Singin' in the Rain (1952)

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General		Extras
Category	Musical	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1952
Running Time	98:37
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	ene Kelly Stanley Donen
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	ene Kelly Donald O'Connor Debbie Reynolds Jean Hagen Millard Mitchell Cyd Charisse
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$36.95	Music	Nacio Herb Brown

    Singin' In The Rain is set around the time when silent movies became 'talkies', circa 1927. Stuntman cum movie idol Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and his dim co-star Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) are enlisted to star in Monumental Pictures' first talkie called The Dancing Cavallier, which is being thrown together in response to a rival studio's talkie success, but Lina's preening, Brooklyn-accented voice and  low-voltage intellect creates difficulties for the production. Don's long time pal Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor, a 1950s version of Jim Carrey) suggests using the velvet voice of Don's elusive love interest Kathy Selden (a teenaged Debbie Reynolds) to replace Lina's intolerable wailings. Along the way, a number of all-smiling, all-dancing songs are delivered during the course of the story.

    While I prefer violent future noir cinema laced with sexual perversity and nihilistic themes, the grass-roots film lover in me could not resist the charms of this Stanley Donen musical classic. The humour, characters, and soundtrack all work in concert to create an enjoyable celebration of 1950s post-war idealism: a time when you would go tap dancing in the street to the beat of your optimism, despite the melancholy fall-out from your past.

Video

    Sharpness is good given the state of the source material. While MGM have not performed a full restoration, the image is an improvement over the laserdisc release (of course), and hence Singin' In The Rain has never looked better. Many surface textures and background details are apparent, with no sign of edge enhancement. Blacks are generally good, with some darker scenes suffering mild chalkiness.

    The best aspect of this transfer is the colour saturation. Since this was the first DVD I'd watched on the Metz DVD player (a rebadged Pioneer) with a better SCART-SCART lead, I had to adjust for lower colour saturation compared to the Marantz, but I am sure that Singin' In The Rain looked the way cinematographer Harold Rosson intended. There was no colour bleed nor low level noise.

    Film artefacts included occasional specks and an ever-present mesh of film grain, which is easy to overlook if one's attention is fixed upon the story. I also noticed no compression artefacts.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Dialogue was loud and clear. At high volumes it grated on the ears, so be prepared for that if you pump the volume up for the musical numbers. Synchronization was not a problem.

    The songs themselves, which were written before the script, are bold and engaging. High notes and brass accompaniments came across without distortion, although again, the overall sound became fatiguing at high volumes. Cinema EQ or rounding-off options on your DVD player will make it sound smoother. I tend to leave things 'au naturale' unless the problems are too severe to stomach. The bottom end frequencies were almost non-existent.

    This is a primitive sound mix...although for the age of the film it remains faithful to the original presentation.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus

    The Region 4 DVD misses out on a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Based on the opinion of Region 1 commentators, this is no loss.

    MGM's DVD is as definitive as it can be without fully restoring the negative. The remastered image quality is colourful and framed correctly, and the mono sound at least duplicates the original listening experience. Some supplements would have been nice, but in my opinion, the best extra is always a properly presented movie, especially one of this vintage.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall