Singin' In the Rain

In 1927, Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are a famous on-screen romantic pair. Lina, however, mistakes the on-screen romance for real love. Don has worked hard to get where he is today, with his former partner Cosmo. When Don and Lina's latest film is transformed into a musical, Don has the perfect voice for the songs. But Lina - well, even with the best efforts of a diction coach, they still decide to dub over her voice. Kathy Selden is brought in, an aspiring actress, and while she is working on the movie, Don falls in love with her.

The scene in The Great Movie Ride shows Don Lockwood, as played by Gene Kelly, preforming the title song of the film, “Singin' In the Rain”. The dance routine includes Don twirling an umbrella, splashing through puddles and getting soaked on a city street. Rain falls in front of the singing figure as he hangs from a street lamp, crooning the song.

The song “Singin' in the Rain” existed long before the film was released in 1952. Two decades previously, MGM contracted Arthur Freed to write the lyrics and Nacio Herb Brown to create the music for a song that would be used in the film “Hollywood Review of 1929.” This Academy Award winning film was shot in Technicolor and featured some of Hollywoood's newest stars, such as Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore, Marion Davies, John Gilbert, and Buster Keaton, singing and dancing while showcasing the brilliance of the technological advances of color and sound in film. Ironically, the Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont characters from “Singin' In the Rain” are set to star in The Dueling Cavalier, a musical picture similar to real film, “The Hollywood Review of 1929.”

Although “Singin' In the Rain” predates the previous ride sequence, “Footlight Parade,” by decades, both take place in approximately same era of early motion picture with sound or “talkies”.

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