While watching Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelley 1957), I was reminded of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s highly enjoyable rendition of Make Em’ Laugh on SNL in 2009. Unfortunately, the performance has never been rebroadcast because SNL never got the rights to the song. Watch a clip on Instagram here.
As I went back watch the clip, I was stuck by how much people love musicals and dance numbers. According to the article I found about Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s performance, Daniel S. Levine (the author) states, “Rather than a traditional monologue, Gordon-Levitt used his SNL debut to perform “Make ‘Em Laugh” live” (Levine 2023). Many professionals in the industry seem to greatly enjoy musicals as evidenced by this performance. It’s interesting that SNL never got the rights to the song because Singin’ in the Rain is known as a jukebox musical.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is an actor known for portraying the character Tom opposite Zoey Deschanel in the movie 500 Days of Summer. He also does a dance number in that movie, and he worked with the same choreographer, Michael Rooney, for the SNL performance. I love seeing Hollywood celebrate movie classics and the whimsy of cinema.
While watching Singin’ in the Rain, I couldn’t help but feel as If I were watching a live-action version of a Looney Tunes cartoon. The film’s vibrant colors and playful energy evoke that same exaggerated, animated feeling. In a lot of scenes movement and facial expression seem exaggerated to a cartoonish degree—whether it’s Don’s happy walk after his “Singin’ in the Rain” performance or Cosmo’s slapstick attempt to “fix” his face after crashing into a brick wall during “Make ’Em Laugh.”
But most importantly, the sound design adds to this cartoon-like feeling. Realistic ambient sounds are rare in the film, and when they do appear, they’re almost muted. The best example of this is when Don and Cosmo walk through the studio set early in the movie. Multiple films are being shot on the same stage while new sets are being built, creating an extremely busy environment—yet we don’t hear a single background noise unless the focus briefly shifts to it. This choice draws all attention to Don and Cosmo’s conversation and pulls the audience out of reality. The scene feels deliberately staged, almost like a performance within a performance. In the end, that’s what Singin’ in the Rain is—a performance within a performance. During several musical numbers—but most prominently in Cosmo’s “Make ’Em Laugh” performance—sound is used to emphasize movement and add an extra layer of comedy. Each time he falls, a brief drum roll and crash punctuate the action, transforming his stumbles into part of the rhythm.. Even small gestures, like when he sits on the couch and adjusts his legs, are matched with exaggerated cracking noises.
Yet, besides all the fun musical numbers and slapstick comedy, the film also addresses the harsh reality faced by some actors when sound was introduced to cinema. Lina Lamont, once a major silent film star, is unable to adapt to the new technology of sound. In the end—though unwillingly—she is forced to end her career. The most famous real-life parallel is probably John Gilbert, whose career declined for similar reasons. In this sense, Singin’ in the Rain reminded me a lot of Babylon (Damien Chazelle, 2022), which likewise explores the industry’s transition to sound and the downfall of an actor unable to adjust to it.
While regarded as “pure entertainment” without much substance, musicals are equipped with capabilities that traditional films are not. The characters in musicals can express themselves fully through song and dance, in a way that is unnatural in any other setting. They can profess their love, declare their passions, and reveal their innermost thoughts. Throughout Singin’ in the Rain (1952), the use of musical numbers is vital to contrasting the theme of superficiality and allows characters to translate their innermost feelings through song and dance.
From “Good Morning,” a number key to signifying the optimistic outcome of the film
As a group of performers, the characters in this film know how to best express themselves through the extravagant means of large sets, flashy costumes, or big show-stopping numbers. When Don Lockwood expresses his love for Kathy Selden during “You Were Meant For Me” he takes her to an empty soundstage, illuminating her with lights, a blowing wind, and a hazy pinkish purple background. The mise-en-scene is vital in this scene, as it places the viewer into the consciousness of the film being a film, reminding them of the aspects of a soundstage. The sound, however, works to transform this conscious realization, as the song takes over and the couple then sings together and dances as if their romance had been a choreographed routine that feels just right. The contrast of the soundstage to the genuine feelings of Don and Kathy represent the films overarching theme of being “in” and “out” of sync, they dance in sync, yet Don still needs his artificial setting to express his authentic emotions to Kathy.
From “You Were Meant For Me”
Later in the movie, during the over-the-top “Broadway Melody” that reflects on Don’s past career, a ballet dream sequence is employed, and is incredibly similar to that of “You Were Meant For Me.” What is noticeably different in this number is the lack of sound stage equipment. This could be because this is how Don remembers this moment in his past, not as a scene in a film but a true representation of his love for Kathy. It could also serve as a way to remind viewers of this scene, without reminding them of the film within a film aspect at all, and let themselves get swept away in the theatrics and emotions of it all. Regardless, this entire sequence of the film is supposed to take place in the mind of Don, showing his true memories of his success story, his love story, and how he envisions himself.
From “Broadway Melody”
Feelings of true love are not the only ones evoked through song throughout this film. The slapstick number “Make ‘Em Laugh” utilizes sound effects to both provide comedic effect and help the viewers visualization. Using Cosmo’s language of song to give a pep talk to his friend, and make the actual film viewers laugh, actor Donald O’Connor is able to express through his character and himself a translation of comedy. The non-diegetic implementation of music throughout the film both reminds the viewers of the artificial element that this film has in its nature, being a film, but evokes feelings throughout that allow viewers to forget these realizations and again lose themselves in the entertainment.
