Halfway House: Moses Supposes

halfway house halfway through the day, we stop a movie 'bout halfway through... what do we see?



As you may have noticed, I tend to get hung up on film structures and timing. Not sure why but I live for opening scenes, I'm totally enthralled by filmmakers who can stick landings (i.e. the ending -- so difficult) and sometimes I just get hung up on random timed ideas like 20:07, first and last or Halfway House.

Using Singin' in the Rain for a screenshot series is kind of like cheating because every single thing about it is delightful.

"AAAAAAAAA" Donald O'Connor and Gene Kelly sing, 51
minutes into the most purely pleasureable 102 of film, ever.

I love the "Moses Supposes" number for the electricity of the dancing but I always thought it was so weird that the boys decide to bury their vocal coach in random props to end the number.

Now I propose that this pile-up is merely a neat coded illustration of the movie's generosity. Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly literally can't stop themselves from entertaining you. In most movie musicals "Moses Supposes" would be an unquestionable highlight. Here it's just a break inbetween (and simultaneously about) the movie's best recurring gag: Lina Lamont's inability to speak. Consider and marvel that "and I caaaann't stand 'em" comes immediately before this dance number and Lina and Don's hilariously disastrous 'Recording in Session' immediately follows it. This movie is all about piling it on. No breaks. Unless they're wildly entertaining dance breaks.

It's not an "AAAAAA". It's an "A+"

I Cayyyyn't Stand It

... that Jean Hagen didn't win the Oscar for Singin' in the Rain.

Lina Lamont: Gee, this wig weighs a ton! What dope'd wear a thing like this?
Rosco: Everybody used to wear them, Lina.

Lina Lamont: Well, then everybody was a dope

Hagen would've been 86 today. She never got the big film career she deserved after her Lina Lamont triumph and soon transferred over to television. Ironically, the actress who gifted us one of the cinema's all time funniest vocal characterizations died of throat cancer when she was only 54.

I'd love to watch Singin' in the Rain back-to-back with Bullets Over Broadway to see Lina's closest modern equivalent, Jennifer Tilly as "Olive Neal", in direct succession. What is it about fine actresses playing bad actresses that thrills so?

Lina Lamont: 'People'? I ain't 'people.' I am a - 'a shimmering, glowing star in the cinema firmament.' It says so right here.

More Lina? Try this Film Experience Classic: JA watches Singin' In the Rain for the first time while guest blogging in March 2008

April Showers, Singin' in the Rain

april showers, evenings @ 11

If someone invokes the title Singin' in the Rain you're probably instantly transported to memories of the arguably the most famous dance in film history, as Gene Kelly joyously splashes through the streets, a fool in love grin plastered all over his face. But the greatest thing about Singin' in the Rain is that you don't even have to wait 67 minutes and 48 seconds for the title song and the joy it imparts. You don't even have to wait twenty seconds.


Singin' in the Rain is so generous of spirit that it just hands you the joy the moment the MGM lion stops roaring. And it hands you the title song as soon as the stars names have flashed on their umbrellas in its wicked fun gleefully literal intro.


Here's your stars. They're dancing and singin' in the rain. After all, why make the audience wait? If your movie is overflowing with classic sequences, perfect moments, and exuberant performances you can get away with a lot. There's no need to worry about peaking too early, outstaying your welcome.


It's bliss from frame one on. The bliss increases exponentially. Once Gene (♥) starts splashing around again sixty-seven minutes later, it's become the happiest movie of all time.
*

AFI: The New Top 100 List

The Revised Greatest American Films List
I'm happy to see Blade Runner, Nashville, and Cabaret added. They all hold high rank in my own favorites listing. What say ye about this new lineup? (To be helpful I've added their previous AFI ranking to the right --big changes in bold)

1. "Citizen Kane" (1941) same
2. "The Godfather" (1972) 3
3. "Casablanca" (1942) 2
4. "Raging Bull" (1980) 24
5. "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) 10
6. "Gone With the Wind" (1939) 4
7. "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) 5
8. "Schindler's List" (1993) 9
9. "Vertigo" (1958) 61
10. "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) 6


