Summary
A Hollywood party. We see Lina talking to a group of doting men as couples dance dramatically in front of her. A man congratulates another on a successful party, while a woman asks Cosmo if he can really get her into the movie business. Suddenly, Lockwood enters in a new jacket and approaches Cosmo, asking him if he’s a good actor. When Cosmo makes a joke, Lockwood tells him that he feels insecure about his talent. A producer comes over and greets Lockwood, followed by Lina. The producer makes a show of Lockwood and Lina’s relationship for the benefit of the room, as a screen is revealed and a movie begins to play. The producer invites everyone to sit down and tells them that he has some surprises for them. The film begins on the screen as the lights dim, and we see that the film is demonstrating the invention of the “talking picture,” one in which people talk onscreen rather than pantomime. Some viewers don’t believe it and think that someone is talking from behind the screen, but are quickly proven wrong. As the lights come back up, partygoers have varying reactions to the talking onscreen, with many expressing skepticism. Even the host, who introduced the film, doesn’t think that the first studio “talking picture,” The Jazz Singer, will do very well.
The host of the party moves on quickly, bringing Lina and Lockwood over to a giant cake, out of which pops Kathy Selden dressed in pink. She is startled to see Lockwood standing below her, and he says, “Well, if it isn’t Ethel Barrymore.” A number of other performers dressed in pink stream out of an adjoining room, handing out party favors and streamers. Eventually, the women get into formation and begin dancing and singing. Lockwood is charmed by Kathy’s dancing and performing style. As the song ends, Lockwood rushes towards Kathy and tells her that she was wonderful and wants to take her home, but she tries to get away from him. Suddenly, Lina approaches them and jealously asks who Kathy is. When Lockwood mocks Kathy about being a lofty high-brow actress, Kathy picks up a small cake and throws it at Lockwood, but Lockwood gets out of the way just in time and it flies directly into Lina’s face. Lina is horrified and Kathy runs away abruptly.
Lockwood rushes after Kathy, through a dressing room filled with intrigued chorus girls and out the other side. Outside, he sees Kathy getting into her car and driving away and he calls after her. The scene shifts to the following day in the studio, and we see Lockwood walking past a set that is rehearsing what to modern viewers is a rather outdated depiction of native African culture. As he approaches some friends, Cosmo holds up a newspaper and informs Lockwood that the first “talkie,” The Jazz Singer, is getting rave reviews. Lockwood shrugs it off and begins telling Cosmo about a new movie he wants to make about the French Revolution. Cosmo jokes that the plot must be about an aristocrat who cannot get a “simple girl of the people” to give him the time of day and the friends laugh and walk towards the set. Lockwood then confides to Cosmo that even though it has been three weeks, he is still thinking about Kathy Selden. “She’s the first dame who hasn’t fallen for your line since you were 4,” Cosmo jokes. Lockwood is still distraught and tells Cosmo that he wants to find her, but Cosmo attempts to cheer him up with an old show business adage: “the show must go on.” Sitting down at the piano, Cosmo begins to play a song and do a number of shtick-y antics to get Lockwood laughing. Eventually, he launches into an up-tempo song, “Make ‘Em Laugh” which he performs virtuosically for Lockwood’s benefit. The song is about the benefits of making people laugh and keeping one’s attitude light-hearted. Throughout, Cosmo does a number of pratfalls and slapstick routines. Cosmo’s dancing becomes more and more manic, convulsive, and impressive, and he ends up lying motionless on the floor.
