Singin' in the Rain

Wait, wait, so no Julie Andrews this time. I'm a little disappointed. Where where is Julie? And that's the question. We've done Victor Victoria, We've done Americanization of Emily, We've done Sound of Music, and then Singing in the Rain, No Julie Andrews.

What happened? We had to switch over to Gene Kelly. Julie still working hard on the stage in London at this point, I'm guessing waiting to make her her United States debut. It's coming, She's coming, I will say, I mean, it's it's not like this movie doesn't have a fantastic female, too, fantastic female leads of its own. But yeah, I will say I missed Julie Andrews being in this just because I miss Julie Andrews more.

Is that's more? I think? I think that's more to the point, It's just I wish Julie Andrews was in most things. But uh, singing in the rain. Not singing in the rain.

I've made the mistake now of seeing trying to type that in. It's like, Nope, singing in the rain gotta spell it, gotta spell it right. But on this episode, of the Culture Cast. A bonus episode of The Culture Cast, I am joined by the hosts of eighties TV Ladies once again, Susan Lambert had him and Sharon Johnson. Hi, there, Hello and yeah.

If you're clicking on this episode, you know it has nothing to do with splatter films shocking. I know. We're talking about a movie, a modern classic film, one of I think a film that we'll get into it. I think there's gonna be a lot of best of if not one of the greatest films ever made. I think may get thrown around a bit.

We're gonna be talking about nineteen fifty two's directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donan. The classic Singing in the Rain, Got a da got public is screaming for more. Make a music, for sure, make a musical. Good and good mon, it's great to stay out, great good man, good mon? Doi.

What do you think of it? I right, shame in the rain? Yes, and in the rain, what a glororious feel. And I'm again I'm singing and dancing. Yeah, must go on, doo dude, do do do do do do so.

It's directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donan, written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. And it's stars Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Gene Hoggen, Millard Mitchell, and Cy Yes sid uh And it's about some silent film stars who uh, well, they find out that hey, talkies are coming, folks. And what happens when your voice doesn't sound very good when you sing? Uh? Oh oh, Yeah, there's a lot going on.

It is a what are they called backstage musicals? Right? Is that what this is called? A backstage musical? A pretty good example, but I'm gonna kick it to you first, Sharon, What is your kind of history with Singing in the Rain?

Well, I've over the years seen most of the classic Hollywood musicals like this. I haven't seen them all, but I've seen almost all of them, I think, so I certainly have seen this, had seen this one before. It's been quite a while since I've seen it. But I love Hollywood musicals, musicals from this time, the great singing, great dancing. Sometimes the storytelling is maybe a you know, an afterthought after the singing and dancing, but nevertheless, lots of fun, lots of great performances, and this one definitely falls in that category.

What about you, Susan, I believe this may have been even your idea possible, probably because I'm educating Christascio on the old classics. True, it's a blind spot of mine that is has woefully never been addressed. Bringdown, we're starting. I this is one of my favorite films. It was one of my films that I loved.

I'm sure the first time I saw it was on television, but it's certainly when I got to film school. It was sort of one of the films and the film careers of stars that I studied from this film. So Jane Kelly, Stanley Donan like I sort of discovered their their career and films, other films in their genres and from this because I was like, oh, I want to see more Jen Kelly, Oh, Stanley done directed this? What else did he direct? And you know, onward and onward.

So I am a big sucker for musicals, not all musicals, Like there's some musicals I'm like, I'm out, But this is my kind of musical. So it's funny, it's fun and it's also you know about love Dison. You actually you brought up something I don't really thought about out of all of the musicals of this era, I don't know that there are any that I've seen in a theater now that began to change in the sixties. Well, because yeah, you know, first of all, I wasn't alive then, but then as so as I watched these older movies, I saw them on TV. I don't think I'm not sure how many, if any say posts throughout a number nineteen sixty musical that I've seen on a big screen.

Nothing is actually coming to mind. Well, that was the joy of going to film school is screening. There's at USC there's a big Norris Theater was the big theater on campus, and so the ability to take those film history classes or sit in on other film I used to sneak in. I knew the projectionists, so there were classes that I wasn't taking, but I would just sneak in to watch the film to the projection booth because I knew the projectionists and they were always doing you know, special screenings and stuff. So the ability to see these films on a big screen, you know, when in the in the late eighties, when I was a young impressionable lady was significant for me and I they're just beautiful.

They're beautifully shot. And then when you realize how challenging it was to shoot them that beautifully, like with equipment that was not designed to move fluidly, you know, and and when you realize just what incredible camera work is going on to follow these dances so incredibly, I it was. It was really knocked my socks off seeing them on a big screen, and the ability to do that, you know, when we don't do that anymore. We watch everything on streaming now and it's beautiful and it's great to have that access. But with some of these big films, it's always nice to see that big old screens.

Absolutely so, I actually watched this in my basement on our projector oh yeah, exactly. I live in the Midwest, which means we have basements here. I think that basements in California, though I think the movie Zodiac says they don't. According to the movie Zodiac, it's rare to have basements in California. That's a line in that movie that always makes me laugh.

But I did watch this on as big of a screen as I could, because again, there's something about it that I think necessitates it. At least I don't know just the way this movie looks. It's hard to describe how beautiful this movie is, and just the way it shot for the time it was shot, and the usage of color, and just again you've already both touched on it, just the amount of work that went into making this movie and making it what it is, and it's a movie that it's you know. I was watching an interview, a very famous interview that William Freed can Din with Nicholas winding Refin a couple of years ago, and Nicholas winding Refin, for whatever reason, said that his movie Drive and Only God Forgives were worth being mentioned in the same breath as Citizen Kane and I forget what else in two thousand and one, and I remember William fried Cain goes like, get this guy a doctor, because he's out of his mind.

And I think about that often because it is twenty twenty four, and this movie is in a lot of ways just as good, if not better, than the day it came out in nineteen fifty two. And I think it's just as important of a movie in a lot of ways, because a it influences so many things, and b it also I think is just almost a perfect encapsulation of this time and place in Hollywood in a way that a movie like The Artist tried to recapture in an interesting way, but I think kind of failed because The Artist wasn't as fun as this movie is, And a lot of the fun comes from just the glee of Donald O'Connor and Gene Kelly and then Debbie Reynolds two funny enough. The thing, the only other thing I've ever seen Debbie Reynolds in, and it's probably gonna get a chuckle out of the two of you, is Halloween Town.

That is an absolute favorite of mine. I do not kid It is a comfort film of mine. And that is the only thing I've ever seen Debbie Reynolds in other than this now is Halloween Town as Marnie's grandma. I don't even know what that is. Halloween Town honestly, really, it's Adney Channel original movie from the nineties.

Oh my goodness, and she plays it's in a lot of ways, it's like a precursor to Harry Potter. A girl and her family live in the real world, and Debbie Reynolds, who's their grandma, lives in Halloween Town and she comes once a year to visit and the mom doesn't want her kids to become witches, but the grandma does. It's actually, it's a lot of fun, and for for millennials my age, it holds a very special place in our heart because I want to say, I was like five or six when it came out, and it's it's on Disney Plus right now. But Debbie Reynolds plays the grandma and she's adorable, and here she's just as adorable, but for a different reason, like I don't know something. I mean, this movie would be great without her in it, but it's amazing because of the presence that she brings to it and just the I don't know, she seems so effortlessly charming in a way that like is again hard to understand in a day and age where we're also cynical about movie stars and we know everything about all of them, and you know, they can't just be movie stars anymore.

