Singin' In The Rain [DVD]

After watching Fred Astaire in "The Band Wagon", I proceeded to watch "Singing In The Rain" starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds. The musical tells a story of silent film stars Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont trying to transition towards Hollywood talking films. Throw in a love story between Don and Kathy Selden. The musical has a great song in "Singing In The Rain" sung by Gene Kelly. Evidently, it presents a lot of similarities with "Band Wagon" story wise. Despite the fact that this is ranked the best movie musical of all-time, I personally feel that it does not hold a candle to "Band Wagon" despite the fact that "Singing In The Rain" is superior in color, spectacle, visual effects, and dancing. Besides, Fred Astaire truly elevated the "The Band Wagon" to higher heights on his own with his dancing and charisma in spite of the movie's lack of color and spectacular visuals and star power that this movie has in Kelly, Reynolds, and O'Connor, and interestingly the participation of Cyd Charisse from "The Band Wagon".

I went to high school with one of Donald O'Connor's daughters and always loved watching him dance, but how about Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds, just amazing and fantastic. One of the best movies ever made and I have watched the DVD a few times with friends already. True poetry in motion when they dance together.

ok so i finally watched this for a film class and honestly i get the hype now. gene kelly dancing in the rain is genuinely iconic and donald o'connor doing make em laugh might be the funniest physical comedy i've seen in an old movie. if you haven't watched this yet just do yourself the favor because it absolutely holds up.

Singin' In The Rain is one of those rare films where everything works: casting, music, sets script and costumes. The two disc package by Turner Entertainment helps the viewer to see and understand the place of the musical in American film history. The story of Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly), Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Conner) and Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) is familiar to most viewers. The inside look at Hollywood in the time of the transition from silent film to talkies has been covered in other places but nowhere is it as effective as it was in this 1952 film. The Special Edition Package contains a weath of material that has been restored completely. The film is in spectacular Technicolor and looks even better than it did when it played on the screen. There is a commentary with nine participants hosted by Debbie Reynolds that covers just about all aspects of the production process. A feature called Rell Sound provides clips from films that were critical to the sound to talkie transition. A branching feature on Inspirations for the film gives three segments of hidden footage relating to specific scenes. The first disc is rounded out with the original trailer and some cast and awards information. The bulk of the special features are on disc two. The disc starts with the feature length Musical Glorious Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit at MGM. This feature highlights the life and work of the famed producer. A second feature What A Glorious Feeling is a 35 minute retrospective coving the making of the film and is hosted by Debbie Reynolds. There is an extended selection of excerpts of the Freed-Brown musical numbers taken from their original films. This is a wealth of material that puts the songs from the film in perspective. The final section of the disc gives us the original MGM Orchestra scoring sessions for just about all of the music in the film. This is a well put together package that is a joy to watch. It is essential viewing for any fan of the MGM musical period.

The dvd runs well and has good sound. The movie, of course, is a classic and TERRIFIC!

The undisputed, best musical of all time with a boyishly charming Gene Kelly at the helm. With witty banter, romance in Gene's eye and a playful Donald Olsen, there isn't much not to love about this classic MGM film. The only reason I hesitated to buy this special edition was because I already had the last DVD version which is a fairly clean print. The new 2002 restoration is even more gorgeous and one really has to squint to catch any remaining specks. I haven't had a chance to compare the two DVD versions in detail, but the special edition also seems to make the hues much richer and brighter. As for the extras, well, the documentaries tell the film's backstory and it's neat to see clips from movies where the Arthur Freed songs were originally used. The one with Bing Crosby, for example, is quite amusing. I would have liked to see more outtakes and scenes that hit the cutting room floor. There must be more than the one they included of Debbie Reynolds singing 'You Are My Lucky Star.' Also, with so many different interviews stitched together, the audio commentary track leaves something to be desired. While it's nice to hear from the likes of Cyd Charisse, Debbie Reynolds, Don Olsen, Co-Director Stanley Donen and the scriptwriters, it's a little disconcerting too, because it's evident they were all recorded separately. Sometimes the commentary doesn't match up with the scenes, as would be the case if only the director were commenting, for example. Also, rather than hear others talk about Debbie Reynolds' struggles as a novice dancer on the film, it would have been more appropriate to hear Reynolds herself on the audio track commenting on Gene Kelly's reputation as a task master and her difficulties learning the dances. All in all, Warner Brothers added lots of extras for the special 50th anniversary edition and were careful to explain many of the allusions to previous films made within the movie. Gene Kelly would probably be happy that one of his signature films has endured time so well. If you haven't seen it yet, I also recommend that 'Anatomy of a Dancer' documentary that PBS did on Gene. It's pretty comprehensive and it's a fun look at his life.

