Part of The Sight and Sound Top 10 (#10) and Music City Mondays.
Mon, Jan 9 at 8:00pm: Introduction from Claire Sisco King, chair of Cinema and Media Arts at Vanderbilt University | BUY TICKETS
Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor star in SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN, one of the greatest and most successful musicals ever filmed — filled with memorable songs, lavish routines, and of course, Kelly’s fabulous and famous song-and-dance number performed in the rain.
Set during the advent of “talkies,” Don Lockwood (Kelly) has risen to stardom during Hollywood’s silent-movie era — paired with the beautiful, jealous and dim-witted Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen in her Oscar-nominated performance). When Lockwood becomes attracted to young studio singer Kathy Selden (Reynolds), Lamont has her fired.
But with the introduction of talking pictures, Lockwood and Lamont find their careers in jeopardy after audiences laugh hearing Lamont speak in her shrill voice for the first time — until the studio decides to use Selden to dub her voice.
“Effervescent, life-affirming cinema... An antidote to any ailment, illness, or woes about the state of Hollywood.” —Ben Flanagan, Little White Lies “Compounded generously of music, dance, color, spectacle and a riotous abundance of Gene Kelly, Jean Hagen and Donald O'Connor on the screen, all elements in this rainbow program are carefully contrived and guaranteed to...put you in a buttercup mood.” —Bosley Crowther, New York Times (Mar 28, 1952) “There is no movie musical more fun than SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN, and few that remain as fresh over the years.” —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
