Singing in the Rain

It all began innocently last night with the Turner Movie Channel's showing of "An American in Paris." It was not one of my most favorite movies when I saw it as a very young teenager. It was a bit over my head. The music was Gershwin. Always a winner. It was the B side of our old album with "Rhapsody in Blue," one of my very favorite pieces of music to listen to or perform.

Michael and I watched the full two hours - in between switching back on occasion to the Giant's game, which they won - and applauded together at the end of the movie. I was just about an hour late going to bed but it was worth it.

Then in happened. The next Gene Kelly movie up was, "Singing in the Rain." Ah, the memories. I believe it is the best musical ever. I had to see it.

At the school where I got sick, we did not assign grades for the student's work but wrote long narratives about each child. Poor Natalie had to write hundreds of these reports twice a year. During that time, we would put on a movie for the students to watch during music class while she would write. One year, she featured "Singing in the Rain." Every aged student was enchanted by this movie. When the older 7/8 grade kids began asking to see it during their lunch hour, I knew we had a hit.

What they loved was the humor. The slapstick. Humor today consists of just bad words and sarcasm. This movie was full of very clever bits. Very smart bits. When I saw the kids standing behind each other pretending the other was speaking - dubbing - for weeks after the movie, I knew that it sparked something in them. It changed them. It opened an imaginative door.

Another two hours later, I finally fell asleep dreaming of dancing and singing and laughing.

If you have never seen it, buy it, rent it or stream it and prepare to laugh and to be just as enchanted as my former students so many years ago.