Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

Taking place during the rise of the “talkies”, we meet Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagan) who have risen to stardom during the silent-film era of Hollywood. Beautiful, charismatic and influential, the two combine to make a great on-screen pair. The introduction of talking pictures poses a threat to the powerful duo, however, when it is discovered by audiences that Lina has an excruciatingly shrill voice. Enter young studio singer Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), a woman who lacks the stardom of Ms. Lamont but possesses the beautiful voice of which Lina is in dire need. Can Don and Lina find a solution to Lina’s laughably annoying voice to salvage their careers?

Consistently heralded as one of the greatest films ever made, Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s “Singin’ in the Rain” is not a stage musical adapted for screen, but rather a movie musical in the purest sense. Originally conceived by Arthur Freed as a way to tie together an entire back catalog of songs for MGM written by himself and composer Nacio Herb Brown, the film gives a nod to the early “talkies” where lavish vaudevillian song-and-dance numbers serve as a loose way to tie the story together, reminiscent of the early revue shows of the 1930s.  Notably, the film was directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, who together directed the most critically acclaimed movie musicals of the 1940s and 1950s.