In 2022, Let’s sing in the rain celebrates its 70th candle. The opportunity for Warner Bros to celebrate the event with a box set reissue and a theatrical release. But did you know that the famous scene from Singin’ in the Rain was almost ruined?
As the sun shines, Warner Bros invites us to chain a few dance steps under the most emblematic drops of cinema. Unveiled for the first time on the big screen in 1952, Singing in the rain offers a new skin in a 4K Blu-ray Ultra HD box set. And that’s not all, since the masterpiece of musicals will also light up the Croisette with a screening during the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, before coming out in a few cinemas from June 1.
SINGING IN THE RAIN: 70 YEARS, A 4K BOX AND A THEATER RELEASE
Considered a classic among the classics, and ranked on the first step of the greatest musicals of cinema by the American Film Institute, Singing in the rain has marked entire generations. If it raised Debbie Reynolds to the rank of idol, the film by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly offered the public scenes that have remained engraved in the history of the seventh art and which have subsequently inspired many filmmakers.
Among them, we obviously think of the unmissable Singin’ in the Rain sung by Gene Kelly, umbrella in hand, tap dancing on his feet. A mythical moment, which was however almost ruined for an astonishing reason. Shot in the middle of summer, Singing in the Rain was much more punctuated by heat waves than surges of rain.
For the purposes of this sequence, the MGM had therefore provided pipes to simulate a false downpour. In the afternoon, even as filming was taking place in Los Angeles, the inhabitants of the city of angels began to water their lawns, thus reducing the water supply from the studios. If the filming of this cult scene was finally able to take place the next morning, another detail could also have spoiled it.
Due to the series of shots in the torrential rain and the Californian summer heat, the famous wool suit worn by Gene Kelly kept shrinking. The team therefore had to replace him on numerous occasions. Fortunately for us, all these little hiccups weren’t due to the making of this film which, even 70 years later, hasn’t aged a bit!
Rediscover Let’s sing in the rain in a brand new 4K Blu-Ray box set.