This is a time and place where people were movie stars and that was a thing, and it's not treated that way anymore. And I'm not bemoaning it, but a level of mystique and mysticism surrounding the people that make these things is okay because it makes it makes them seem a little bigger than life, and in kind of effect, it makes the things that they're working on seem that much more important. But if you can't tell, I enjoyed this movie immensely. I'm so excited. So this was your first time seeing it outside of seeing the moment that they recreate on the Great Movie Ride, which is no longer part of the Disney World.

What the MGM Studios now Hollywood Studios. They had a ride where you could ride on and they would drive through all these sets and one of them was singing in the rain and they recreated I believe it was. It had to have been Gene Kelly on the lamp post, but yeah, they did a little. They did that, and that's the only thing I had ever seen that is amazing, Like, and you know, it is this weird time because you know, when it was broadcast television or even early cable television, it was all about just playing movies all the time. It was sort of you know criterion, yeah in that and that, and they would you know, often introduce them with like here's the classic from you know, Gene Kelly, and they would tell you who it was and what it was, and so you got introduced to these movies in a way that it wasn't just Oops, what's this DVD or what's the streaming?

Or what what popped up in front of me? GC introfore the movie. Yes, yes, yes, yeah, you make it make it feel important because it is important. It kind of sucks to say this, and I know that people have kind of been saying and I bristled at it, but I kind of agree in a lot of ways, all the good movies have been made in a way, like not all of them, but like you know what I mean, Like it feels like a lot of the really important stuff has been made already and we're just kind of responding to it. But like, they don't make things like this anymore.

They make different things, but they don't make things like this anyway. And I know why people say that, and that's okay, but at the same time, it's a shame they don't make any well. I agree. I agree that it is a shame that I think more things like this don't get made anymore. And we can just add to the long list of things that don't get made anymore for purely economic reasons.

Uh, it's which you know, economics are a big part of movies from the beginning, and they made what made money. There's never the last show business, Yes exactly, there's there. You have to keep the business part of the show business thing in mind. But I do miss this kind of spectacle, which is why somewhat controversial perhaps, but I was so excited when when La La Land came out or was coming out, and then I was bitterly disappointed when I saw it, because I thought, oh, this will be great. Somebody's making a musical and it maybe they'll make people make more musical than I went hopefully not more musicals like this, because I didn't really care for this one.

I like the people that don't know how to sing sing that's really good. I like that a lot. And what's really strange is contrast that with Barbie what like a decade not a decade even, right, but seven or eight years later, and Ryan Goslin kills it in that movie but couldn't sing a note in La La Land. Wait, I don't get it. I mean, he was better than I'm a Stone in that movie, but that the singing.

Yeah, I remember watching that movie and feeling the same thing. Like, man, I get what they were going for, but not for me. Yeah, it did not work for me either. And again I'm you know, I'm like, whoa movie musical? Right, I Like, it's not a musical thing at all, Like, but it was.

It was. I had that moment I don't know if you had, the very beginning when it was on the freeway and I was like, this is gonna be bright. Oh yeah, and then it was classic old Hollywood setting that's set up, like you could see that in a movie like this, everybody getting out of their cars and singing, and yeah, the promise, the promise is never fulfilled at all in that. But for me it came down to the music in that musical. I didn't sparkle to it.

So yeah, I mean that there. Yeah, that was probably the biggie for me because again I was so excited, I'm so looking forward to it, and and was just disappointed. So so anyway, because I do. I love Hollywood musicals like this one. I love I love the whole genre.

I've seen most of them and a lot, you know, you watch this one and the music is just so great, Oh my gosh, every song. Yeah, and the dancing that number with gene Kelly and Cid Churies, my god, just amazing. Yeah again, they don't make them like that anymore, unsortunately And what's even crazier is in terms of the music, these songs are brought in from other places for the most part. This that's the other thing. I mean, imagine if Hamilton whereas as successful as it is without lind Man and whil Miranda writing a single song.

It's just we got it from everybody else's stuff. Like That's the thing that was crazy for me is watching this outside of one song that I feel like sticks out like a sore though, but I love the performance. It's just it felt very bollyw with cinema to me. To take like a ten minute musical interlude with gene Kelly towards the end of the movie was like, let me explain to you how this is going to be. It's like, oh, you're gonna just show us the whole thing for ten minutes.

I mean, got a Dance is fun. I love that number, but it kind of feels out of place towards the end of the movie. It comes out of nowhere. But at the same time, like I I appreciate that this movie is like, well, we're just going to give them another musical number. Yeah, of course, like why not.

But at the same time, again, I'm just surprised by the amount of distance and weight they give to songs that were not created solely for this film, which is not something that any I mean, it's almost akin to a jukebox musical now, right, I mean the same thing kind of I mean, Rock of Age is none of those are the original songs, I think. I mean, this is just a guess, but you know, there were so many musicals being made, so many songs floating around, so many people working on all these kinds of things. I guess I could see where they'd kind of go like, oh, well, let's you know, the kind of place for them sometimes. And my memory is a little bit not what it used to be, but you know, because I did study this film a long time ago.

One at the time, people did that a lot more. Yeah, we just pick up. It was very sort of old vaudeville, right, Like it was the elements from vaudeville coming in. Would you just grab a song and do it in your show? And also I believe that Arthur Freed, the m gum producer basically had it was his catalog of songs he has put his songs into.

Oh you know it would be great is we've put some of my songs and build a musical around it and then I'll get more money. It was. It was him and Nacio Herb Brown. Yeah, they were just like these are all and they even I mean they ended up writing make Them Laugh anyways. I mean they which I mean I think for me, I mean, make them Laugh is a really weird thing for me because I looked at it less as a musical number, but more as where a lot of the next fifty years of like practical stunt effects comes from from this one musical number.

In Singing in the Rain, there are things from like from Jackie Chan movies. There's stuff in there that they get from Teenage Mutant Ninja, Turtles, even cops from the scene where he's fighting behind the sofa with the with the with the dummy. They copped that in the second Turtles movie at the beginning of the movie. And it's just crazy to me because so many things come from one scene of again, you know, not even Gene Kelly. It's Donald O'Connor doing that entire scene and I mean again, for me, it's in a movie with standout numbers, it's the standout number, but that's not even fair to the other standout numbers in the movie.

Yeah, it's pretty. It's a pretty you know, seeing every time you're like, oh my god, this is insane. He's so good. Yeah, and it was, And it was again built kind of by Jane Kelly for Donald O'Connor, based on a Cold Porter song be a Clown, And by based on I mean totally plagiarizing be a Clown, but be a Clown was sung by Gene Kelly and Judy Garland. Is the Pirate a different musical so which also had I think The Pirate and American in Paris.

