I have been writing this blog for over ten years now, and I have resisted putting up a list of my favorite films for that whole time. As the Borg say "Resistance is Futile!"
This year I am marking another year in my sixth decade of life. I did several birthday posts in the past and enjoyed them immensely. The last two years my heart has just not been into it. This year however, I am trying to push my way back into normalcy, but I don't have the energy to generate 63 things for a list. So what I am going to do is a ten day countdown of my favorite films.
Every year when I have posted a top ten list, I always point out that it is a combination of quality and subjective enjoyment that creates that list. Those are the guiding principles here as well. I will not claim that these are the ten greatest movies ever made, although I know several of them would be deserving of a spot on such a list. Instead, these are my ten favorite films as it stands at the moment. In a month, I could reconsider or remember something that I have tragically left off the list, but for this moment here is how they rank.
#5 Singin' in the Rain
I have always been a classic movie fan. Sunday afternoons in Southern California were filled with Sherlock Holmes movies staring Basil Rathbone. Weekdays, after school, before the idea of afternoon strip talk shows sucked up all the air time, local stations would fill the day with edited versions of classic films, and I would put off my homework to watch. In 1974, my best friend Art Franz and I went to see "That's Entertainment", an MGM cornucopia of musical sequences from the golden age. One of the films heavily featured was "Singin' in the Rain". Now I had seen that movie a couple of times on TV, put when I later found it on a pay channel, there were sequences that I never knew existed.
Some films are intellectually challenging. Some films break your heart emotionally or make you question right and wrong. "Singin' in the Rain" doesn't really do those kinds of things. This movie is an emotional injection of joy that celebrates some great entertainment traditions, singing and dancing.
Watching Donald O'Conner and Gene Kelly performing their routines on the vaudeville stage is simply wonderful. Gene and Donald and Debbie Reynolds singing Good Morning, would be the greatest way to start the day ever. The famous title song performed on a soundstage that looks like a Los Angeles street and features rain on the pavement and in puddles, this was simple movie magic but it was still magic.
Let's not forget that the story of the film is also the story of films. The transition from silents to sound changed movies forever. Today we see similar sorts of changes although primarily the delivery systems. The only thing constant is change, if only this kind of entertainment could be constant as well. I don't think I ever turn down a chance to watch this when it comes up on TCM.
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