# Donald O'Connor outshines Gene Kelly in "Singin' in the Rain" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 10, 2008, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-oconnor-outshines-gene-kelly-in-singin-in-the-rain/462900 "2008-09-10T04:50:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-oconnor-outshines-gene-kelly-in-singin-in-the-rain/462900/21 "2016-09-19T14:13:57Z")
\*[after Cosmo gives a good idea] R.F. Simpson: Cosmo, remind me to give you a raise. [turns around] Cosmo Brown: Oh, R.F. R.F. Simpson: Yes? Cosmo Brown: Give me a raise. \* I’m not sure I want to couch this as a competition but SITR is one of my favorite films and O’Connor is a joy to watch throughout. As the comic sidekick he often gets the best lines but he always delivers brilliantly. (Also: Jean Hagen deserves a lot of love too - her comedic delivery remains electric even today. “What do they think I am? Dumb or something? Why, I make more money than - than - than Calvin Coolidge! Put together!”) > [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > Which is even more amazing when you read how miserable the shooting of it was, at times. Kelly was sick as a dog during SITR, they worked until all hours of the morning trying to perfect the routines, etc. In interviews, Debbie Reynolds talks like she was forced to endure torture for a good bit of it. Didn’t she have a sprained ankle when filming the “Good Morning” sequence? I can’t imagine tap dancing with a painful ankle and smiling through it like that. What a trouper. > [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > My one criticism is in the overly long “Gotta Dance!” section. I just get bored out of my mind after about five minutes of it. I also don’t love the scene where Gene sings to Debbie on the empty sound stage. I like the concept but it’s boring also, in a frantically paced movie loaded with great dancing, singing and laughs. I agree entirely. The latter at least provides some minor character development in moving the love story along (plus the song comes back at the end) but the “Gotta Dance” piece really drags you out of the film. Mind you, it’s almost worth it to watch Cyd Charisse. Oh, those legs… ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-oconnor-outshines-gene-kelly-in-singin-in-the-rain/462900/22 "2016-09-19T14:51:09Z")
There is a bit in here about how challenged Debbie Reynolds was with the dancing: > **[The 'Unsinkable' Debbie Reynolds Looks Back On Life, Love And A Boozy Busby...](https://www.npr.org/2013/03/30/175483389/the-unsinkable-debbie-reynolds-looks-back-on-life-love-and-a-boozy-busby-berkele)** > > Debbie Reynolds has been a movie star for more than 60 years. Her new memoir, Unsinkable, looks back on her decades in the business, her family and her children — and a naughty story or two about drunken Hollywood greats. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-oconnor-outshines-gene-kelly-in-singin-in-the-rain/462900/23 "2016-09-19T15:01:21Z")
Even as a kid I found O’Connor to be mesmerizing, whether he was interacting with a cast like SITR or conversing with Francis the mule. He was always emoting, which is not always a good thing for an actor, but his roles required it, and he managed it without constantly upstaging fellow actors. His “Make 'em Laugh” routine was absolutely brilliant: the athletic ability to run up a wall and do a flip was preceded by a whole lot of pain in the failures to carry it off. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-oconnor-outshines-gene-kelly-in-singin-in-the-rain/462900/24 "2016-09-19T15:33:35Z")
I agree with everything said in this thread, even the contradictions. The most remarkable thing about this remarkable film is the timing. It was released in 1952. The song “Singing in the Rain” is from 1929. That’s 23 years. A \*mere \*23 years for any millennials in the house. That’s like making a film about 1993 today. The year that the creaky, laughable, idiotic special effects of _Jurassic Park_ ruled the screen. We talk a lot of hot air about the huge, swift changes we’re living through but that’s bull. Change happened a century ago at a much huger and swifter pace. Computers are the only modern comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-oconnor-outshines-gene-kelly-in-singin-in-the-rain/462900/25 "2016-09-19T15:48:52Z")
Joseph Gordon-Levitt did a great live version of “Make 'em Laugh” on _Saturday Night Live_, which I can’t find a good link to which would work for everyone but you might be able to find it for yourself. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-oconnor-outshines-gene-kelly-in-singin-in-the-rain/462900/26 "2016-09-19T17:15:32Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > That’s 23 years. A \*mere \*23 years for any millennials in the house. That’s like making a film about 1993 today. The year that the creaky, laughable, idiotic special effects of _Jurassic Park_ ruled the screen. Tom Cruise was a big star! THE SIMPSONS had just gotten an Emmy nomination! Clinton was about to become President! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-oconnor-outshines-gene-kelly-in-singin-in-the-rain/462900/27 "2016-09-19T18:12:24Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Tom Cruise was a big star! THE SIMPSONS had just gotten an Emmy nomination! Clinton was about to become President! A new _Star Trek_ series was about to begin! ---