The dream Ballet, the big Broadway melody number is a staple of basically musical old musical theater where you have a dream ballet sequence and it's it's it's the Lori dream Ballet in Oklahoma, It's there's one in the Pirate, there's one in an American in Paris, and it and it's basically, you know, often a retelling of the story in dance only, and that's literally what happens the Broadway melody to a degree, right, there's slightly different story in there and in theory that peace was built for If Debbie Reynolds wasn't a nineteen year old who really truly had never really sung or danced before, she would have performed the role that Sid Jurie performed, and instead they got Sid. Theeris to dance it because Debbie Reynolds learned to dance for this movie but couldn't quite get there, because that's ten years of training to get there, and so it's very intriguing that it's that, you know, kind of insane of a number.

And of course you can take that number two and drive directly to Barbie and the Ken's right, like, yuh. The colors, the colors alone, the colors and the big, you know, stretchy floor. The floor's that in Singing the Rain is designed to make sure you don't see that Sid Cheris is taller than Jane Kelly, right, as if the length of her legs wasn't an obvious dead giveaway. Every time she stands behind him in the background and he's in the fore ground, I was like, I saw this in the Hobbit, you were doing this in Lord of the Rings. I again she's standing like twenty thirty feet from him at some point, like she's way back there, and she's barefoot in the ballet sequence, in the dream sequence inside the dreams.

Right. That's why I said it reminded me of Bollywood cinema, because that's the only other time in recent memory I've seen a dream sequence inside of a dream sequence. Like it's sure, it's so great, that's the thing. I loved it. Just what's weird is as I had never seen something like this before.

I wasn't expecting that interlude to take place, and so I enjoyed it for what it was. But now listening to you explain it and also understanding the significance of it, it just it does stick out, but not in a bad way. It's just like the movie takes a literal rate, like we are taking a break. Now you understand that we are taking a break. I have made it clear to you we are taking a break, and we are going to spend fifteen minutes, because it's fifteen minutes long.

But it I mean, it goes the gamut from again pretty much retelling, I guess. Yeah. Gene Kelly's story from the entire part of the movie at the beginning of the movie. I guess, right, Yeah, he's a you know, he's a hooker who comes to town and then meets up with the wrong gal and then you know which is again in like it's so weird, it's but it is. It's really you know, Cheris is, they're both spectacular.

But since Cheris is really amazing, yeah, she's she's Yeah, at any time, any anything, any of the musicals that she's in, I'm there for because she's just an incredible dancer. And I you know, I could I could have watched just that the whole time. I have to mean, I have a sucker for great dancers and great dance. So and I have to say, I'm just going to jump right forward speaking of great dancers and great dance. The American and Paris stage musical adaption.

I think it's great because of the dancing. I'm just jumping. I'm just jumping, like you know, one Geen Kelly movie over and then the stage adaptation done very recently, which is just incredible dance. Uh in that in the big version so highly if you see the touring prediction, I've seen no other Gene Kelly anything. Also, this is my Kelly.

Yes, Oh my goodness, it's a pretty good one, I think, just a little bit. I mean, I understand the appeal of him immediately, like I understand the appeal from the moment he's on screen and then and this is something I really appreciate. And again, this feels like kind of a thing that wasn't necessarily the case now but was. I mean, it's a thing that was clearly something that he was okay with. He has a significant level of disfigurement on the side of his face, with some scarring from something I'm assuming, and it's interesting that he would allow them to put the camera close up to him like that at the time.

I mean, this is the fifty People often were very protective of their image and stuff. But he has some scarring on the side of his face, and I appreciate that he was not unwilling to be having close up shot. But this is also someone who I mean, again, y'all's reaction to me saying I'd never seen a gene Kelly, I think speaks volumes to his level of importance to I guess the genre of musicals, but also just dance in this country in general, in terms of like taking dance seriously trying to elevate it as as an art form. Well, what about Freda Staire. Have you seen any Freda Stare movies?

Oh? I know, I know, he's more of the it's more of a technical prowess and more of the kind of I guess what the ball not ballroom, but a little bit more elevated. I guess what, not for the not for the common man, as gene Kelly was for as I think he well, yeah, I mean Freda Staire was elegance and refinement and gene Kelly was masculinity. That's really kind of how they were they were perceived in terms of their dance style back in the day. Interesting, So that little scar was, you know, was what gave him, you know, part of that appeal.

He played the pirate in The Pirate. I like that though. I liked that he didn't stray away from that because again I could totally see another person at the time being very conscious of that and not allowing them to do close ups. But I don't know, there's something just so appealing about gene Kelly, just the moment he gets on screen, just he I don't know, he seems like the thing I will say, and I know that he seemed like very much a tough customer because he was so serious about his craft, which I understand, totally get it. He just seems like a genuine human being the way that he portrays the character.

I don't know how close to the real person the character in this movie is, but he's obviously a very private person by everything that I had read. But he seems like also a decent, I don't know, a decent human being, on top of being very talented at what he does, which I don't I mean again, not that that should matter, but in a time and a place in this industry, you know, sometimes decent people are hard to come by and fortunate. So I will tell you my Gene Kelly story. It's very short. I met him on said film school, and I also was in an elevator with Donald O'Connor in a separate incident, and walked him into the classroom where he was going to be presenting, and then I went into the booth and watched.

But both were incredibly kind and wonderful and a great experience. It was a brief introduction. However, I also knew Jing Kelly's son, Tim Kelly, because he went to film school. He was older than me. The very first student film that I worked on as a production assistant was Tim Kelly's student film Wow.

And so I remember like sitting and we were shooting a night scene and a stunt of somebody going out a window, and I was flashing the neon light on and off, and I'm like, I'm living the dream. I was seventeen years old, and I'm like, this is the greatest moment of my life. There's Tim Kelly. Apparently Jing Kelly's his dad. Apparently this is going to be my life.

For the rest I just be flack. Tim Kelly super nice. Again, my brief interaction with jing Kelly super nice. But a lot of that era. Who knows who they were off their world, but they knew they were sort of always on stage right.

They were raised in the studio system, and so I think they traveled that studio system mostly because they wanted to work. And the ones that took that work seriously took also the idea of being upstanding gentlemen, very serious. That's my understanding from the people that I met, mostly usually at USC when they were coming to speak or do something that it was it was part of the job to be a decent human being and to also be you know, presentable as you know, to the people, as it were. But I also heard that again and Pim Kelly as the son of a giant star was one of the more normal children of stars that I have ever met. Well, And I would say some of the people that I would say, or gene Kelly's contemporaries, maybe weren't such good people, being Crosbie and Danny k I think are in that confer Yeah, well that's the thing.

But it's but what's funny is again reading the stuff about gene Kelly, especially him working with Debbie Reynolds, Like I can't imagine being her and being and I have to do what with who now? Oh great? Oh god, It's like it's it's like running out onto the field and being asked to catch balls from Tom Brady and being like a super Bowl Yeah, god, no, I'm good, Like I think I'd rather just die now, Like, but that's the thing. Debbie Reynolds, I think in a lot of ways, like outshines almost everybody in the movie. But how good she is and how much she rises to the occasion because she's fantastic in this mission.