The scene shifts and we see the director knocking on the door of Lockwood’s dressing room. He emerges in a powdered wig and a period costume. The director then knocks on Lina’s door and she comes out as well. Lina approaches Lockwood and asks him why he wasn’t at a party the other night and when he tells her he has been busy, Lina guesses correctly that he has been looking for Kathy. Lina then reveals that she is the one who had Kathy fired after Kathy accidentally threw the cake in her face. As Lockwood goes to confront Lina about her firing Kathy, the director rushes in and interrupts them, reminding Lockwood that in the following scene he is supposed to be madly in love with Lina. They begin shooting. Lockwood runs towards Lina and they begin improvising tense dialogue in spite of shooting a love scene. Through smiles, the onscreen couple hurls insults at one another, finally kissing as the director yells “Cut!” Lockwood breaks away and Lina insists that he must love her if he kisses her as sincerely as he did in the scene. “Meet the greatest actor in the world! I’d rather kiss a tarantula!” he tells her.
The director asks for another take, but they are all interrupted by the entrance of R.F. Simpson, the producer and host of the party we saw earlier. Simpson tells the director that the studio is shutting down for a few weeks, much to everyone’s alarm. He explains that the public wants more movies with talking and is less interested in silent film. Simpson then tells the team that they are going to turn the film they were just shooting into a talking picture. At first Cosmo laments being out of a job, but Simpson quickly tells him that he will be the head of the music department for the film. When the director, whose name is Roscoe Dexter, and Lockwood protest about making a talking picture, Simpson insists that it’s what all the studios are doing and that it’s as simple as adding talking. “Well of course we talk!” says Lina, shrilly, and the men all turn to look at her, concerned about her ability to carry a “talkie” with such an unsettling vocal texture.
The scene shifts and we see a montage of newspaper headlines about the invention of talking pictures. We then see a montage of chorus girls, barbershop quartets, marching dancing soldiers, a singer crooning through a voice amplifier, tap dancers, and various musical spectacles to usher in the new era of entertainment. Suddenly, we see a man surrounded by chorus girls, singing a song about all the beautiful girls in his life. The camera zooms out and we see that we are in a studio. One man behind the camera asks another who one of the girls dancing in the number is and we realize that it is Kathy Selden. Cosmo is among the men watching from behind the camera, and he stands when he realizes who Kathy is. The male singer in the film continues to sing his song about “beautiful girls” and we see an array of women modeling contemporary fashions. The song has a big finish.
As the song ends, we see one of the directors introducing Kathy to Simpson and telling her that Simpson is considering casting her in a larger role. Their conversation is interrupted by Lockwood, who greets Kathy enthusiastically. Upon seeing Lockwood, Kathy turns down Simpson’s offer and tries to storm off, but Lockwood holds her back and asks what’s going on. When Simpson tells Lockwood that they want to cast Kathy in his new movie with Lina, Lockwood is thrilled and insists that Kathy gets the job even though it might not please Lina. Simpson agrees and leaves. Lockwood and Kathy smile at one another. The scene shifts and we see Kathy and Lockwood walking outside together, where Lockwood tells Kathy that his relationship with Lina is not real and is all for publicity. As Kathy questions him more about it, it becomes clear that she is much more up-to-speed on his movies and the gossip columns than she had initially let on, which delights Lockwood. Kathy expresses remorse about what she said when they first met, but Lockwood insists that it only intrigued him and that he has been thinking about her ever since. He says, “Kathy, I’m trying to say something to you, but I’m such a ham, I guess I’m not able to without the proper setting.”
Analysis
At the center of the plot is the historical transition from silent films to “talkies,” films in which the voices of the actors could be recorded to accompany the film. Made in 1952, Singin’ in the Rain is itself a period piece and portrays the film industry of the 1920s, in which the technology was shifting in enormous ways and many silent film actors struggled to keep in step with the new advances. Many stars of the silent era had learned a kind of acting technique that did not quite fit in with the invention of the talkie, and Lockwood and Lina’s fame represents a fictionalized version of this shift. Ironically enough, Kathy’s investment in the theater—a form that Lockwood dismisses as antiquated and pretentious—is more in step with the advancements towards talkies than silent films, because, indeed, stage actors must speak their lines and develop their voices. In some ways, the viewer can interpret Kathy as representing the past (theater, the precursor to silent film), as well as the future (the talkie, where the speaking skills of the theater have returned), while Lina represents the illusions of silent film. Kathy Selden talks about the virtues of the theater, in which real live humans speak the truth in front of an audience. Kathy herself is authentic and unpretentious, invested in truth and straightforwardness. Contrastingly, Lina looks the part, but has a rather off-putting personality and an alienating voice. If the fans could hear the way she talked, they would see that she is not the elegant princess she seems to be, and her performances would be less credible. Thus, Lina is symbolic of the silent film, in which all that mattered were appearances. Lockwood, then, is torn between two women—and two eras of filmmaking.
