SINGIN' IN THE RAIN - Trivia and Other Fun Stuff

Mae Clarke can be glimpsed as a hairdresser in Singin' in the Rain. She was immortalized as the gun moll who gets a grapefruit in the kisser from James Cagney in The Public Enemy (1931).

Like the character of Cosmo Brown in Singin' in the Rain, producer Arthur Freed was once employed as a mood-music pianist who played on movie sets during the silent film era.

Among his many musicals, Gene Kelly did not rank Singin' in the Rain as his personal favorite. He always considered On the Town (1949) his best work.

The comical bit that Donald O'Connor does in the "Make 'em Laugh" sequence, where he pushes and pulls on his face to make absurd faces, is known as "gurning."

Gene Kelly reportedly had a 103 degrees temperature when he filmed the famous title number and his drenched clothing certainly didn't improve his condition. The rain, consisting of water and a touch of milk, also caused Kelly's wool suit to shrink.

Ironically, Debbie Reynolds' voice was dubbed by Betty Royce for the scenes where Reynolds' character dubs Lina Lamont's singing and speaking voice. And in one scene were Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) is dubbing Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), Hagen is actually dubbing Reynolds dubbing Hagen on screen for just one line. Is that confusing enough?

At R.F. Simpson's house party where a demonstration of the new 'talking' picture is first shown, you'll notice a mysterious movie star couple slinking around the sidelines, dressed to the nines. That couple is a caricature of two silent film superstars, the actor being an amalgamation of John Gilbert and Rudolph Valentino, while the exotic vamp may be a spoof of Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo, and Pola Negri.

Other references to old Hollywood in Singin' in the Rain include Cyd Charisse's hair style, which resembles Louise Brooks' famous bob, and Charisse's gangster boyfriend, who flips a coin like George Raft did in Scarface, Shame of a Nation (1932). Don Lockwood's (Gene Kelly) laughable dialogue in the disastrous preview of the all-talking "The Dueling Cavalier" is based on fact. The sad decline of silent screen idol John Gilbert was hastened by a similar situation in one of his early sound films - Redemption (1930) which features equally lame dialogue. John Gilbert is referred to again in Singin' in the Rain, when Don Lockwood disparages Kathy's "acting" at the Hollywood party by asking if she's going to do the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. It was in MGM's early talkie, The Hollywood Revue of 1929, that Gilbert performed that very scene with Norma Shearer.

Director Stanley Donen has always felt that the title, Singin' in the Rain, was something of a misnomer since the story has nothing to do with the weather, and everything to do with Tinsletown. He thinks it should have been called Hollywood.

In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Gene Kelly's father had once worked as a phonograph record salesman but lost his job due to the declining record market, which had been adversely affected by the rising popularity of radio and talking pictures.

While Singin' in the Rain was being filmed on MGM's Culver City lot, there was another movie in production which focused on the film industry - The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). The Vincente Minnelli melodrama was being filmed simultaneously on a nearby soundstage.

Famous Quotes from SINGIN' IN THE RAIN

Lina: Oh Donny! You couldn't kiss me like that and not mean it just a teensy bit!
Don: Meet the greatest actor in the world! I'd rather kiss a tarantula.
Lina: You don't mean that.
Don: I don't--- Hey Joe, get me a tarantula.

Lina: Gee, this wig weighs a ton! What dope'd wear a thing like this?
Roscoe: Everybody used to wear them, Lina.
Lina: Well, then everybody was a dope.

Cosmo: Talking pictures, that means I'm out of a job. At last I can start suffering and write that symphony.
Simpson: You're not out of a job, we're putting you in as head of our new music department.
Cosmo: Oh, thanks, R.F.! At last I can stop suffering and write that symphony.

Lina: Why, I make more money than - than - than Calvin Coolidge, put together!

Lina: "People"? I ain't "people." I am a - "a shimmering, glowing star in the cinema firmament."

Lina: If we bring a little joy into your humdrum lives, it makes us feel as if our hard work ain't been in vain for nothing.

[A dancer watching Lina Lamont in "The Royal Rascal"] Flapper: She's so refined. I think I'll kill myself.

Lockwood: What's the matter with that girl? Can't she take a gentle hint?
Cosmo: Well haven't ya heard? She's irresistible. She told me so herself.

Compiled by Scott McGee