Thanks to a terrific ensemble, and a great plot, this is the only Gene Kelly movie in which his "look how not gay I am" dance mannerisms don't sink it for me.

Donald O'Connor!

No offense, gus, but you're off your trolley. Gene Kelly doesn't have any "look how not gay I am" mannerisms; he brought mannerisms of midcentury power and strength to the art of dance. It's the balletic elements that rankle to a modern eye, not the manly-man ones; but he was unquestionably brilliant, and when he just cut loose, he was as good as anyone ever got. And he was very charming. He could even make movies that were pretty much trash, like "Brigadoon" or "The Pirate", into riveting spectacles. But when he had a vehicle as great as he was -- this one, or "An American in Paris", or "On the Town", or "It's Always Fair Weather" -- he was as great a movie star as you could possibly imagine.

For me, the only thing I find hard to stomach today is the way he wore his pants so high. Gene Kelly FTW.

Though the star of "Singin' in the Rain" is of course Donald O'Connor.

Haven't seen my trolley in years. You're right about O'Connor, for sure.

Kelly said he wanted to dance the way a truckdriver would dance, or a bricklayer, or a clerk, or a postman. He succeeded. And I'm happy for those who like the result.

p.s. on the other hand, Astaire never put a foot or a note wrong, and I'll thumb-wrestle to the death anyone not blind and deaf who says different.

@4, context, Gus, context. These are MOVIES. Nureyev was in a different line of work. And there's nothing wrong with bricklaying. Or Gene Kelly. Who never said "dance the way a truckdriver would dance"; he said "dance the character". He might have brought the natural grace of an American working man, and his clothes, and his music, into dancing, but no truck driver ever moved like that.

@5, you'll get no argument from me.

Though if I had one ten-minute loop of men dancing to take with me to a desert island it would have the Nicholas Brothers on it. Or possibly Sammy Davis, Jr.

People at least as talented as Gene Kelly who were on the planet when that idiotic SINGIN' IN THE RAIN was made:

Charles Chaplin
Buster Keaton
William Faulkner
Laurence Olivier
Greta Garbo
Alfred Hitchcock
Federico Fellini
Akira Kurosawa
Thomas Pynchon
Eudora Welty

And that doesn't even include Fred Astaire. Kelly's pretty pathetic in comparison with any of them.

@8, even I would certainly have cast Gene Kelly in the role ahead of Eudora Welty.

@ 8, not with Faulkner. The worst writer to ever be called a genius.

Everyone else on that list is a real artist, but not in the medium Gene Kelly ruled. You can dislike him all you want, but despite your post, there is no highfalutin reason for it, only personal taste.

It was also made by one of my favorite directors, Stanley Donen, who was mainly responsible for fluff (On the Town and Charade being prime examples), but what fluff!

@8: Nobody invites you to their parties, do they?

@12: use that comeback often?

@10: All anybody expresses on Gene Kelly is taste. The assertion that Kelly was probably the most Talented Person Etc. is itself an opinion, nowhere near anything even remotely like a fact.

Kelly's over-rated. SINGIN" IN THE RAIN is one of the worst movies ever to get mysterious acclaim as a classic. Opinions, of course.

Find a youtube of Gene Kelley and Judy Garland doing Cole Porter's "Be a Clown" from the 1948 movie "The Pirate" and you will immediately understand why Arthur Freed later admitted that he and Herb Nacio Brown had stolen the melody of "Make 'Em Laugh" from Cole.

Cole never sued because he was already fucking rich enough.

@13 I, also, have always been mystified by Singin' In The Rain"'s rep. I think it sucks.

@11, you say "fluff" like it's a bad thing. Fluff is what makes this kind of movie worth watching. Musicals of the Gene Kelly variety are very, very close to the pinnacle of American culture.

@16,

I don't think it's a bad thing. That's why Donen is one of my favorite directors. I'd rather watch Charade on endless repeat than anything Lars von Trier has to offer.

#13: Truly, I would rather watch Fred Astaire dance. And Marilyn Monroe was too kind when she said she could eat O'Connor for lunch -- I'd have thought she'd use him to pick her teeth with.

Addressing the general audience, I would say one hasn't seen a musical until one's seen "42nd Street", "Glorifying the American Girl," "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" or "The Terror of Tiny Town."

This is the best comment thread in the history of comment threads. I love you all. Even you, Roscoe.