOfNewYork, was released in 1928. Even until the mid 1930s, most Hollywood films were produced in dual silent and talking versions, and cinemas only gradually adopted the equipment necessary to play 'talkies'.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Lina is thoroughly obnoxious while complaining about as much as possible, but when told "everybody" in the 18th century wore very heavy wigs, she says, "Then everybody was a dope." She has another good point during filming when she keeps turning her head from Don to the bush where the microphone is hidden, and Roscoe reminds her she needs to talk into the microphone in the bush. Lina points out "Well, I can't make love to a bush!!!" And she has every right to be angry about Kathy being given full credit for dubbing over her, and worried about the effect it will have on her career.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Lina pretty much sets up her own downfall by a) drumming up a lot of false publicity and lying her ass off and b) improvising a speech, which reveals that [[spoiler:she wasn't doing the singing in ''The Dancing Cavalier'']].

* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Part of the reason ''The Dueling Cavalier'' is such a disaster is that Lina and Don continue to act as they would in a silent film, with overly exaggerated movements and gestures -- Lina tosses her head back and forth dramatically as she recites her lines (thus missing the microphone no matter ''where'' it's placed); and Don at one point flings a cane away in an overly theatrical manner, resulting in a loud offscreen clatter.

->'''R.F Simpson:''' Every studio is jumping on the bandwagon, Dexter. All the theaters are putting in sound equipment and we don't want to be lef tout of it.\\

->'''R.F:''' Every studio is jumping on the bandwagon. All the theaters are putting in sound equipment.\\
'''Don:''' But we don't know anything ''about'' this gadget!\\
'''R.F.''' What do you have to ''know?'' It's a picture. You do what you always did! ''You just add talking to it!''

** And when Lina angrily asks RF and his assistant Dexter why she can't make her own speeches:
--->'''Dexter:''' Lina, you're a beautiful woman, and audiences think you've got a voice to match! The studio has got to keep their stars from looking ridiculous at any cost!

* CheerThemUpWithLaughter: Cosmo is depressed because he is smitten with Katie and can't find her. Cosmo does a comedy routine to cheer him up, leading to the "Make 'Em Laugh" number.

* ShesGotLegs: In the "Broadway Ballet" extravaganza, Cyd Charisse's entrance is marked by her slowly handing Gene Kelly his hat back after he drops it... using one of her very long, very beautiful legs to do it.

In the main, however, Don's the Creator/GeorgeClooney of his day: rich, debonair, enjoying the perks of celebrity life to the hilt. Loyally at his side at all times is his lifelong best buddy and current studio musician Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor), who is ''just'' tactful enough to keep quiet about the duo's past as a failed vaudeville act.

* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: This gem from Lila Lamont: "It makes us all feel as though all our hard work ain't been in vain for nothin'."

* DidntThinkThisThrough: After years of keeping silent before audiences (to appear as a refined lady) and bullying the studio into making Kathy's continue to dub for her, un-credited, Lina decides that she's tired of other people speaking for her and wants to address her audience directly. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard It goes about as well for her as you'd expect]].

* WomanInWhite: Cyd Charrise's dancer swaps her green cocktail dress for a white gown in the casino "Broadway Melody" number. Don's character enters a dream sequence where he imagines her a virginal, ballet-dancing beauty. But she hasn't really changed.

* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: Lina's a downplayed example. She does look attractive on-screen [[NiceCharacterMeanActor in her silent films]] and is able to convince audiences she had the personality and voice to match, but in reality, she's fame hungry, delusional, not very loving. [[JustifiedTrope Although she ''was'' treated pretty unfairly during the creation of the Dancing Cavalier, and she had a right to be upset at not getting any credit.]]

* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: Lina's a downplayed example. Lina does look attractive on-screen [[NiceCharacterMeanActor in her silent films]] and was able to convince audiences she had the personality and voice to match, but in reality, she was fame hungry, delusional, not very loving. [[JustifiedTrope Although she was treated pretty unfairly during the creation of the Dancing Cavalier, and she had a right to be upset not getting any credit.]]

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Lina had Kathy and the entire studio under her control with her contract and would force Kathy to dub over while Lina got all the credit, so everyone would assume Lina had a beautiful speaking and singing voice. But by feeling like she had to make sure the audience got to know her personally -- rather than being spoken over, like she usually is -- Lina basically set up her own downfall by revealing her true squeaky voice to everyone which contradicted her voice in the movies. Then the audience wanted to see Lina sing. She temporarily managed to convince the audience she had a beautiful voice, but the men revealed Kathy as the true singer, not only freeing Kathy from Lina's control, but also letting Kathy become the new co-star alongside Don Lockwood. [[SarcasmMode Really nice going, Lina.]]

* ChekhovsGun:
** At the beginning of the film and the premiere of ''Royal Rascal'', Lina wants to give a speech but Don subtly stops her... and then we later see she's got a screechy voice.
** Lina's diction lessons set up for the "and I ''can't stannim!''" line from the movie premiere. Likewise, her difficulty addressing the mic directly sets up for the same thing happening in the movie premiere.
** Don throwing his cane away as the scene is filmed silently sets up for him doing the same thing and causing a loud clatter in the talkie version.
** A deleted scene featuring Kathy Seldon singing "You Are My Lucky Star" to a billboard of Don Lockwood sets up for both Don singing that song to her at the climax, and of a billboard featuring both Don and Kathy shown at the very end.

* PrecisionFStrike: A G-rated one, but has the same impact - after seeing ''Film/TheJazzSinger'', one of the reactions: "It's ''vulgar''."

-->'''Lina Lamont:''' You ''piano player'', you!

[[caption-width-right:350:''"[[EarWorm What a glorious feeling!]]"'']]

** When Cosmo comes up with the idea of having Kathy dub her voice over Lila's singing, Don is hesitant saying that Kathy would be throwing away her career. When Lila finds out about Kathy's dubbing she tries to lock her into a contract that would force her to dub for Lila and prevent her from taking any roles for herself.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Lina had Kathy Selden and the entire studio under her control with her contract and would force Kathy to dub over while Lina got all the credit, so everyone would assume Lina had a beautiful speaking and singing voice. But by feeling like she had to make sure the audience got to know her personally-- rather than being spoken over, like she usually is-- Lina basically set up her own downfall by revealing her true squeaky voice to everyone which contradicted her voice in the movies. Then the audience wanted to see Lina sing. She temporality managed to convince the audience she had a beautiful voice, but the males revealed Kathy as the true singer, not only freeing Kathy from Lina's control, but also letting Kathy become the new co-star along see Don Lockwood. [[SarcasmMode Really nice going, Lina.]]