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| Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen
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| Gene
Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debby Reynolds, Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Don
Lockwood:
Dignity. Always, dignity.
A
silent movie star couple must make the transition to sound film.
 Most
classic musicals are best enjoyed for little more than their musical
numbers: sometimes endearing but often drearily predictable plot
developments often seem to take forever as we wait for the next
song-and-dance routine to begin. Not so in Singin' in the Rain.
The screenplay is smart, fast and economical, and deals with the
most rewarding subject of the passing of the silent age in Hollywood.
And the songs, a selection of classics that were already deemed
nostalgic at the time of the movie's production, are phenomenal,
combining great melodies with some of the finest and funniest dance
choreography ever put to film. Gene Kelly may never have been a
particularly versatile actor, but his all-out showmanship and willingness
to make a fool of himself carry him through the movie with ease
and plenty of charm. |
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Originally released as bare-bones
DVD for both Region 1 and Region 2, a Special Edition re-release
has since appeared, which has served as a basis for this review.
The image is framed fullscreen
at 1.33:1, closely approximating the film's original 1.37:1 Academy
Ratio. In order to restore the print to its original Technicolor
glory, the three-strip negative were scanned into the computer where
they were digitally recomposited and re-aligned, adjusting for wear
and tear. The result is nothing short of astonishing, full of crisp,
sharply defined colors and backgrounds full of sharply outlined
detail.
The soundtrack is available both in a cleaned-up original mono mix
in Dolby Digital 1.0, and in a new discrete Dolby Digital 5.1 mix.
The surround mix adds a little more punch to the orchestrations
but it doesn't always sound all that natural, with some of the orchestral
elements distractinlgy separated from other musical elements. Both
mixes sound more than satisfactory, but in this case we must favor
the original mono sound.
Just in time for the film's fiftieth anniversary, Warner re-released
it on DVD loaded to the brim with extras in this nicely packaged
two-disc set. The feature is accompanied by an unusually varied
and informative audio commentary track that includes memorable
contributions from key personnel including actors Donald O'Connor,
Debbie Reynolds, Cyd Charisse and Kathleen Freeman, co-director
Stanley Donen, and screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green,
as well as film historian Rudy Behlmer and even film director,
choreographer and noted musical enthusiast Baz Luhrmann. Reynolds
hosts the track, with most participants recorded separately and
edited together seamlessly and - most of the time - scene-specifically.
The result is one of the best and most thorough commentaries we've
heard all year.
Singin' Inspirations is an option that will play the movie
with additional hidden footage. With this option enabled, a small
film reel icon will appear on your screen during the film's playback.
Click on that icon to learn a little more about Singin' In
The Rain and the films that inspired it. A selection of informative
text pages and the theatrical trailer are also to
be found on the first disc in the set.
The other extras are found on the second disc, starting with the
96-minute documentary 'Musicals, Great Musicals', which
provides a thorough and highly enjoyable overview of legendary
muscial producer Arthur Freed's long and illustrious career. The
shorter featurette 'What a Glorious Feelling' provides
a more detailed look at the production of Singin' in the Rain
istelf. But although it offers a huge number of informative and
entertaining anecdotes, the piece's presentation by host Debbie
Reynolds is rather painful, full of wordy asides and poorly chosen
intended witticisms from the veteran entertainer. It remains however
an essential addition offering an abundance of background on the
production.
Only one of Singin' in the Rain's songs, "Moses Supposes,"
was original to the movie. All the rest came from Arthur Freed's
catalog of his own 1920s and '30s songs written with Nacio Herb
Brown. One of this DVD's best extras offers a generous collection
of twelve film clips from earlier movies that originally
carried the Freed/Brown songs. One outtake eventually survived the
past half-century and is included here: "You Are My Lucky Star"
done as a solo number by Debbie Reynolds, which was replaced by
the version sung as a duet that appears in the final film. Scoring
session music cues consist of audio only with explanatory text
for 18 raw studio tapes covering the recording of the movie's song.
A brief stills gallery of promotional material rounds out
these outstanding extras. The
main menu screen nicely reflects the original poster design, with
other static screens similar to Warner's generic menu design.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: December
12, 2002
Click
here for IMDB info on Singin'
in the Rain.
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to return to the front page.
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