History Of Motion Pictures
The classic 1952 musical, Singin in the Rain enlightens the viewer as to the many issues faced in the 1920s as Hollywood transitioned from silent movies to talkies. Following the sensation caused by the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer, the fictional Monumental Pictures decides it must jump quickly onto the sound bandwagon in order to compete. Silent film stars and on screen lovers, Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) are hyped as a real life couple for publicity purposes, which in reality could not be farther from the truth. The attempt to quickly transform their latest release, The Dueling Cavalier into a talking picture is initially a disaster that points out the struggles the actors and director faced in adjusting to the new sound technology.
Firstly, to the director’s frustration, Lina cannot learn to talk into the microphone which is first hidden in a bush, then in a flower on her dress and finally on her shoulder. At the premiere, there are times viewers cannot hear the voice of either Don or Lina, due to the microphone placement. The audience erupts in unintended laughter as Don’s repeated profession of “I love you, I love you, I love you” gets increasingly louder as he gets closer to the microphone. The microphone also picks up the sound of Lina’s heartbeat as well as the rustling of her footsteps and pearl necklace at a disturbingly high volume level. These are sounds the humored and confused audience are not accustomed to hearing in their everyday lives. Another issue of note is that the sound in The Dueling Cavalier is glaringly out of sync, with the actor’s words not matching up with the movement of their lips. Thirdly, although Lina is superficially a beautiful woman, her annoyingly screechy voice and common accent do not match her character of the sophisticated femme fatale of the period in the film within a film. Despite the repeated efforts of the studio hired diction coach, and multiple takes by the director she cannot grasp the rounded tones or lose her shrill, comical accent. In an attempt to save the studio and it’s stars from embarrassment and financial ruin, a plan is set in motion to remake The Dueling Cavalier into a musical, renamed The Dancing Cavalier. To compensate for Lina’s inability to speak or sing eloquently, her voice is dubbed by Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) a young ingénue who Don has developed feelings for off screen. Opening night is a rousing success in sharp contrast to the original disastrous screening.
The audience is mesmerized by what they believe to be Lina’s melodic voice as sound and image are now perfectly synchronized. In one of the film’s final and pivotal scenes, the deception is finally revealed when Kathy is pressured into singing for Lina live on stage hidden behind a curtain. As the curtain is raised, the audience learns the truth with both Lina and Kathy feeling disgraced and the illusion being shattered. Singin in the Rain offers much insight Into the the beginnings of talking films and the sound struggles associated with them. The closing image of Don and Kathy posing lovingly in front of a billboard for their new movie titled Singin in the Rain, hints that the future of sound in movies will continue to develop, advance and entertain.