**Author:** ![Corner\_Case](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/corner_case/32/234_2.png) [@Corner\_Case](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corner_Case)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-oconnor-outshines-gene-kelly-in-singin-in-the-rain/462900/28 "2016-09-19T18:25:45Z")
> [@](#): > > Cosmo Brown: Talking pictures, that means I’m out of a job. At last I can start suffering and write that symphony. > > R.F. Simpson: You’re not out of job, we’re putting you in as head of our new music department. > > Cosmo Brown: Oh, thanks, R.F.! At last I can stop suffering and write that symphony. His character played off the others and expanded what would otherwise just be fun into farce and made it art. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-oconnor-outshines-gene-kelly-in-singin-in-the-rain/462900/29 "2016-09-19T18:37:38Z")
> [@Corner\_Case](#): > > His character played off the others and expanded what would otherwise just be fun into farce and made it art. Just offhand, wouldn’t the studio _already_ have a music department? I thought silent movies were routinely bundled with sheet music, to be played live in the theater while the movie ran. ---
**Author:** ![Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90ced4/32.png) [@Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waltzes_with_Cacti)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-oconnor-outshines-gene-kelly-in-singin-in-the-rain/462900/30 "2016-09-19T23:43:04Z")
O’Connor fans, you really have to see him in _Call Me Madam_. He steals the movie out from under la Merm and George Sanders. O’Connor’s dances with Vera-Ellen are some of the loveliest sequences ever shot and he performs a hilarious drunken solo set in a biergarten that is almost the equal to “Make 'Em Laugh.” ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-oconnor-outshines-gene-kelly-in-singin-in-the-rain/462900/31 "2016-09-20T00:07:11Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Just offhand, wouldn’t the studio _already_ have a music department? I thought silent movies were routinely bundled with sheet music, to be played live in the theater while the movie ran. That music was probably fairly unsophisticated (since it would have to be played by whatever piano player was available at the Roxy in Podunk), and not written to be well-synchronized with the action (for the same reason). Cosmo, on the other hand, could write for the best orchestra R. F. was willing to pay for, and compose so that the climax of the score comes right when Don punches out the Kaiser to win the war. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-oconnor-outshines-gene-kelly-in-singin-in-the-rain/462900/32 "2016-09-20T00:26:32Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > That music was probably fairly unsophisticated (since it would have to be played by whatever piano player was available at the Roxy in Podunk), and not written to be well-synchronized with the action (for the same reason). Actually, there were [wide ranges of music composed for films](http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Music-MUSIC-IN-SILENT-FILM.html). That ranged from the famed theater organs to full orchestral scores. Movies were the major form of entertainment in all big cities, with giant theaters up to 6000 seats. The image of a tinny piano as the accompaniment to silent films may have been true in Podunk. Or at least the smallest theater in Podunk. But that’s a small part of reality. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-oconnor-outshines-gene-kelly-in-singin-in-the-rain/462900/33 "2016-09-20T01:04:56Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Actually, there were [wide ranges of music composed for films](http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Music-MUSIC-IN-SILENT-FILM.html). That ranged from the famed theater organs to full orchestral scores. Movies were the major form of entertainment in all big cities, with giant theaters up to 6000 seats. The image of a tinny piano as the accompaniment to silent films may have been true in Podunk. Or at least the smallest theater in Podunk. But that’s a small part of reality. I stand corrected; R. F. is still going to need Cosmo to manage (and perhaps conduct) the orchestra they’ll need at the studio. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-oconnor-outshines-gene-kelly-in-singin-in-the-rain/462900.md?page=1)