Lockwood is intrigued by Kathy because she isn’t trying to impress anyone and she is nonplussed by his celebrity status. While everyone else in the world flatters Lockwood because he is famous, Kathy is barely interested in his job as a silent film heartthrob. As a theater actress, Kathy believes that the world of film is shallow and illusory, and tells Lockwood that he is a “shadow” rather than a real human being. Because Lockwood is so used to be un-ambivalently praised by the public, Kathy represents a break from business as usual, and her unexpected response to his identity attracts him in an unusual way. Additionally, when he sees her perform at the party, he sees what a compelling and magnetic performer she herself is. While Kathy is also in show business, she has a kind of integrity, idealism, and self-belief that is anomalous in Lockwood’s world. She has an authenticity that Lina lacks, and that intrigues Lockwood.
The movie features a number of rousing musical numbers as it is, after all, a musical. As the plot concerns show business and the chaotic but joyous life of an entertainer, the many musical numbers serve to set the scene and enliven the plot. For instance, when Lockwood realizes that Kathy Selden is the woman who popped out of the cake at the Hollywood party and then he consequently watches her dance spiritedly along with the other chorus girls, we see his admiration for her not only as a person, but also a performer. The movie musical uses songs to push the action forward in a more concise way; as Kathy performs, Lockwood becomes all the more enamored of her. Not only can she hold her own in a conversation, but she’s an expert performer, and we watch as Lockwood comes to realize this. Similarly, when Lockwood is feeling down in the dumps about Kathy, Cosmo resorts to performance in order to cheer up his friend. In true musical theater style, Singin’ in the Rain insists, “Why talk about something when you can sing and dance about it?”
This section of the film continues the humorous contrasts between the personal lives of the actors and the fictional relationships they must embody. The scene in which Lina and Lockwood are shooting the scene for their period film is one such moment. Because it is a silent film, they may say whatever they want to each other while the cameras are rolling, and in this particular instance, they are not very kind. While their expressions and gestures are expressive of love and attraction, the conversation they carry on is tense and insulting, with Lockwood even telling Lina that he would like to “break every bone” in her body for having Kathy fired. The comical contradiction between the insults being hurled and the romantic way that the image of the two professional enemies will read on film illuminates the illusory nature of acting—especially, the film suggests, in a silent film. It is not necessary that actors get along with one another in order for them to be good at doing love scenes. Acting is a kind of magic trick, and little do we the audience know what is going on behind the scenes.
As a movie about movies, Singin’ in the Rain celebrates the development of cinema and gives a cursory film history lesson. Indeed, the invention of the “talkie” marks the invention of the genre in which Singin’ in the Rain itself belongs: the movie musical. After Simpson breaks the news that the public wants more talking pictures, the screen erupts in a colorful and flamboyant montage of on-screen musical numbers. We see lines of chorus girls, disembodied bare dancers’ legs moving in perfect synchronization, a number of bold costumes, and a crooner holding a bedazzled voice amplifier. The introduction of recorded sound into films made way for the lavish and entertaining world of the stage musical to get the Hollywood treatment. We watch the movie musical take off before our very eyes, leaving behind the outdated world of silent films. Dramatic pantomimes are replaced by intricate and theatrical stagings. Singin’ in the Rain is itself filled with musical numbers and theatrical gestures, so the plot of the film makes way for us to see its position in a broader film lineage.
