Singin' in the Rain

Appearance vs. Reality

Singin' in the Rain is a film whose theme and plot  are steeped in the Appearance vs. Reality motif. From the opening where Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) describes his background to the Hollywood reporter at the premier of his new film and the viewer is given scenes of the reality of his upbringing, we see that the film is about Hollywood, the illusion factory. Each character vies to develop an appearance, an illusion created by themselves or the movie industry. Lockwood and Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor) grew up in squalor but must tell the story of their lives performing for "friends of Mummy and Daddy" and learning at the "Conservatory of Arts." Kathy Seldon (Debbie Reynolds) portrays herself as a serious actress when her real job is to jump out of cakes. R. F. Simpson (Millard Mitchell) is the head of the studio and wants to project power, but he is fearful of angering his stars. The plot itself is centered on how to get one of the stars of the movie to appear to have more talent than she does.

But the contrast between appearance and reality for Singin' in the Rain goes even further than the story itself. Writes William V. Costanzo in his interesting work Reading the Movies: Twelve Great Films on Video and How to Teach Them,

When Lina is asked to give a live encore to her appreciative audience, Kathy Selden sings the song behind a curtain while Lina mouths the words. but life is funnier than fiction: In real life, Jean Hagen had  a more cultivated voice than Debbie Reynolds, and when we see Kathy dubbing Lina's speaking voice, it is really Hagen dubbing Reynolds. Meanwhile, when Kathy pretends to sing for Lina, it is really another singer--Betty Royce--dubbing Reynolds, who is shown dubbing Hagen! (155)