Summary
The film opens on the three stars of the film with their backs to the camera, holding umbrellas. As the music swells to a climax, each spins around and begins walking in place and singing the title song. The credits roll. As the credits end, we see the exterior of a movie theater in Los Angeles advertising the “biggest picture of 1927,” called The Royal Rascal. We see young men in newsboy caps hiding in a patch of tall grass watching the film industry celebrities arrive at the premiere. A woman in a fur coat makes announcements about the premiere, and people struggle against one another to get a good look at the proceedings. The camera zooms in on the cover of a film magazine showing the two stars of the film, Lockwood and Lamont. A car pulls up to the premiere carrying a flapper film actress of the time, who emerges theatrically onto the red carpet; her name is Zelda Zanders. She is accompanied by a much older gentleman, with whom she walks down the red carpet accompanied by commentary from the woman in fur. Then Olga Mara, another film star, arrives with her new husband and is met with more oohs and has from the crowd. When another car arrives, the crowd screams at the sight of Cosmo Brown, described by the commentator as film star “Lockwood’s best friend.” The crowd erupts into even bigger adulation as the stars of The Royal Rascal, Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont, arrive.
The camera zooms in on the two stars as the crowds erupt in wild excitement. The commentator talks about the couple’s appeal, which makes them household names around the country. As they walk up to the commentator in the fur, she asks them if they are going to get married soon. Lockwood insists that they are “just good friends.” When the commentator, whose name is Dora, tries to get Lockwood to say something revealing about his relationship with Lina, he says he cannot tell her in front of so many people and the crowd cheers. When Dora tells Lockwood that their story is an inspiration to young people, he takes the microphone and insists that all of his success is due to his friendship with Cosmo Brown, and shakes Cosmo’s hand, explaining that they grew up together. He then says, “Well Dora, I’ve had one motto which I’ve always lived by: Dignity, always dignity.” As the camera zooms in on Lockwood and tender string music plays, he explains that his values were instilled in him by his parents and the finest schools, and he has been performing since then. The scene shifts to show a smokey pool room, where the young Lockwood dances vigorously while a young Cosmo plays the harmonica. A man comes and grabs the young Lockwood and picks him up.
As we hear Lockwood continue to describe his childhood in voiceover to his adoring fans, he tells them that his parents often brought him to the theater, and that he was raised on George Bernard Shaw. In contrast to this description, we see young Lockwood and Cosmo reading a sign for a vaudeville show and sneaking in past the ticket booth unseen. Lockwood then tells the fans that he pursued “rigorous musical training at the Conservatory of Fine Arts,” and we see the young Lockwood playing the violin in a crowded, rowdy bar while Cosmo plays the piano. The scene shifts to an “Amateur Night,” as Cosmo and Lockwood do a shtick-y dance routine in front of an audience, as Lockwood reiterates his motto in voiceover: “Dignity, always dignity.” The scene shifts and we see Lockwood and Cosmo performing in various theaters across America. They sing and dance, Lockwood playing the fiddle and Cosmo playing the piano. As the song continues, they burst out into a song and dance, each carrying a fiddle. They do an elaborate dance. “Audiences everywhere adored us,” Lockwood says in voiceover, as we see the crowd boo-ing him and Cosmo in the flashback of their early career.
Lockwood then describes how he and Cosmo moved to Hollywood and broke into the acting profession. We see Lockwood and Cosmo playing the violin and the piano respectively, creating mood music on set for a melodramatic Western. After a staged fight breaks out, one of the actors playing a cowboy falls on the floor, and the director erupts in a series of criticisms of his performance; he cannot hear them, however, as he has actually been knocked unconscious. As the dramatic director bemoans the fact that his leading man has been rendered unconscious, Lockwood rushes to his side with Cosmo and volunteers to take the actor’s place. The director agrees, and sends Don Lockwood to get dressed for his first movie role. We then see Lockwood dressed as a cowboy doing the scene. When the fight breaks out, he executes the fight choreography perfectly, throwing himself over the bar when a punch is thrown his way. The director is delighted with Lockwood’s performance and praises him. “You got any more chores you want done in this picture?” Lockwood asks him, and the director tells him, “Plenty!” and they shake hands.