She's totally believing the fact that it's like she was just dropped and there's there's no excuse for her to be that good, no, given that, and you sort of you're like, what a you know, what a risk in some ways, except that she must have again had that presence that you're like, she's going to be great, because from everything you read, they were like, she can't dance, and Jean Kelly's like, I'll teach you to dance, and please God, if gene Kelly's the one teaching me to dance, like, of course I would. I mean I would take the opportunity to just to learn how to dance from Gene Kelly, Right, But it also sounds like she was pretty viserable. Well yeah, Dearie Reynolds, and really really didn't have a great time, but clearly learned a lot.

Well that's I mean, that's the thing. I mean, you hear about working with people like this that are super motivated, that are super serious that I mean again to mention Tom Brady because we talked about eighty for Brady guy doesn't eat anything but vegan throughout the football year, because that's how serious he took. I am sure gene Kelly was the same way, if not worse in his own regard. But at the same time, I'm the kind of person who would like to work with that person. I don't know if I'd want to be that person, but at least I can chase that person, knowing that I'm chasing the best at what they do and I'm learning from them.

And you know, again, to learn from gene Kelly how to dance is the only other better teacher might be fred Astaire depending on what you're expecting. But I mean tells a story about running off and hiding somewhere, crying and being like I can't do it, I can't do it, and that bred Astaire came by, you know, as that happens right as you do as you do, and was like, listen, come here, and then basically did his own rehearsal for himself where he was miserable and unhappy and whatever, and he's like, this is the job, this is the job. We're work really really hard. You have in order to be good. You're going to be miserable.

And then she was like, oh, okay, I think the joy is making miserable look as good. As they do. You know they're miserable. It's so it's so joyful, like good morning. Yeah, they shot up it for fifteen hours in a row, and then they hit that couch.

You believe it. When they hit the couch, you believe that they're done. You can see it on their faces. Even if that wasn't the final take that they use, and that was the time that they hit it. I believe that that moment of like letting it all out is real because it feels real because the three of them are so believable.

Because again, the three of them are doing that number together, it's astounding. You couldn't convince me, Debbie Reynolds didn't know what chos. I know, you can't convince me of that either. The uh I will say that that number right, which I saw on a television, and not a fancy television, none of this fancy wide screen flat screen stuff, just a plain old television from high school. On every single time that I have stayed up working on something until the morning time, myself or someone else starts singing that song.

I believe it because you're just like, we've been up all night, when no point in going to bed, no point at this point, good Morning, good morning, it's so good morning, do you yeah, it's it's yeah, oh goodness, gracious me. Yeah. It's such a joyous film, right, It's hard. It's hard to capture something this joyous intentionally, and I know that they did, but I don't know the chemistry. I mean, the chemistry between Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor first off, is amazing, but putting Debbie Reynolds in there with the three of them, it's just like, Okay, this makes sense.

Let them just do their thing, why not. And then Geene Kelly on his own performing Singing in the Rain, which just I mean again, like you tear the house down with Good Morning, then you tear it right back down as they're trying to rebuild it with Singing in the Rain, like geeze Louise, uh yeah that and and you know, again, just such a really interesting thing because it's it's such a simple dance right coming off of Good Morning, which is a very elaborate hoof for you know, like multiple rooms, you know, jumping on furniture here, like and then it's really pretty freaking brilliant. It's really you know, it had been a while since I had seen it and watching it again, you're like, I am so happy to watch this.

And every time it's raining and I in a good book, I'm thinking of that song. And I just want to point out Tom Holland's singing in the rain. Have you guys seen that? I don't think I have in Spider Man Umbrella? Yeah, b Rihanna's umbrella and yeah, yeah, yeah, it is my second favorite number from the whole up sync thing.

Yeah, I've seen that so many times. It's amazing, It's absolutely amazing. What's your first what's your first share? It was Channing Tatum singing a Beyonce song I can't not single, Ladies Girls. Yeah, and Beyonce comes out at the end.

I'm just gonna spoil it right here. You cannot beat that, you can't beat Yeah, I remember that Tom Holland thing. Holy cow, Yeah, geez It's it's funny. You know, when we think about actors now and actors then, like and and I've talked about this a couple times with in the Indian Cinema Hollywood show that we do, there was an expectation at this time that I don't think a lot of actors have now, which is you have to have not just the ability to act, but you have to have the ability to sing, you have to have the ability to dance. And yes, we've gone away from that now because genre kind of siloization means you can only you know, if you're Jason Statham, They're never gonna ask you to sing and dance, but they're gonna ask you to you know, punch people and stuff, which is fine, it's its own physical level of action.

But what's interesting is there was a time and a place where kind of everybody in the in the industry for the most part, was expected to do this or at least have some level of comfortability with singing or doing some level of dance. I mean, until we get something like a Western or these other movies that kind of supplant the musical as the big genre of the time. But I mean, this is the thing for what ten fifteen years, it's just these big studio musical and this is the what they you know, you know, the music. The studio musical is sort of the American invention. Again, not that they invented the musical, but this particular style was sort of what sort of went out into the world and left a very big stamp.

And you know which weekend you can trace to Bollywood, you can trace to Hong Kong films. Jackie Chan is basically like, yeah, I looked at Fretisaire, Jane Kelly, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton. That's you know who I studied to become Jackie Chan, which you see, it makes sense, like I wouldn't, you know, not saying I had to have Jackie Chan tell me that. But if I if I saw this and then saw him, it would make sense, because again it's just there's just it's just missing the people. It's just missing the other people because Gene Kelly is doing all kinds of things that if it were a little bit more exaggerated, it would look like he's, you know, using the umbrella like a weapon or kicking his legs high to kick someone.

I mean, he's very close. And so you can see, yeah, Jackie Chan watching this and going, all I got to do is exaggerate it a little bit more, and I'm batting in the wheelhouse of like classic Hollywood, because again, to draw from classic Hollywood means I think you're drawing from like the base DNA of entertainment, which means you're going to connect with people a lot easier. I mean, when we talk about martial arts, we don't talk about many people at this point other than Jackie Chan if Bruce Lee gets mentioned, but that's more martial arts capital M capital A. Jackie chan is more like this than he is anything else. It's a mix of practical comedy and I guess hoofing in a lot of ways with what we would consider to be traditional martial arts.

Yeah, it's it's and you know again, Jene Kelly is not doesn't have what you would say is the dancer's body, the traditional ballet dancer body, and you know, and does it look like Frenistaire and so kind of developed his own style. That changed a lot about how dance works. Right, And so suddenly you can Channing Tatum to a Coen Brothers movie and a big musical number like Jane Kelly in there, which is the best part of that movie. There's almost nothing else likely. You don't even say the title of the movie.

Don't even give anyone the opportunity to look for it. I saw the movie. Remember what the title of the movie is, Jale Caesar right that. Yeah, I saw the movie. That was my step son and I were visiting colleges and in Portland, Oregon, and it was out.

We're like, let's go see it. And we went down to the little cool, Funky Portland Theater Movie to see it, and they were sold out because they were only like ten seats or something. We're like, oh my god, we'll come back. We bought the next show and went to dinner and came back to see it because we were so excited to see the Coen Brothers film that it was a little bit disappointed. At least there was the Channing Tatum dancing seat.