What can we learn about the significance of movie musicals after watching Singin’ in the Rain? How would Singin’ in the Rain have been changed if not for the dramatic, cheesy songs and dance numbers, and had instead focused on a more realistic interpretation of reality?
Singin’ in the Rain (1952) is a musical about making a musical, using sound to express the ironic elements of cinema. The biggest joke of the film is that it exposes how deceptive show business really is, using sound itself as the tool of critique. This is clear in the disastrous preview of The Dueling Cavalier, where every element of sound is transformed into a punchline. For example, the dialogue is out of sync, the microphone is awkwardly hidden in Lina’s costume, and even her high-pitched voice makes us question the concept of fidelity: was this sound what we expected? The mismatched timing between sound and image makes the scene feel chaotic, but that chaos is literally the point.
The audience’s laughter within the film mirrors our own. We are invited to find pleasure in the failure of movie magic, to enjoy the breakdown of the very systems that usually keep us immersed in a fictional world. This self-awareness turns Singin’ in the Rain into both a celebration and a critique of sound’s role in film, showing how cinema can use its own tools to question the illusion it depends on.
Furthermore, the irony continues in the scene where Kathy secretly provides the singing voice for Lina. The timbre of Kathy’s warm and smooth tone is a stark contrast against Lina’s shrill, artificial one. The scene not only jokes about vocal authenticity and giving artists credit, but it also hints at a deeper truth: what audiences perceive as “real” emotion in many films is often a construction of layered sound, synchronization, and careful editing designed to produce the most pleasing result.
Singin’ in the Rain turns what was once seen as cinematic progress—the introduction of sound in pictures—into both a source of comedy and a form of commentary. It’s a movie that makes us laugh at the errors of sound while also making us listen more closely to how those sounds shape our experience of film itself. This leaves us with a question: does our idea of an “authentic performance” lie in the voice we hear or in the illusion we believe?
As an all-time musical-lover, Singin’ in the Rain is perhaps the most entertaining and enjoyable film I watched so far through the semester. I remembered how in class today we discussed that one of the major approaches of musicals is pure entertainment. It is not only an escape from reality, but an exploration of what humanity could potentially look like.
However, as the film progresses, I started sensing something deep within the film, something that did not just make me laugh over–the narration over film’s development from silent to sound.
Screenshot from Singin’ in the Rain, beginning scene screening The Royal Rascal
Silent Films
We could take a peek at how silent movies were screened from an establishing shot in the film. This picture is from the beginning of Singin’ in the Rain, where audiences watch The Royal Rascal casted by Don and Lina. Beneath the cinema stage, we see an ensemble instrumenting for the silent film, which is displayed on a large screen. This was a classic characteristic when silent films were popular, where the cinema’s director would hire a playlist to be played during screening that does not necessarily has to be related to the film. I suppose that its primary purpose is to block the noises generated by the projector during screening.
As film develops, there comes a special playroom for projectors, which separates its loud noises from the audience, which was also when people started realizing how sound could be incorporated in film.
In Singin’ in the Rain, we see that starting to appear when the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer, gains popularity, forcing The Duelling Cavalier to also be changed to a talking picture. Prior to that, the actors have been utilizing the privileges of a silent picture to make films.
In this scene when Don and Lina acts out The Duelling Cavalier as a silent picture, they were having an argument over Kathy Seldon, despite acting as romantic lovers. They both know that their conversation would not be in the final film version, exploiting that particular advantage. Later, we know that Don’s repeated “I love you”‘s and Lina’s odd voice pickup would make the movie to be commented as “the worst picture ever made.”
Of course, the film shows us a lot of other difficult issues encountered with talking picture productions in its beginning: voice synchronization, the balance of sound between volume of dialogue, props, and noises, as well as the training required for actors and the need for scriptwriters, etc. The birth of talking pictures allows a greater degree to approach realism, but raises the bar of work for almost every part of production.
The Satire
All this eventually makes me recall how Don and Cosmo were treated before they were discovered by Mr. Simpson, along with that Don’s repeated motto, “Dignity. Always dignity.”
Screenshot from the film, Don describes his road to fame.
Don and Cosmo had been practicing dancing, singing, and performance from a very young age. As the only true audience that are able to understand his true stories, we know that he has been ironic about his stories because of maintaining his dignity with the current trend in the film industry. He was not well-treated before being heard by Mr. Simpson. People cared less about his music performances, but more on Lina, who we know is the actual actress who doesn’t know how to sing or speak formally. Yet, when talking pictures become trending, which is also when Don has decided to turn The Dancing Cavalier into a musical, he starts to pick up what he used to do as a teen–singing and dancing to music.
I think this mirrors how the public commentaries on sound film were when it first came out. In class Professor Zinman talked about how critics challenged the integration of picture and sound, as if sound would destroy the “original” meaning of film as a newer medium at that time. However, when people started liking it, the films start to earn money, and the entire film industry would operate toward this more profitable goal, which many times contradict with our wish to really explore the bounds of film.
Before, I did only enjoy musical in a more entertaining way. But from now on, I guess I want to treat each musical film more seriously, as there would always be something in its sound that reminds me of Singin’ in the Rain, and the histories that it is trying to teach.