This movie like most in the genre and time period was a lot of fun. First of all...not a single F bomb. That means you can watch it with your kids are even your mom. The plot was interesting in that it addressed a real world problem for those making the transition from silent movies to talkies. The acting was superb and the special effects in production were light years ahead of their time. This was a fun movie with some pretty good music, and totally amazing dance sequences. Nothing in the last 30 years is even close to matching it.

This Box-set is limited to 75'000 pieces and contains a Harcover-Booklet, 1 Umbrella, 3-Strip-Reprint-Lobby Card with the Poster-motive. 1 BLU-RAY, CODEFREE and contains several languages like: English and German and also german subtitles. 1 DVD (Movie) 1 DVD (special features). The Box has some pro and contras: - The Contras/minus: - the audio-commentary isn't subtitled and also not the special features on the DVD Bonus Disc for forgein speaking people or hard/deaf-hearing) - Neutral: - contains 2 new features: "Raining on a new generation" and a "Juke Box Jump-to-Song Feature". It is worth? Yes and no. Its nice to see the "GLEE" cast (Morrison) about to be inspired by Kelly in Glee-Episode. But it would been better / more interesting to have a new Interview with Debbie Reynolds and maybe Rita Moreno wher're still living. - Pro/plus: The Picture Quality: the most fans know it... the original film negatives are destroyed by a fire. So they've restored now the copies and yes its look amazing. Everything is clean, no dirt or damages. And the colors looks amazing. Sure, could be a little bit sharper... but, its not possible. So, this is the BEST Quality we're getting. The Sound Quality: sounds in my ears very good in english and german. Only the german dubbed version, and I hate it everytime, they've a dubbed/translated the songs too in german (and that sounds terrible) but it was, what they did in the 50s. So I use to watch the musical in english. The Booklet: interesting Making-Of and Trivias about the movie The Umbrella: nice gimmick :-) (have now this one and one from the Musical in London i've visited in july 2012). STORY: the talking movies changes Hollywood in 1927. Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont two of the biggest Silent Movie Stars has to learn to talk and singing. But Miss Lamonts Voice is terrible. Don Lockwood finds in Kathy a perfect talking and singing voice for Lamont. But what is with Kathy's own movie career? And then also, there is love between Kathy and Don. And Miss Lamont isn't happy about. The greatest dance numbers and songs: "Good morning", "Make em Laugh", "You are my lucky star", "Beautiful girl", "Broadway Melody/Broadway Rhythm"-Medley and the title song itself "Singin' in the rain" who became a masterpice in the movie history. FAZIT: buy it. This Box or the single BD-Release - its a wonderful entertaining and feelin'.

Must watch movie....again n again...

