SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952) (WBHE 4K UHD Review)

SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952)

Label: WBHE

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: G 

Duration: Time: 67 minutes

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, Original Theatrical English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 2160p UHD Fullscreen (1.37:1), 2160p HD Fullscreen (1.37:1) 

Director: Gene Kelly 

Cast: Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchel, Cyd Charisse.

Musicals are not something I gravitate to with any great relish, I love my cult, horror and exploitation flicks and I usually go into musical against my will, kicking and screaming. But c'mon, Singin’ In The Rain is celebrating it's 70th anniversary and is widely considered to be one of the greatest musical films in cinematic history - so I went into this with an open mind and was sort of astounded how much fun I had with it.

It's breezy musical romantic comedy that lampoons the early days of talky films, laced with screwball comedy and featuring a darling cast, it's fun, light and the tunes are catchy. We have silent film matinee idols Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly, Ziegfeld Follies) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen, Panic in the Year Zero) who are transitioning from silent films to talkies, the transition is rough going, especially considering that vampy co-star Lina is a shrill voiced no-talent diva. Test screenings of the film bomb big-time, so much so that the studio hire talented flapper Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds, Halloweentown) to overdub her dialogue and songs to save the film.

Along the way Don and Kathy fall for each other while Lina grows increasingly jealous of the young starlet, creating tension and plenty of on-set and behind-the-scenes drama. Pepper into the mix generous amounts of the rubber-faced antic of Don's best pal, the song and dance man Cosmo (Donald O'Connor), doing his best to steal the limelight. He has stiff competition though, the dumb blond antics of Hagen had me in stitches with her vacuous diva antics, she's so good in this role. While I'm no expert on musicals but this delightful musical rom-com is an absolute treasure. While I did find the love story between Kelly and Reynolds cute I found their characters a bit flat; for my money the MVP's of this musical goldmine are O'Connor and Hagen, they steal every dang scene. 

Audio/Video: Singin; in the Rain (1953) has been afforded a lavish 70th Anniversary 4K restoration from Warner Brothers, and it's a stupendous presentation. The HDR-infused technicolor flick looks absolutely gorgeous, details are crisp, and black levels are deep throughout. It's total technicolor eye candy from start to finish, a very fine presentation from WHBE. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA in either 2.0 mono or 5.1 surround. Both options are clean with nice depth to the musical numbers, the surround certainly sounds fuller with a wider sound stage but man I dig having the original mono mix uncompressed, that's my preferred track. 

The only extra on the UHD disc is the archival Audio Commentary by Debbie Reynold, Donald O’Connor, Cyd Charisse, Kathleen Freeman, Stanley Donen, Betty Camden, Adolph Green, Bad Lurhmann and Rudy Behlmer, and the option to view the musical numbers by themselves. 

The accompanying Blu-ray is the same disc as the 2000 Blu-ray, it's an older master that is more fizzle than sizzle compared to the UHD, best just to call this the extras disc. To that end it carries all the archival extras from the previous release, including the commentary, the musical numbers, plus the 51-minute Singin’ in the Rain: Raining on a New Generation Documentary and a code for a 4K digital copy of the film. The 2-disc release arrives in a black dual-hubbed keepcase with a single sided sleeve of artwork which is also repeated on the slipcover. 

Special Features:
- Commentary by Debbie Reynold, Donald O’Connor, Cyd Charisse, Kathleen Freeman, Stanley Donen, Betty Camden, Adolph Green, Bad Lurhmann and Rudy Behlmer.
- Singin’ in the Rain: Raining on a New Generation Documentary (51 min) 
- Theatrical Trailer (4 min)