An American in Paris, and Singin' in the Rain
Boy, Gene Kelly can mug the camera like no one else I've ever seen.
The first film in the Stanford's Labor Day double-feature (whence Subrata and I went after an afternoon of Eurorails) was An American in Paris (1951), a musical riddled with American standards by George and Ira Gershwin. Kelly stars as Jerry Mulligan (no relation to the jazz saxophonist, one presumes), a young artist in Paris after the war.
The story is simple, and borders on the plotless: Boy meets (older female) patron (Nina Foch), patron wants to seduce boy, boy meets girl (Leslie Caron, who also was the star of Gigi), boy and girl fall in love, girl is engaged to another boy, and everything works out in the end - largely off-screen. In the middle, there's a lot of singing and dancing.
The music is superb, though disappointingly we only get about four bars of "Nice Work if you Can Get It". Oscar Levant, playing Kelly's pianist friend, has a lengthy dream sequence involving a terrific piano suite. "I've Got Rhythm" appears early in the film, and a much longer dream sequence built around the movie's themes (both musical and story) finishes things off. This is surely the most impressive piece of dancing I've ever seen (although admittedly I am not in principle a fan of dancing); the music, choreography (by Kelly) and story play off each other perfectly and make you wonder, "Who came up with the original germ of the idea for all of this?" Simply amazing.
The other half of the evening is probably Kelly's most famous film, Singin' in the Rain (1952). And you know it's a talent-laden film when Cyd Charisse has a bit part, and Rita Moreno only a cameo. Indeed, co-star Debbie Reynolds is probably only #3 on the talent scale here, behind Kelly and Donald O'Connor.
This film's advantage is a stronger plot: It takes place in 1927, just as talking pictures are coming into vogue, and involves two silent film stars, Don Lockwood (Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen). In it, they try to take their careers forward into the new age, but have one basic problem: Lina's shrill voice, sharp accent, and willful attitude, none of which work very well in their usual romance/action films when sound is added. Meanwhile, Kelly starts romancing (mostly off-screen) young actress Kathy Selden (Reynolds) who gets involved in the whole talking film dilemma.
Compared to American, Singin' is not as strong musically or in its dance numbers. Of course, you pretty much have to move to different musical genres not to be a step down from the Gershwins, but back-to-back the difference is a bit of a shock. For my money, only "Broadway Rhythm Ballet" (yes, the "Gotta Dance" song) really stands up to the first film's pieces, though the title song is quite good. "Make 'Em Laugh" is okay, but it's mainly a backdrop for Kelly's real co-star, O'Connor as his sidekick Cosmo Brown, who can almost mug as well as Kelly, and features goofy faces and an outstanding sense of comic timing that even Kelly can't quite keep up with. Most impressively, O'Connor can dance along with Kelly (whereas Reynolds seems to be struggling to keep up). He's a joy to watch - and I don't think I've ever seen him in anything else.
The film also features the brazen audacity to present a whole set and script simply to lead into the nonsense song "Moses" which it itself just an excuse for some really hot hoofin' by the two male principals. The movie is basically saying, "Yes, this is just a lame excuse for a dance number unconnected to the rest of the film, but gosh-darnit, you're going to like it!" And we do.
Which of these two is the better film? Hard to say. The music and dancing in American really is finer, but it's hard not to pick Lina and Cosmo from Singin'. Call it a toss-up; they're just different films.
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