Qualité supérieure de cette digitalisation. Commentaires fort instructifs

There is only one thing that needs to be said about "Singin' in the rain": it is a beautiful masterpiece, produced to make people "happy again" - and which succeeds in doing it again and again, since more than 60 years now! Enough said. If you saw this film, you know enough about it - and if you didn't see it yet, shame on you! Do it immediately! In this 2-disc edition we have a good copy of the film itself with numerous subtitles available and that includes English for sound impaired. The bonuses on the second disc are really worth watching, especially "Musicals, great musicals". Enjoy! Not having much to say about this wonderful film which most people know anyway, I would like to write a little more about the actors, who offered us this beautiful thing. Sadly, most of them departed since to join Lord's great troupe in heavens... The first to go was Millard Mitchell, who plays R.F Simpson, the tough but mostly benevolent boss of Monumental Pictures. Known also from films like "Twelve o'clock high" and "Winchester 73", lifelong heavy smoker Mitchell died from lung cancer one year after starring in this film, on 13 October 1953. He was 50 years old. Jean Hagen, a girl from Chicago, a very beautiful and talented actress who plays the crucially important and totally despicable character of Lina Lamont, was already well known from her great role in "The Asphalt Jungle". After "Singin' in the rain" she played a lot and made again quite a splash in "The big knife" in 1955. She had to interrupt her career because of serious illness in 1964. As soon as she became ill her husband of 18 years dumped her and sued for divorce. She spend almost all the rest of her life in various hospitals and a convalescent home, before dying in 1977, at the age of 54, after losing a long battle against throat cancer. In this film she really doesn't have an easy role but she performed PERFECTLY - as consequence her character, Lina Lamont, is probably the most despicable, most ridiculous, dumbest, meanest bitch in all history of cinema! It took a REAL talent to play THAT! The legendary Gene Kelly, one of the greatest dancers and singers in whole history of cinema, who plays here the main masculine character of Don Lockwood, remained a great Hollywood star for many years, but mostly bowed out from big screen after the end of musicals era in 1960. As an old man he finally confessed a little secret to a journalist - when performing the legendary scene of singing the song "Singing in the rain" and splashing through water puddles, he was running a 39,8° fever! Gene Kelly died in 1996, aged 83. Douglas Fowley, who plays here the small but important (and extremely funny) role of hyperactive, overstressed and overworked director Roscoe Dexter, had a long and succesful career playing mostly second roles in Hollywood and then continued into an even more succesful career on TV. He died in 1998, just before his 87th birthday, leaving behind 3 children - and SEVEN former wives! Donald O'Connor, who plays Cosmo Brown, a singing, dancing, piano playing entertainer - and who needed three days of medical rest after performing the splendid "Make them laugh" song and dance in this film - also had a long and succesful career. He died in 2003, aged 78, survived by Gloria, his wife of 47 years as well as by four children. Cyd Charisse, a girl from Amarillo, Texas, was, as everybody knows, THE one exception in world's history to the rule "even the longest legs have an end"...))) Her legendary career started with this film - in fact soon after an insurance company accepted to insure her legs for FIVE million dollars (1952 dollars!). She danced a lot more in the 50s, mostly with Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, before taking more or less an early retirement when musicals went out of fashin after 1960. A tough and clever great lady, a lifelong member of Republican Party, she lived a long and happy life and left us in 2008, aged 87, survived by Tony, her husband of 60(!) years, two children and two grandchildren. Debbie Reynolds, a girl from El Paso, Texas, the youngest cast member (born in 1932 she was barely 20 years old then), who plays the main feminine role of Kathy Selden, played a lot after this film, even if she never scored such a hit again. The world and the whole humanity owe her two great things - "Singin' in the Rain" and Princess Leia (yes, she is Carrie Fisher's mum!). She is still with us as of September 2013 - and may she live 100 years and more! This is a great and wonderful film, which will never age and will never be forgotten. I am so grateful to all people who made it - they left behind them a great gift to us all. THANK YOU!

Si compras esta edición especial, no hace falta que comente sobre lo buena que es la película. En cuanto a la presentación, es excelente, cabe destacar algo importante que quizá no te digan en la descripción del producto, y es que los bonus extras están en la version de DVD, y no tienen subtitulos ni en inglés ni es español así que hay que traer fino el Listening si quieres disfrutarlos. De ahí en fuera es exactamente lo que promete. Gran calidad en todos los artículos del bundle.

Fabulous movie! No swearing, violence or sex..I love this movie so much!