Where Are Those Guys....

...that sing and dance and just put a big smile on your face when you watch them. I'm talking, in particular, about the men from 'Singin' In the Rain' - Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor. Yesterday, on TCM, they ran a whole documentary about the 'Anatomy' of Gene Kelly - one of the greatest performers of all time. And then they followed it up with most of Gene's movies...the one I was waiting for, of course, was 'Singin' In the Rain.' It has been touted as the best musical ever. I can't say that I don't agree.


Whenever that movie comes on, I find myself totally entranced. I wonder how cool it was back then that there are these men that sing, dance and act and aren't afraid to break out into song, tap dance a little and have a grand old time. If any guy did that now, they would think he was a complete looney. But not only did they sing and dance, they were dressed impeccably and didn't even break a sweat! The guys back then looked so debonair with their two-tone tap shoes and who else but Gene Kelly could pull off a tweed suit with a belt-like closure, tweed hat, brown tap shoes and get completely drenched while singing and dancing to 'Singin' In the Rain' - and still look dashing?!

Watching Gene and Donald tear it up in that movie is amazing to me. And when you throw in Debbie Reynolds for the 'Good Morning' number, you just want to get up, find two people to sing and jump on couches with. The whole movie is outstanding - I could watch it all day long for weeks at a time. I don't *totally* understand why they would want to end the 'Dancing Cavalier' with the 'Gotta Dance' number but I'll tell you, when Cyd Charisse puffs out a whole mess of cigarette smoke, it may have been attractive back then, but certainly not now. She kind of reminded me of a dragon.

I was so exhausted yesterday from a whole weekend of fun and could not wait to get to bed, but when 'Singin' In the Rain' is on, sleep can wait - and I ended up staying up until almost midnight just watching it. My husband, who is not a musical type of guy, even enjoys the ending where Lina Lamont lip syncs to 'Singin' In the Rain' with her ridiculous hand motions....' And every so often, when he knows the movie is on, he'll quote Lina and her 'And I can't stand 'em' with her annoying, child-like voice. When it was all over, I looked over at my husband and asked him why we don't break out into song every once in awhile like Gene and Debbie did at the end of the movie. He looked at me like I was crazy and told me to 'Stop being weird.'