Singin' in the Rain

Singin' in the Rain is a 1952 comedy musical film. It offers a comic depiction of Hollywood's transition from silent films to "talkies."

1. Gene Kelly plays Don Lockwood a popular silent film star with humble roots as a singer, dancer, and stunt man. Don barely tolerates his vapid, shallow leading lady, Lina Lamont, who claims to love him, as the publicity links them romantically. Who plays Lina?

• Betty Anderson
• Jean Hagen
• Mary Blackmoore

2. After a rival studio releases its first talking picture, The Jazz Singer, and it proves to be a smash hit, R.F. Simpson decides he has no choice but to convert the new Lockwood and Lamont film, into a talkie. What was the film?

3. Don's best friend, Cosmo Brown, comes up with the idea to dub Lina's voice with Kathy's and they persuade R.F. Simpson to rename the movie. Who played R.F. Simpson?

• Ernie Moreno
• Sid Charisse
• Millard Mitchell

4. Gene Kelly had a 103-degree fever when he danced to the title song. The director wanted to send him home, and film the scene another day, but Kelly wouldn't hear of it. He eventually convinced the director that the massive preparations would be wasted, and to allow at least one take. That's all it took - one take - and Kelly went home to recuperate. Most of Kelly's performance is ad libbed - they only had time to rough out his motion up and down the street to establish camera shot opportunities; Kelly's health was deteriorating and they had to begin filming quickly.

• True or False?

5. The rain consisted of a mixture of water and milk so it would show up better on film but it caused Gene Kelly's wool suit to shrink.

• True or False?

6. In the "Would You" number, Kathy Selden is dubbing the voice of Lina Lamont because Lina's voice is shrill and screechy. However, it's not Reynolds who is really speaking, it's Jean Hagen herself, who actually had a beautiful deep, rich voice. So you have Jean Hagen dubbing Debbie Reynolds dubbing Jean Hagen. And when Debbie is supposedly dubbing Jean's singing of "Would You", the voice you hear singing actually belongs to Betty Noyes, who had a much richer singing voice than Debbie.

• True or False?

7. Who said: "Make 'em laugh! "?

• Gene Kelly
• Donald O'Connor
• Debbie Reynolds

8. "Singin in the Rain" (1929), Music by Nacio Herb Brown and Lyrics by Arthur Freed. What was the movie it was originally from?

• The Hollywood Revue of 1929
• Dancing Stars
• The Beautiful Spring

9. Debbie Reynolds lived with her parents and commuted to the set. She had to wake up at 4:00 a.m. and ride three different buses to the studio; sometimes, to avoid the commute, she would just sleep on the set. How old was Debbie Reynolds when cast to play in the movie?

• 17 years old
• 19 years old
• 21 years old

10. Debbie Reynolds remarked many years later that making this movie and surviving childbirth were the two hardest things she's ever had to do.

• True or False?

Singin' in the Rain Answers

1. Jean Hagen
2. The Dueling Cavalier
3. Millard Mitchell
4. True
5. True
6. True
7. Donald O'Connor
8. The Hollywood Revue of 1929
9. 19 years old
10. True

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