Singin’ in the Pipe Water:

The unglamorous side of Hollywood

I watched Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen’s Singin’ in the Rain (1952) for the first time recently and I noticed how surprisingly relevant some of the concepts it touches on are to the film industry today: primarily the idea that reality in Hollywood is not often as it seems.

Don Lockwood announces his motto at the premiere of his latest film, and through the corresponding flashback to his slapstick style performance with friend Cosmo Brown, the audience can see that his climb to the top has been anything but dignified. The phrase is a public expression of his glamorous persona—one of many roles that Lockwood must flexibly adopt in the ever-demanding realm of Hollywood (Chumo, 1996, pp.42). This false character is abandoned almost immediately afterwards in the theatre when Don informs his costar Lena Lamont that their implied relationship is purely for publicity and nothing more.

It makes you wonder how many of your favourite celebrity couples might be faking it for the cameras. 🤔

This is a recurring quote throughout the movie, first uttered by Kathy Selden, who remarks that the melodramatic faces of [silent] film actors are unimpressive and unconvincing in comparison with the real emotion of stage actors. Cosmo repeats this to Don, on the basis that new films aren’t worth the hassle, imploring him to “release [an] old one under a new title.”

Strangely reminiscent of media companies today don’t you think? (I’m looking at you Disney!)

You may have asked why there doesn’t seem to be any originality in film anymore but the truth is, even original stories are based and influenced on other people’s work. There are enough intertextual references in this musical alone—such as nods to The Jazz Singer (1927), the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers-like partnership between Don and Kathy and a dance montage in the style of Busby Berkeley—that to see it once would give you the sense of seeing them all (Chumo, 1996, pp.40).

One of the final scenes in Singin’ in the Rain involves Lena trying to prove herself by performing in front of a live audience… while Kathy acts as her singing voice from behind a curtain. Eventually the curtain is dropped revealing Lena as a fraud and she is humiliated off stage and presumably out of the industry—talk about harsh! Whether you believe Lena deserved it or not, this is a prime example of the way Hollywood exploits people for money and publicity.

With that said, I challenge you to consider:

how have you been deceived by Hollywood?