Singin In The Rain And Swing Time Analysis

“I remember having a grin from one ear to the other for seven minutes. It was a huge, fabulous event – absolutely grand and great fun,” (Leslie Caron, anothermag.com). All who have watched Singin’ in the Rain (1952) or Swing Time (1936) can easily understand Ms. Caron’s emotional state after dancing with both of these phenomenal dancers. This essay will compare the backgrounds, careers, and personal lives of the iconic Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. To begin, this essay will compare their general histories before and up to the start of their adult professional careers. Next, it will follow their careers through their different individual paths, from their broadway debuts to their screen credits. Furthermore, it will showcase the notable similarities

Astaire and Adele had made it to Broadway in 1917 in Gershwin’s Funny Face (biography.com), but he was forced to break off on his own after Adele married in 1932 (thefamouspeople.com). His Hollywood Debut was in Dancing Lady (1933) with Joan Crawford (thefamouspeople.com). He then picked up momentum with his talents and charm, going on to star in fan-favorites, starting with Flying Down to Rio (1933) since being paired with Ginger Rogers catapulted them both farther into stardom. The appeared together again in The Gay Divorcee (1934), Top Hat (1935), and once more years later in The Barkleys of Broadway (1949) (biography.com). His last major musical film was Finian’s Rainbow (1968) which ended up falling short at the box office (thefamouspeople.com), much like Kelly’s would at the end of his career as well. However, the start of Kelly’s career grew slowly but steadily, beginning his broadway debut much later than Astaire with a small dancing role in Leave It To Me (1938), which led to a spot in One for the Money (1939), then a summer-stock job as choreographer, into auditions and choreography commissions, and eventually to his biggest break as an actor: Pal Joey (1940) (Library of Congress). Next up, Gene would make his film debut in For Me and My Gal in 1942 (Library of Congress). On The Town (1949), An American in Paris (1951), and of course Singin’ in the Rain (1952) would one day become staples of both his career, and within the world of movie musicals as a whole. Yet, as stated above, his last film appearance in 1980, Xanadu, proved to be a box-office dud as well; however, it would prove to be a cult classic decades later