“Singin” in the Rain” is a movie that’s got legs, but in Cyd Charisse’s case, the camera revealed too much. So much, in fact, that the film had to be doctored with some white paint around the starlet’s thighs.
It⛦ was 1952 and getting past the censors was just one challenge MGM faced in racing the musical comedy out to the big scree﷽n, according to this book.
Garnering a then-astonishing $7.7 million at the box office in its initial run and chosen as the American Film Institute’s greatest movie musical of all time, the film is worth the in-depth study.
MGM and its star Gene Kelly were in their heyday when the studio began the musical, which details the swan song of the silent film. But the leading lady was a virtual unknown who couldn’t sing or dance — Debbie Reynolds, aged “almost 19.”
Among the book’s tidbits:
* Kelly gave Reynolds such a hard time during production that one day she crawled under the piano and cried. Fred Astaire, who isn’t in the movie but was at the studio that day, cajoled her out with the offer of a dancing lesson.
* Buster Keaton wasn’t in the film, either, but managed to drive the cast crazy. Kelly was having daily chats with Keaton about the introduction of sound pictures, and he wanted to incorporate some of Keaton’s detailed, and failed early experiments with sound, such as the “strategic” placement of devices. So the “Singin’ ” sound crew hid microphones in odd places all over the set, catching actors by surprise and sometimes embarrassing them.
* Film great Louis B. Mayer quit as head of the studio four days into filming, ending an era of nearly 25 years. Mayer had personally chosen Reynolds for her role, despite Kelly’s bafflement.
* Kelly’s dancing style was so vigorous, his dancing partners were often injured. “When Gene threw you on the floor, you were on the floor,” Charisse recalls.
* Gum c𒁏hewing was banned from the set after Reynolds took a wad out of her mouth and stuck it to a ladder, only for Kelly to get it caught in his hair.
Film buffs will know some of the stories in this book, but even the most-die hard “Singin'” fan is likely to find a few new facts in this tribute to a film that is truly a work of art.
Singin’ in the Rain
The Making of an American Masterpiece
By Earl J. Hess and Pratibha A. Dabholkar
University Press of Kansas