There was the Channing Tatum dancing and it was very It had to be worth the price of mission, because very little else was. Although Frantic McDermot as the editor, wasn't she the editor? In that she has a couple of scenes. I got nothing. I don't remember.

You know you were there. I was there at one point too, but I don't remember anything either. I remember that that there was a Channing Kadum dance number. I don't know yon that. I'm really not sure what else happened in that movie.

Francis McDormand was C. C. Calhoun inspired by the Female film cutters of the era, and she was using a stand up movieola, which is an old fashion and I think there may have been a flatbed too, but it was just like, oh, yeah, that's the bullpen the film, and yeah, she was funny, so that that need China saying was fun Well, wasn't there. I know, Damien Chiselle, we talked about Lala Land, but Babylon wasn't that. I mean that came out what last year and that was I mean that's talking about No.

No, I didn't even make it past the first fifteen minutes. I just when I'm out, I can't. This is not for me. It's not the first fifteen minutes with the elephant poop. I have no idea, okay, because there's apparently something about an elephant in that movie.

I didn't look into it. I didn't see it. All I know is I believe it is about this time and place in Hollywood. I'm pretty sure. I yeah, I believe you're correct.

I believe it was. It may been a little set a little bit after, because this is Singing in the Rain is set just as talkies were beginning. In fact, they're mocking the fact that that Warner Brothers is about to release The Jazz Singer So and they're still they're still doing you know, silent films. So I believe Babylon is slightly after the time of this movie. I actually remember that part about that about that lunch which but just to swing it back around as singing in the rain, Yes, please, we haven't talked about gene Hagen, thank you not we must a Cady Worker Best Supporting Actress for this movie and nomination nomination.

I'm sorry, you're right Cattimore nomination for Best Supporting Actress who won? I don't I didn't look that up, but I was like, I can't imagine that. Gloria Graham for The Bad and the Beautiful. Yeah, she should have got jeene Hagen. But that's good.

That's a good movie too, another movie about Hollywood that was a I guess it was a year of Hollywood. But she's so, so, so good in this and she's playing, you know, a role that is hard because she's playing the bad girl, right, but not in a fun way. She's playing the idiot bad girl. And she's such a weird character. I was not expecting her to be like, no, we're in love and he's like I would, no, I don't know.

That was surprising to me that the way the Gene Kelly character was written in response to the gene huh, because I was not. It's a that's an atypical way of writing it, where he has no interest in her whatsoever, and she never takes the hint, even until the moment they pull the curtain up. She doesn't take that. And you're right, Susan, it is it's almost it would have been in another movie, a very thankless role, and in this movie it is not a thankless role. It is a fantastic role.

We were talking about. Was I talking with you Sharon about Born Yesterday and Judy Holliday's character from Born Yesterday? Or maybe it was in a theater conversation I was having, But you know that this sort of the dumb blonde who is turns out to be a little a little smarter and yet still dumb, but you know, kind of clueless, you know, but oh my gosh, so great. And then you know I was just reading because I didn't realize. I guess.

Debbie Reynold's voice for certain songs was dubbed sometimes by Jane Hagen. Dialogue I think so. Some of the dialogue when they're doing the dubbing scene for the time, apparently one or two of those lines is actually gene Hagen. No, because I being in a Debbie Reynolds voice basically, Oh interesting, because I did read that there was some dubbing of Debbie Reynolds, some slight dubbing of w Reynolds in a couple of places, but didn't see the gene That's interesting. That's interesting.

Again, it's hard, I think it's hard to get kind of accurate information on some of Yeah, But nevertheless, gene Hagen was just incredible and I'm happy, you know, as you intimated, this is not just exactly the stereotypical dumb blonde kind of thing that you might expect. There's a little bit more going on in there than you might think, or then you might expect, despite her seeming cluelessness, that she and Don are not madly and demonstrates, you know, and film lovers loved this film partly because it's about filmmaking, right, and I would say arguably one of the more successful films about filmmaking, Because there's a lot of films made about filmmaking. Most times people don't care or only the industry.

Only the industry loves a movie about the industry. I mean, yes it does. That's why everybody thought Laala was gonna win. That is why we all were like, oh yeah, La La Land won makes perfect sense. It's the truth.

That's why nobody was That's why nobody was surprised until we were all very surprised. Does it doesn't it feel like the last you know, six years, things are just wheels are just coming off all buses right Like I kind of wish I lived in a world where Moonlight had just won outright and La La Land hadn't won by accident to begin with, I want to know what that timelines like, things started to deviate pretty I that was it. That was the moment we didn't know Warren Batty fucking up that envelope was going to be there for Was it Warren Badian? Who was the was it who was with? They done away?

They had done away? It was it was a Bonnie and Clyde reunion. Wasn't it not the kind of reunion I think they were expecting? And yes, to answer your questions, in the wheels to feel like the falling off in record Pacie God. Industry loves a movie about itself, for sure, but this is like I think, to your point, this is like the best I've seen, Yeah, and this is this is uh satisfying beyond that, right, Like this is too general audiences a beloved movie too.

And I think that one of the reasons that it is so beloved by the film industry is even though it's all exaggerated, it really is looking at this, you know, unique time in filmmaking, and you know, and what was changing, you know, and and it touches on a lot of things that reflect you know, those changes, and you know, and it's both making fun of and honoring it. So it's you know, I think it's very successful on that way. Well, I mean I kind of drug it early on, but I think I'll bring it up again. I think it's more successful than a movie that is very similar in terms of what it's talking about that came out in twenty eleven that did win an Oscar for Best Film, which is The Artist, which is talking about in a lot of ways the exact same it's having the exact same discussion that this movie's having, which is, where is your place in the world?

When the world changes so significantly that you may not have a place in it, and I mean the artist kind of talks about that in a less fun way. I think this is a much more fun, upbeat and exciting movie. The artist is a little bit more serious, which is fine. But I think by having this be a little bit more fun and disarming, it doesn't detract from the message. I think it just allows this movie to be entertaining, which not saying I don't want to be interesting.

I'm not saying entertainment is the most important thing when I watch a movie, but it'd be nice if I could have a good time while i'm watching it sometimes. Yeah, And this is just there's so much joy in this and there's so much people at the top of their game, right, like just top of their game, everybody. Yeah, and yeah, So I think you're just it's just beautiful. I was really pleased to look at it again and again. It is a film when I'm doing I'm a big fan of Dance on Film too, and kind of I will this is one of the films I look at if I'm studying dance on film and how it shot, because it is shot so beautifully and I can't tell you how big and cumbersome those cameras were.

Oh yeah, I saw them. I didn't work with any, but I saw them, and they were in the museums when I was in film school, which those cameras are now in museums. But when you the fluidity of the camera work in these really beautiful musicals, like Singing the Rain is one of the is joyous in and of itself. It's it is dancing with the dancers, and you know it again, it's something that La La Land kind of did but not really and could have more easily done right, Like you can do it now with a frigging iPhone, Like yeah, you know, everybody can you know, I don't know. It's just it's so just so beautiful.

How this film is put together. I've always been curious because you know, there were there were scenes cut out of it, uh, the negative lost forever right in a fire somewhere. So you know, it's one of those things where it's like, I wish there was more about this film as a filmmaker, the like, how did this film? You know, was this the perfect version of the film? It seems like it, but you know what else was cut out?