We then see Lockwood driving a small plane into a house in a movie, then driving a motorcycle off a cliff, then running into a burning cabin; he became a Hollywood stuntman early in his career. The scene shifts back to Lockwood as he speaks to his adoring fans at the premiere, telling them that Lina Lamont has always been “warm and helpful” as the scene shifts to Lockwood introducing himself to Lina on set. Covered in dirt, he introduces himself as the stuntman and she rolls her eyes coldly at him, saying nothing. A director calls Lockwood over to meet one of the producers, who praises his stunt work and proclaims that he thinks Lockwood has star quality and that he’s going to put him in a movie with Lina. As the producer walks away, Lina smiles at Lockwood and takes his arm as he asks her if she’s available that evening. When she nods that she is, he informs her that he’s busy and walks away, at which point she kicks him in the rear. Their relationship is clearly very poor, but they have kept it up for the sake of their fans ever since. As the scene shifts back into the present, at the film premiere, Lockwood reiterates his motto as the crowd erupts in cheers. The film couple goes into the movie theater.
We see the movie premiere, as the silent film The Royal Rascal plays onscreen; onscreen, Don and Lina are in an embrace. The film contains a scene in which an intruder interrupts the couple and Lockwood’s character must throw him down the stairs. In the audience of the premiere, a woman turns to her friend and says of Lina, “She’s so refined, I think I’ll kill myself.” The film ends and the audience applauds as Lockwood and Lina come out onto the stage and bow. As they come offstage, a group of men congratulate the screen couple, but Lina is furious that Lockwood didn’t let her speak onstage. A producer explains that they wanted Lockwood to do the talking because Lina’s voice is shrill and does not match her physical beauty. As Lina confronts them about why she isn’t allowed to talk, it is clear that she does in fact have a very annoying and unrefined way of speaking. When Cosmo makes fun of Lina, she confronts Lockwood about not advocating for her as her fiancé. He laughs and notes that Lina has been reading the fan magazines and wrongfully believes that they are engaged. “There has never been anything between us,” says Lockwood, even though Lina seems to be under the distinct impression that they are truly in love. An assistant ushers Lina out of the room, as Lockwood laments to Cosmo about his studio-arranged romance with Lina. Cosmo makes a joke and the friends leave.
The scene shifts and we see Cosmo and Lockwood getting out of a car downtown. A small crowd of girls recognizes Lockwood and runs towards him, looking for autographs and tugging at his jacket. When he asks for Cosmo’s help, Cosmo simply makes a joke, so Lockwood runs from his voracious admirers and climbs on top of a moving trolley. After skipping along the roof of the trolley, he jumps down into the passenger seat a passing convertible, startling the woman at the wheel. She threatens to call the police on him, but Lockwood tries to reassure her that he is not dangerous. The woman suddenly recognizes his face, but cannot place him, assuming she must know his face because he is a famous gangster. When she calls to a policeman, he approaches the car and instantly recognizes Don Lockwood, the famous actor. The woman is embarrassed and the policeman leaves them alone. “Thanks for saving my life,” Lockwood says to the woman, and as he starts to get out of the car, she tells him she’s driving to Beverly Hills and can drop him off somewhere. He takes her up on it.
On their drive, the woman tells Lockwood that her name is Kathy Selden. When he tells her that he was running away from his fans and shows her where they ripped his suit, she feels sorry for him. Here, Lockwood seems to speak directly to the camera, and he says, “We movie stars get the glory, I guess we have to take the little heartaches that go with it. People think we lead lives of glory and romance, but we’re really lonely, terribly lonely.” By now, Lockwood has put his arm around Kathy’s shoulder as she drives, and looks at her with desire in his eyes. “Which of my pictures have you seen?” he asks her, but she doesn’t remember which one, and has a somewhat casual and disinterested perspective on movies, which deflates Don. Removing his arm from around her shoulder, he retreats, but Kathy doesn’t let up, continuing to explain why she isn’t impressed much by movies. Of screen stars she says, “They don’t talk, they don’t act, they just make a lot of dumb show!” They arrive at the location at which Don wanted to be dropped off, but Don isn’t finished discussing Kathy’s ambivalence about film.
Lockwood confronts Kathy about the fact that she doesn’t believe him to be a real actor, and when he asks her what she does for a living, she reveals that she herself is a stage actress. Lockwood asks her what play she is in at the moment, and she tells him she is not, but that she is moving to New York soon. Sarcastically, Lockwood mocks her dreams of stage greatness, which Kathy insists is a “dignified” profession. Kathy calls him a “shadow” and he begins to inch towards her, trying to seduce her, but she pushes him away, insisting that he can’t just seduce her because he is a celebrity. “Farewell Ethel Barrymore! I must tear myself from your side,” Lockwood exclaims theatrically, getting out of the car and wishing Kathy goodbye. As he walks away, his already ripped jacket rips even more, and Kathy erupts in laughter. The scene shifts and we see Kathy’s car pulling up to a house. She asks a butler if it is R.F. Simpson’s house—it is—and tells him that she’s “one of the girls from the Coconut Grove.” The butler directs her to park around the back.
