70th Anniversary

Apparently this week 70 years ago was when Singin' In the Rain was first released in theatres. I really love this movie. I watch it at least once every year. Sometimes twice. In fact, our Flashback Cinema thing was showing it with a small amount of TCM commentary in theatres yesterday. I took my daughter, who also really appreciates this movie, and saw it. (Sadly, I couldn't take my wife. She balks at any movie where people break out into song and dance. It's not realistic enough, she says. I say that clearly it's reality that needs to step it up. Literally.)

I find that I'm not very entertained by very much of what Hollywood does these days. The biggest reason for that is because most of what they produce is literally dripping with their venom, bile and hatred for anybody white, male, Christian, or normal. But that's not the only reason. Sadly, most movies are just not well made even if they avoid the toxic swamp that is wokeness. They feel overly corporatized, designed to formula by committee, and few of them are better than forgettable mindless entertainment. The recent Uncharted movie is a good example. With the exception of race-swapping the kinda sorta romantic interest in the story from a blue-eyed British girl to a horse-faced Indian girl and having this modestly athletic but mostly normal looking (except for her crazy hairstyle) black girl be a supervillain with unexplained superpowers, when in reality she looked like a few good slaps would put her back in her place, it wasn't really woke at all. It had two pretty normal white guys as a protagonist and deuteragonist, and they had pretty good charisma and chemistry between them for a budding buddy partner relationship. They were treated as movie heroes are supposed to be treated.

But the movie somehow was just mostly boring. It had plenty of by the numbers "exciting" action scenes, but they somehow always managed to equal less than the sum of their parts. I can't quite put my finger on it, other than it felt hollow and designed by committee according to some formula, rather than overseen by someone with some talent and vision. It wasn't at all offensive, but I just... didn't really care. I'd go see a sequel, I suppose. But I wouldn't be excited about it. It'd be fine, but I'd probably enjoy the popcorn as much as I would the movie. 

And that was one of the best movies of the last few years. 

So I find myself turning to tried and true movies that I've watched before, but which I know are good. Watching Singin' In the Rain in the theatre was honestly kind of magical, especially during the eponymous dance number, although "Moses Supposes", "Fit as a Fiddle" and "All I Do Is Dream of You" were nearly as good. The dream sequence is weird and always was, but I dare anyone to not be impressed by the talent and athleticism that Kelly and Cyd Charise displayed during their dance duet. I found myself just sitting in the theatre grinning in the dark for almost the entire runtime.

Even the commentary was interesting. I guess I hadn't ever realized that Debbie Reynolds was only 19 when she made this movie, and Gene Kelly was 40. What? That's almost as bad as me being a romantic lead to girls my kids' age. I'm fifty this year and my oldest son is 26. That's a little weird, although I didn't ever really think of that before. Gene Kelly looks good for his age and no doubt has plenty of make-up on to keep his skin looking smooth. It's not really that much worse than what goes on today, though, is it? I mentioned a few posts ago that I was shocked to find that Jared Leto is actually a few weeks older than me. He looked like he was in his early 30s in Morbius. I also didn't realize that Singin' came out the same year as An American in Paris. The latter movie isn't nearly as well-loved or well-remembered today. I've only seen it once years ago and barely remember it. However, when they both came out, it was the latter that sucked all of the attention out of the room. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won six of them, and that still actually meant something in the early 50s. Singin' became kind of "the other Gene Kelly movie" and suffered in terms of attention upon release. That said, quality will always out, and over time, An American in Paris is kind of a movie that only fans of old movies still remember, while Singin' in the Rain is lauded as one of the best if not the best musical comedy ever made, one of the best if not the best movie about Hollywood itself and the art of movie-making, etc. 

Good movies are somewhat timeless. The movie is nearly as old as my parents, and it's still one of my favorite movies in my collection. I was happy to go see it in theatres for $12 a piece tickets even though I've got it on DVD and watch it once or twice a year already anyway. It makes the hatred and incompetence of Hollywood today that much more intolerable. It's not like the people in this movie are great people. Gene Kelly seems a decent enough guy for a movie star, although he famously was incredibly rude to Debbie Reynolds. Reynolds herself has a tragicomic biography of terrible decisions and terrible behavior. Arthur Freed was the producer and writer of all of the songs, who infamously tried to molest Shirley Temple when she was 12 years old. If she hadn't laughed in nervous shock when he exposed himself to her and embarrassed him, he might well have raped her. Chances are there are dozens of women and girls that he did successfully molest. 

That said, just because they were terrible people then like they are now, they still had the sense to not broadcast their abject hatred for their audience, and they were competent at their craft in spite of their terrible real life personas. The current generation of Jewish Hollywood magnates who replaced Freed, like Harvey Weinstein, lack those crucial skills. 

Now, I don't mean to suggest that because they made good movies that that excuses their behavior. In a just world, Freed would have been killed by Shirley Temple's father when he saw what was happening, or at least arrested and hanged. As Christ himself said, I'm in favor of death by drowning with a millstone around his neck for child molesters and perverts like that. What I am saying, however, is that in spite of their terribleness, the movies that they made are still good. And the movies of today... aren't.