And do we go No, that would have made it even more perfect, you know, or Nope, that was perfect to cut it out. I'm kind of shocked that we didn't do this episode earlier, the three of us, given that Rita Moreno is in this movie. I know, I'm great. I'm glad you brought that up right at the right went towards the end of the movie, right at the well, she's but she's she's the one that she's but she's also the one that outs what they're doing. She's the one who tells Geene Hogen and brings Geene Hoggen and they're like, oh no, no, they're like dubbing your voice and everything.

Oh what a good friend you are, Zelda A great line like what a good friend you are? Like you're a pain in the ass, geez. And she has that beautiful entrance right in the premiere, I think at the very beginning, near the beginning of the movie, when the big introducing everyone and she gets to have her fabulous entrance, and she's twenty and Debbie Hell, Debbie Evansie, Debbie Allen, Debbie Evans, I'm trying every single Debbie Reynolds, Debbie Reynolds, you know, what. It's a good thing. I'm not president of the nice to be a real problem if you were, Yes, it would theoretically at least, but yes, my point being that they were so young, right, Ritterary was twenty, Debbie Reynolds was nineteen.

I think Donald O'Connor was even pretty young. I think he was like ten years younger than Jean Kelly in this film, you know, and even looked at and even looked at that he was born in He was born in twenty five, so he would have been late twenties. Yeah, mid twenties. Yeah, Yeah, that's right. And what I love about and you know, Jean Kelly is just really interesting to look at.

One of the reasons you're like, oh, this guy brought up people like he put Donald O'Connor in that movie and gave him that, you know, that incredible song, because he wanted him to become a star. It's like, and he was, you know, I don't know his trajectory that well, but you know, it was it was one of these things where he's like, he's so good, I want to put him. He celebrated other people's talent, right, And I think that that's one of the great things I love about sort of the musical theater world is typically it is about celebrating everyone's talent and getting everyone lift that that, you know, the rising tide lifts all boats, is you know, I think very much on display in this movie and in a lot of the classic musicals, they're they're finding and cultivating talent, which is just really cool.

Well, and to your point, I mean, can you imagine being Gene Kelly and writing make him laugh and giving it to someone else knowing what is I mean, that's the thing, like you said, yeahs like he writes it and then he's just like, you know what, I know I can do it. But Donald O'Connor, Donald David Dixon, Ronald O'Connor, which Donald Donald Ronald, which there's a reason he was not known by his middle name, Donald Ronald O'Connor is a that's a mouthful. He's what's funny is he's so good that you kind of almost just it's not that he gets lost in it, but when he's just kind of part and parcel with everything else, he's just it's like the three of them are by the kind of halfway point of the movie, you just expect it's gonna be He's gonna be there when anything else is happening with Gene Kelly, and yeah, he's he's such a good foil.

I mean, I know that he's essentially kind of doing the Mickey Rooney thing of the time, right, like yeah, but also like the mannerisms and kind of the jokiness. I mean, that's a Mickey Rooney ism from the time. But I think Donald O'Connor is a little bit more for me, a little bit more charismatic than Mickey. And I haven't seen Mickey Rooney in a lot of things that aren't, shall we say problematic. I think everybody just forgets breakfast at He's has a really problematic thing halfway or just peppered throughout in the worst way.

But that's the only thing I've seen Mickey Rooney. And other than What Night at the Museum with the God, who else is in that with him? It's Dick Van Dick Van Dyke as well. Yeah, that's the only thing I've seen Mickey Rooney in. But I know enough about Mickey Rooney at the time here to know that that's what Donald O'Connor was kind of going for.

But I actually like him. I like him more. I like what he's doing more. He's just he seem to me having such a good time. I mean, how could you not be other than the fact that gene Kelly was a hard, you know, hard operator to deal with.

Well, I think donal' connor was up for it. I mean I would, do you know. I think one of the interviews I was reading since Urie said donald'cnnor was the better dancer. He's trying the guy who never practiced, but if he did, he would have been better than gene Kelly. But he was just like, I'm just good.

I don't want to be great. Well, I think he's a better like Hoofer the Moses. And then because gen Kelly was trained as a classical dancer too, and so even though he also all the tap dancing and all that stuff, he's very very good at. I mean, again, I love the Moses song so much. I don't love the end.

I'm always annoyed. I'm like, why are they just piloting? I don't get it. But the very end of the song annoys me. But the rest of the song is spectacular.

I just love that song. And again, it doesn't really move the story forward, but my God, it moves your loves for Donald O'Connor and Jen Kelly forward. What I like when they're performing, I mean, I mean when they're performing, I would be considered the giagetic performance at the beginning, when it's the two of them on stage. Yes, that's oh my god, it's so good and God. The thing that I kept being drawn to every gene Kelly dancing performance is he is staring at the camera.

He is literally like he is fixated on what would be the camera or the audience in a way that's like it's like he's looking directly at you, which is such a it's such a choice, but again I think it helps with him connecting with the audience. But he's like you can see every emotion on Geen Kelly's face, which, again him controlling that and being cognizant of it, I think speaks to the level with which he is operating at as a dancer. He knows what he's doing. He's just I don't know. I want to see more gene Kelly movies.

Let's stop watching Julian Andrews stuff for a while. Just take a hard pivot. Well, yes, a hard pivot. Uh American in Paris. Is it Frigaden Brigadion American in Paris is funnier than Brigadiyon.

Yes, oh, I meant fun. It doesn't have to be funny, but it's at least fun. Moways up for a serious thing every now and then. But serious musicals can be a little melancholy for my taste. They can get if we're talking a serious musical.

I watched Le Miz earlier this year. I'm good, I'm real good, as much as I love Hugh Jackman singing. Speaking of a movie where they shouldn't have cast certain people to sing certain things. Oof, I think I was more forgiving to that movie that I might have been had I not been such a fan of the show. Sure, but yeah, they yeah, yeah, Russell Crowe everybody, you know, in some ways he was perfect for Ja there, but maybe not a singing ja air perhaps, but you know, you had other qualities that I guess they thought might transcend.

There's this whole thing about having to be able to sing though. Oh yes, yeah, it all I mean, that's I mean, but that is the hard thing, because again, this is a time and place where that's expected. Now, now I think we're going back towards it, because if you think about something like Wicked, they're casting people in that that are singers. Yeah, I mean they're not casting Adele Dezim and Kristin Chenowith obviously, but if they had made the movie ten to fifteen years ago, they would have. It's my point, yeah, because they were the people who made that role what it is.

Well, it is interesting that we, I think, on some level, are sort of kind of it's like move you know, kind of made musicals and now musicals or making back to movies. Yeah, you know, we're in and the musical never really quite goes away. Just we need to think it's sort of dead in the water. The movie musical tries to make it come back, and sometimes it works, and sometimes they don't even advertise it as a musical. Looking at you color purple Wonka and mean girls and mean girls.

I didn't realize that there were musicals until I turned them on and the characters just started singing huh weird. Yeah, yeah, because they're afraid. They're afraid of everything. I don't understand what there is to be afraid of musicals. Music.