Analysis
The beginning of the film locates the viewer in the glitzy, illusory world of Hollywood. Crowds scream for their favorite stars, actresses who cannot stay married more than a year emerge from limousines in glamorous and theatrical outfits, and everyone always know the perfect thing to say to create the right image. Lockwood makes a point of discussing what a privileged and charmed childhood he had, but quickly we are shown that his upbringing was not exactly what he describes. Instead of a fancy dance school, we see a young Lockwood dancing in a smokey pool room. Following that, every description he makes of how he came to be a star is the opposite of what we as viewers see happening. Instead of a high-brow theatrical education, we see him cutting his teeth on the vaudeville circuit, and instead of adoring audiences, we see boo-ing crowds. The contrast between his description and the flashback shows the viewer that in Hollywood, the good story goes further than the truth. The image of the star is more important than the star’s real biography, and show business is an elaborate game of smoke and mirrors, all illusion and appearances. Lockwood was not trained in rigorous artistic programs, but learned by sheer determination, grit and talent.
The absurdity of show business and Hollywood is typified by the fact that Lockwood gets his first movie role completely by accident. Without any real dramatic training, Lockwood offers to sub in for an actor in a Western who has been rendered unconscious in a fake fight. By simply being in the right place at the right time, Lockwood is able to earn a part in a major motion picture, showing yet again that Hollywood follows a more or less arbitrary logic. Lockwood proves to have a certain “it” factor, an indefinable quality which serves him well as an actor, in spite of having previously been a musician. What’s more, his proficiency as a dancer allows him to complete the physical rigors of the fight sequence to the director’s satisfaction. Singin’ in the Rain shows that Hollywood and show business are built on illusions; a musician on set can step in for an actor and outshine him, a boy with a lot of talent and no training can ascend the fame ladder to stardom. In the movies, this film seems to say, anything is possible—and almost none of it is true.
Part of the way that the film shows the deception of show business is through the image of Lina and Lockwood’s relationship, which appears intimate, but is in fact cold, standoff-ish, and tense, mostly due to Lina’s arrogant behavior and unrefined temperament. When she and Lockwood come offstage after the premiere, she speaks in a loud and annoying speaking voice that contrasts with her refined appearance and physical beauty. When they first meet, she does not give him the time of day, but when a producer informs them that they will be acting alongside one another in a film, she smiles and becomes more friendly. Even though the press has painted her and Lockwood’s relationship as romantic and idealized, we see that they are in fact merely business acquaintances, and that neither is very interested in the other—apart from the fact that they are good for each other’s careers. This element of the plot shows that in show business, appearances matter much more than the truth. This principle is perhaps best encapsulated in the character of Lina, who seems so refined and beautiful, but hides a nasty temperament underneath. Lina is portrayed as a monster, yelling at producers and indignantly questioning why she isn’t allowed to speak when Lockwood is.
Such is the plight of a silent film star whose grating speaking voice does not match her natural physical beauty. This helps us to see that Singin’ in the Rain is addressing specifically the deceptiveness of silent film, in which actors did not speak, but struck certain poses and enacted their characters through gesture and pantomime. Because the films that Lockwood and Lina are starring in at the start are silent films, Lina can hide her jarring voice and appear to be the well-bred characters that she portrays. However, in real life, she cannot hide her less-than-savory qualities. At the beginning of the 20th century, all films were silent. When "talkies" emerged in the late 1920s, they required very kinds of skills and qualities in its actors. Singin’ in the Rain, by including a character like Lina, whose voice does not match her appearance, capitalizes on the comical ironies of a film industry in which sound doesn’t exist, and the ways that the absence of sound could create an even more illusory and deceptive pantheon of stars, ones who did not quite live up to their own hype.
Often satirical and light-hearted, the film exhibits a kind of humorous irreverence and ambivalence about fame. The meeting between Don Lockwood and Kathy only extends this. When Lockwood jumps into her car, Kathy cannot place him, but she knows she recognizes his face from somewhere. Frightened by his intrusion into her vehicle, she assumes she must know him because he is an infamous criminal. Less than a minute ago, we saw a group of rabid fans clawing at Lockwood for an autograph, and now a woman is mistaking him for a criminal. In Singin’ in the Rain, the line between being beloved and being reviled is a thin one, and the celebrity can easily be mistaken for the convict. Identity is very fluid, and is often deceptive. A great deal of the comedy in the film comes from the contrast between what people perceive and the truth. The double-sidedness of a movie star's life is explained fully in Lockwood’s confession directly to the camera, in which he discusses the pitfalls of fame.
