Not How It Seems: ‘Singin’ in the Rain’
Going all the way back to 1952, Singin’ in the Rain is the story of one imaginary film studio’s transition to talking pictures. But as any fan of the film can tell you, it’s about more than that.
Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont have been the leading couple in silent films for years. At movie premieres, Lina doesn’t speak because she has a terrible voice. But it doesn’t matter because movies are silent, right?
Don is mobbed outside a theater by teenage fans and makes a James Bond/Indiana Jones style getaway right into the car of Kathy Selden. Kathy, it turns out, is also a fan, but she pretends to not know who he is and makes fun of him the whole way to his destination.
Kathy is a dancer at the party Don is attending, and in an attempt to throw cake in his face, throws it at Lina, making a powerful enemy.
Lina gets Kathy fired from her job as a dancer, but Kathy ends up working on a picture at Monumental, where Don and Lina work. Don finds her and the two reconcile and begin to have feelings for one another.
Meanwhile, talking pictures have become so popular, Monumental is forced to make Don and Lina’s next film a talkie. The test screening goes horribly, with overacting, the reveal of Lina’s voice, and other technical problems. Don and Kathy brainstorm with Don’s best friend Cosmo, and they come up with the idea to make it a musical film with Lina’s voice dubbed by Kathy. The studio agrees with these ideas and is going to publicize it that way, making a career for Kathy Selden. Unfortunately, Lina finds out and threatens to sue if she’s made to appear in a negative light.
So the show goes on, and the film premieres to insane fanfare. The audience wants Lina to sing, so they decide to do a lip sync live, with Kathy behind the curtain. Lina is so power crazy that they decide to teach her a lesson and pulls the curtain, revealing Kathy to the audience.
Kathy Selden and Lina Lamont are both pretty awesome characters in their own ways. They’re both resilient, headstrong, and determined to get what they want. Though they go about it in totally different ways, both women are still career-driven.
Lina Lamont doesn’t want to look foolish and wants her career to continue in the talkies. She does what she can to fight off Kathy, who she sees as a threat to her “relationship” with Don both on and offscreen, and she uses power plays to keep the studio from doing things she sees as detrimental to her image.
Kathy Selden knows who Don Lockwood is, but she still thinks his behavior is rude and inappropriate when he drops into her car, and so she treats him appropriately. Throughout the film, Kathy attempts to make a name for herself, a tall order when the powerful Lina Lamont has it out for you. When she’s forced to sing at the premiere, she agrees to do so since she is on contract, but tells Don she never wants to see him again, because she isn’t allowed to make her own decisions.
At the core of these characters, Lina and Kathy are both career-minded, independent women who don’t kowtow to a male protagonist and strive to achieve their own personal goals. Both women are written progressively for the time, which, in 1952, is not how it seems it would go.
“Not How It Seems” takes a look at the underlying messages in classic movie musicals.
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