I mean, this is not a genre that doesn't have tried and true success. This is a genre that helped make Hollywood. I get that it's maybe not in favor anymore, but I don't feel like this is something that has ever really gone out of favor. I think it does. I think there are people that just are like, I don't see musicals.

These people are wrong. Weird. It's weird how a whole group of people could just be wrong about something. Now completely, I completely agree that the audience for musical, the number of people who consider themselves or would consider going to a musical as a percentage of the population, I think is much less today than it was in the heyday of the movie musicals, much to my chagrin, because I love musicals and I would like to see more than the good, the bad, and the ugly. I think we, you know, like anything else.

You know, when when one doesn't do well, they're like, oh, nobody wants to see that. Well, they didn't want to see that one, maybe, but that doesn't mean they don't want to see this one. Come on, right, you know. Well, and when Disney has had a stranglehold on what many people consider to be musicals for the longest time, I don't blame them but there's so much more to it than that. Even though Lion King is a stage musical, which I mean again, you know, it's perfectly fun.

It's just again, I think also, now we're at the time where things, like you said, Susan, things that are things are being turned into musicals now, like Beetlejuice or Me and Girls or literally American Psycho even yeah, and then turned into the we're in the time of the franchise and a brand thought. I'm sorry, there's somebody's working on an American Psycho musical. Oh, it's already been out. It's been out for a couple of years. Yeah, it's not great.

The music is not good. I've listened to the entire recording. It's like, it's fine, it's odd. It's not at all what I thought it would be. But yeah, American Psycho the musical Evil Dead.

I've seen Evil Dead the musical in Vegas. It was fun. There's a splash zone. They like shower the audience with blood. It was an off Broadway thing that then traveled across the country.

I mean, I love musicals. I just wish I just wish we didn't have to have something else be the inroad to make it. I wish it wasn't beatled. It had to be beatlejuice for us to be able to write this story. I would completely agree.

I'm really, I'm really kind of tired of that too. Let's take something that was a movie and or a TV show and let's put making the musical and people will come. And Okay, it's not to say it can't be good. That it's far from it. It's just I prefer some somebody to not have to tie it to something else, just because that's how they make the money, which is unfortunate.

When I was in New York last summer, I saw a musical called Shocked. Yes, fantastic, Yes, the corn music. Yes, that was why because it had great music. The music's amazing. Yes, Oh my gosh, I don't think.

I don't think it has any ties to anything else so than maybe Oral Redenbocker. But still, you know, it was it was just so good. It was so good anyway, I'm I'm I'm with you. No. I think again, like maybe something like Wicked and some of the stuff that's come out recently will help push musicals back to be a thing again.

I don't know, there's so much stuff for everybody to watch now it's you can watch anything that you want, and and that's why anything can be turned into a musical at this point because there is so much of just everything out there. Well, there's a so what's the tellelevision show based on the romantic novels Uh? That was huge hit Sondra shondaland Uh not not Brigadoon. That's a musical talking about the one where the woman travels back in time by accident. No, we were talking about the the that's that's Steamy Bridgerton.

Bridgerton. So so Bridgerton right comes out and is this huge hit right on television. Meanwhile, over on I think TikTok or Instagram, there's these two gals who start doing the musical version of Bridgerton and Uh, and it becomes hugely successful because they're just being funny and then they just keep going with it and people are like, we want more and more, so they the musical. They write a whole musical and then discovered they don't have the rights to it, and everybody shocked, shocked, I tell you did that, that did that? And I remember correctly did that happen during the pandemic.

They were just like, we gotta do something, so we're just gonna do this same like Ratituey the musical ratitude of the musical was the same thing. It was like a TikTok. There was a whole there was a thing on on TikTok was Ratituey the musical, and there was It was like a bunch of creators came together to create it. It was similar to what you're talking about, Susan. I remember.

It was like a thing for and it was again during the pandemic when nobody had anything to do man shutting down the world completely for like two years. It's just that's what the world needs again. It's just everybody, let's just sit in our houses, be creative, universal basic income and make some stuff. Yeah, making all kinds of stuff. I think the better thing to do is just band TikTok entirely.

We pick and choose what kind of communists we like here. Okay, some are okay and some are not. The ones that use TikTok are not okay. Let's just make sure we never get a vote for someone under the age of a under the illegal voting age. Ever.

Again, very smart I love the idea of crowdfunding musicals and create a musical from a community of people that love it, because that is why these are successful. And the people who work in the musical industry, I'm sure you will both tell me they love it as much as they do anything else. They are in the industry because they love it. You don't get into musicals if you don't want to be there. I mean, lin Manuel Miranda hates musicals.

I'm sure right, like you know what I mean, Like he's he does it because he loves it. And I feel that with so many of the people in the musical industry, even the ones that are doing like Beatlejuice the musical. As much as I dragged him by saying I don't like IP musicals, it has some great music opening song, and that musical is amazing, I will admit it was better than I was expecting. I had a subscription to you know, Pantagious Theater at the time, and went, okay, I'll go see it. All right, this wasn't This was pretty good, but there are others there.

I was like, I just don't know why this is. Okay that was in the title, but okay, we're in a funky time. But you know, there's just nothing like the craft of a movie like Singing in the Rain. I mean, I'm thinking about it, and it's like, I mean, I think you may have seen the best Gene Kelly really movie the whole as a movie. Yeah, probably when this was one of the first twenty five films in the National Film Registry.

I don't know if I mean, I'm not saying on an American in Paris isn't worth watching, But if you're saying it's that this is the mountain top, I would believe we probably should have started with Americans. Don't just watch Singing in the Rain, because here's what happens in the other movies that he does. There's amazing numbers. There are numbers that may be arguably better shin numbers and Singing in the Rain. But as an entire piece, I'm gonna say that Singing in the Rain we may have.

We may have started you at the top. Now I'm not saying they're not worth it. Yeah, American in Paris is totally worth it. Performance in that movie amazing. Again, there is a little creep factor to all of these movie musicals where the guy is like thirty five and the girls like nineteen or seventeen or something.

I wasn't creeped out in this at all? Should I have been? No, because because she doesn't seem like she's nineteen yeah, right, and she seems of age and she seems like an adult period. He interpret that however you want. She seems equal to Jane Kelly, which is insane, right when you think that Jim Kelly was Jane Kelly and she was brand new Debbie Reynolds, right, and then you're like, oh, that's because she's the star.

It speaks to who Debbie Reynolds was really Yeah, so, but you know, it's like there's so many great performances and there's so many great numbers in all of the other movies, and the movies are like again, I would put what would I would say, sing in the Ring first, American and Paras second? Would you agree or disagree? Sharon? Yeah, I definitely would agree. Yeah, what would you put?

Third? What about really more from a singing and dance and standpoint on the town. It's fun. It is fun. It's just it's just flat out fun.

And you get to get to see some some parts of anyway for some reason the Los Angeles that that they go to the Hollywood Bowl and dancing around there. I mean, it's it's fun. It's fun that I will say. I wish there had been a little bit more of Hollywood shown in this movie, just to see it of the time, because, like you just said, Sharon, like there's also like a time and a place of this movie that can never be replicated. But to be fair, this movie set thirty years before when it's taking place when they're filming it, so I understand why they would not have been able to go and do that.

