A Hollywood Story – 3

We’ve been looking at films about Hollywood to give you some ideas of what this genre of the Hollywood movie is all about. We’ve looked at Sunset Boulevard and Mulholland Drive—both of which are films that look at the darker side of Hollywood and the movie business. Both are tragedies, both involve murder, both are populated with dark and darker characters… neither could be called a fun, bubbly ride, that’s for sure!

So this week, let’s look at the lighter side of Hollywood films. After all, you might want to write a romance or comedy for your Hollywood Story.

Let’s start by looking at a film that was released just two years after Sunset Boulevard: Singin’ in the Rain [1952], written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, famed Broadway writers. And this film’s not just bubbly fun—it’s even a musical! Today it’s considered the epitome, the classic of film musicals. But when it came out? It did OK but it sure wasn’t a big hit. Why? Probably too clever—it was something audiences weren’t quite ready for in 1952. It was virtually ignored at the Academy Awards and just didn’t have the resonance that we see in it today.

This is a film that looks straight at the movie business and takes it all for a laugh. There’s romance, sure, but almost everything is played for laughs. Look at the scene at the movie premiere when Don Lockwood talks to a reporter and details, through flashbacks, his rise to fame. He talks about how he learned so much studying at “the conservatory” but what we see in the flashback is a picture of him on the vaudeville stage being booed off. It’s a great intro to something that Hollywood does very well, discount the reality in favor of a better story.

And when successful Don Lockwood meets struggling Kathy Selden, she too paints a smokescreen of her career as an actress… and she’s soon caught out when he’s at a function where she’s just a chorus girl jumping out of a cake.

The big star and the wannabe… gosh, have we ever heard this story before??? Well of course we have, but just because a story has a bit of the cliché to it shouldn’t stop you from writing it. Because it’s what you DO with that cliché story that matters.

In addition to both of the main characters being performers in the business of movies, the movies themselves are the stars. Because this is the story of that moment in Hollywood when talkies came on the scene and studios began the shift from silent films to talking films. The problems encountered in this switch were both funny and sad, and provided a great backdrop for Don and Kathy’s story.

Singin’ in the Rain is just a bundle of silly fun—a reminder that movies can be light and frothy… not everything has to be deep and meaningful. Movies are there to take us away from our troubles when that’s what we’re in the mood for… they’re there to entertain us when that’s what we need…they don’t always have to be thought-provoking. So if you lean toward comedy, take a look at Singin’ in the Rain to see how it’s done well.

Copyright © Diane Lake

24Mar19

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com