11. "City Lights" (1931) 76
12. "The Searchers" (1956) 96
13. "Star Wars" (1977) 15
14. "Psycho" (1960) 18
15. "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) 22
16. "Sunset Boulevard" (1950) 12
17. "The Graduate" (1967) 7
18. "The General" (1927) new
19. "On the Waterfront" (1954) 8
20. "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) 11

21. "Chinatown" (1974) 19
22. "Some Like It Hot" (1959) 14
23. "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940) 21
24. "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) 25
25. "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962) 34
26. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939) 29
27. "High Noon" (1952) 33
28. "All About Eve" (1950) 16
29. "Double Indemnity" (1944) 38
30. "Apocalypse Now" (1979) 28

31. "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) 23
32. "The Godfather, Part II" (1974) same
33. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975) 20
34. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) 49
35. "Annie Hall" (1977) 31
36. "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) 13
37. "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946) same
38. "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948) 30
39. "Dr. Strangelove" (1964) 26
40. "The Sound of Music" (1965) 55

41. "King Kong" (1933) 43
42. "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) 27
43. "Midnight Cowboy" (1969) 36
44. "The Philadelphia Story" (1940) 51
45. "Shane" (1953) 69
46. "It Happened One Night" (1934) 35
47. "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) 45
48. "Rear Window" (1954) 42
49. "Intolerance" (1916) new
50. "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001) new

51. "West Side Story" (1961) 41
52. "Taxi Driver" (1976) 47
53. "The Deer Hunter" (1978) 79
54. "M*A*S*H" (1970) 56
55. "North by Northwest" (1959) 40
56. "Jaws" (1975) 48
57. "Rocky" (1976) 78
58. "The Gold Rush" (1925) 74
59. "Nashville" (1975) new
60. "Duck Soup" (1933) 85

61. "Sullivan's Travels" (1941) new
62. "American Graffiti" (1973) 77
63. "Cabaret" (1972) new
64. "Network" (1976) 66
65. "The African Queen" (1951) 17
66. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981) 60
67. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966) new
68. "Unforgiven" (1992) 98
69. "Tootsie" (1982) 62
70. "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) 46 (i still don't understand how this one qualifies as American)

71. "Saving Private Ryan" (1998) new
72. "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994) new
73. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969) 50
74. "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991) 65
75. "In the Heat of the Night" (1967) new
76. "Forrest Gump" (1994) 71
77. "All the President's Men" (1976) new
78. "Modern Times" (1936) 81
79. "The Wild Bunch" (1969) 80
80. "The Apartment" (1960) 93

81. "Spartacus" (1960) new
82. "Sunrise" (1927) new
83. "Titanic" (1997) new
84. "Easy Rider" (1969) 88
85. "A Night at the Opera" (1935) new
86. "Platoon" (1986) 83
87. "12 Angry Men" (1957) new
88. "Bringing Up Baby" (1938) 97
89. "The Sixth Sense" (1999) new
90. "Swing Time" (1936) new

91. "Sophie's Choice" (1982) new
92. "Goodfellas" (1990) 94
93. "The French Connection" (1971) 70
94. "Pulp Fiction" (1994) 95
95. "The Last Picture Show" (1971) new
96. "Do the Right Thing" (1989) new
97. "Blade Runner" (1982) new
98. "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942) 100
99. "Toy Story" (1995) new
100. "Ben-Hur" (1959) 72

<---they're tearing him apart: James Dean lost BOTH his spots on the top 100. And Monty Clift too. Argh. The films that fell out were...Doctor Zhivago #39, North by Northwest #40, Birth of a Nation #44, From Here To Eternity #52, Amadeus #53, All Quiet on the Western Front #54, The Third Man #57, Fantasia #58, Rebel Without a Cause #59, Stagecoach #63, Close Encounters of the Third Kind #64, The Manchurian Candidate #67, An American in Paris #68, Wuthering Heights #73, Dances With Wolves #75, Giant #82, Fargo #84, Mutiny on the Bounty #86, Frankenstein #87, Patton #89, The Jazz Singer #90, My Fair Lady #91, A Place in the Sun #92, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner #99

weirdest entry: Sophie's Choice... almost never listed in any "best of", apart from Meryl Streep's astonishing performance, is in the top 100 --They collectively name it the 6th best of the entire 80s decade. Whaaaa?

lesson learned: nothing below the top 30 is ever safe. It all depends on who they poll and which way the winds blow.