And it's all on a lot because everything was very difficult in order to yeah, you know, he can't he can't be doing you know, La law Land. Now get on out there on a freeway, make a musical with all non trained They should have They should have totally stayed on the freeway the whole movie freeway. There's the musical, Susan. You just write a musical and it's just going from car to car and people singing in their cars. I would fucking watch that.

Let's write it people with and it's a jukebox musical too. There you go and you've just got it. There you go, it's the idea of Lalla Land just taken to the furthest idea, which is, we don't even leave that set the four musical, it would just be called four. How has that not happened yet? This is that?

I mean, isn't that a shared experience in Los Angeles being stuck in traffic on the four oh five? You're telling me somebody in the creative world wasn't like this could be a thing. We could make this a musical. Sitting in our car. Damian Chiselle got it somewhat with Lalla Land.

Well, I think we've solved the modern movie musical now. Yeah, but we have to figure out a way to make it an ip. So if it's in cars, it's Mad Max and musical. I think we got it. Just takes place in cars the whole time.

I think you may have just podcasted that Mad maxim musical into existence. God, I hope, God, I hope. Or it would it be Traffic the musical, But then we couldn't have it be connected to the movie because it's a completely different thing. Right, Traffic's about like drug trafficking, I believe, Yeah, yeah, yeah, God, we found Yeah, we figured it out when when we get together, we'll just write four or five the musical. There you go, Yeah, anything else we want to talk about with Singing in the Ring, it's I think I think in order to have a complete film over a history, you have to have seen Singing the Ring if you are if you want to be in film.

I think it is actually one of those that you need to watch, not because it you know, and you may not like it even although that's hard to believe, but I think it is. It is one of the classic films that I think is still worth watching. And yeah, and I guess I would expand a little bit beyond that to say that you need to watch some musicals of that era and if and definitely Singing in the Ring has to be on that list, absolutely because it was a very important part of film during that time. The musical, I mean, and it's it's there. I mean, there's still echoes of it, getting fainter every day, perhaps, but there's still echoes of it today.

But it's it's it's it's definitely something that needs to be seen and appreciated. I completely agree. I'm I'm sad that it took me this long to watch it, but I'm glad that I finally did. Yeah, I'm so glad that you enjoyed it. You know, Yes, I loved it.

I enjoyed it immensely. I put some of the music on yesterday when I was cooking, and my poor wife, she goes, are you just listening to this music? Yes? Ready to go? I was like, I guess I know how you feel about it.

Now, fine, are you just listening to this my choice. That's very different than the things I choose to just listen to normally. But I mean, I do listen to a lot of stuff from musicals, but singing in the rains of music is very I mean, it's very exactly what it needed to be, which is the perfect kind of That's great. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I agree, And I think we need I think the joy of this movie is a lesson in what kind of joy we need to get through dark time.

I mean, the musical it came out in some ways of the depression, you know, and was you know, I think it's good to have hopeful and joyful things in your life. Agreed exactly. While they say some of the best entertainment comes out of the worst times, that doesn't necessarily have to be the case. Now, sometimes good things can just come out at good times and be good for their own reason and on their own and Singing in the Rain for me, is one of those. It wasn't necessarily made at a time in a place where everything was going to shit, but it can be enjoyed when everything is going to shit and can maybe lessen that feeling a little bit.

So yeah, no, I completely agree. And like I said, I'm so immensely glad to have finally watched this. I can't you know what's funny Speaking of other movies that get mentioned in the breath of Singing in the Rain, like Citizen Kane or two thousand and one, I'm not sure I would revisit Citizen Kane again. I enjoyed it, it was fine, I saw it cool, I get it. I would rewatch this, I would put this on.

I've seen this three times now. I've seen Citizen Kane. I watched Citizen Kane three times for the episode. I've watched this three times, and I've enjoyed it every single time i've watched it. I cannot say the same for Citizen Kane.

Roast me if you will. Internet movie people I won't be roasting. I know you won't, and I know Sharon won't, but I know that people on the air, Oh, stop, Kane is the best movie ever made? Have you actually seen it? Are you just parroting what other people say?

I get it's a good movie. Yeah, this might be the best movie ever made. As far as I'm concerned, it might be. It might. It's in them.

I would say it's in the conversation one hundred percent. I'm not even sure there's anything wrong with this movie realistically, Like, I'm not sure there's a problem with this movie that I could point to, Like, No, this is gonna be so jealous that I brought you a movie. Me good. I have no problems with non zero problems. I won the zero Problems club right here, zero problems whatsoever.

Oh gosh, there you go, Susan. You guys win. I get a little gold star. Say that's the thing I've I mean, Richard and I have done a lot of stuff together, but for the most part, it's me just going Richard, we're doing this, and then he's the one who hates it. Not normally it's not me who hates it, or we hate it together because neither one of us had seen it.

I don't necessarily For the most part, I'm perfectly okay to talk about things I've never seen, which I know a lot of people would rather talk about stuff they know about. But I would prefer to watch it and then do the research after, because I don't know. I've seen everything that I've seen already. I don't want to watch stuff i've seen before, at least not for this kind of endeavor. God, who wants to talk about things they like?

Then we just all sound like we're Then we all just sound like we're just being overly positive and we could not begin to understand there's a problem with them. But in the case of Singing in the Rain, I think that is the case. So so there you go, folks, an overly positive episode of this show. Stick it in your hole and smoke it. Haters who say I hate everything I liked one thing, here you go.

Yeah, I guess we've already shared it, but I will give either of you the opportunity. Final thoughts on Singing in the Rain. I think you wrapped it up quite nicely. Yeah, I can't. I don't think there's anything else I need to add.

Cool, Well, until the next time the three of us do an episode together and possibly joined by Richard Even Where can people find everything that y'all work on? We're the co hosts of podcast Eighties tv Ladies, where we look back at female driven television shows from the nineteen eighties from a modern feminist perspective. And we're currently in the midst of our moonlighting the re examination and it's We've got lots and lots more eighties TV to talk about, So go to Eightiestvladies dot com check out. I was flawless. I'm impressed you guys finished each other's sentences perfectly.

As for me, you can find me at Weirdingwaymedia dot com, along with all the other great shows including Eighties TV Ladies, Feminine Critique, The Projection, Booth, Uh God, Twisted, and Uncorked. I could keep naming it podcasts, but you should just go find them for yourself at Weirdingwaymedia dot com. As for this show, like rate and review, wherever you get it more than likely iTunes. Shear It and Susan thank you so much both for joining me. This has been fantastic Until the next time.

It's probably not gonna be a perfect movie, but it could. Theoretically, I guess it was a Julie Andrews movie, It's probably gonna be at least good. Yeah, you want another Juliandrews I kind of do, kind I'm okay with that. I would be okay. Can it be The Princess Diaries?

Though? Sure, wouldn't that be an episode? You know that would be something you sure? Why not? Yeah?

If you would? Yeah? Sure, why not? Yeah? So I worked on that movie.

I'm at Gwanda Marshall on that movie during that good of a reason as any. So yeah, I guess maybe the next time you hear the three of us will be talking about The Princess Diary. So until then, we'll catch you on the next episode.