Plot Segmentation- Singin' in the Rain

C. Credits

1.       The Royal Rascal premiere:

a.       The main characters are introduced on the red carpet: Cosmo Brown, Don Lockwood, and Lina Lamont.

b.      Don gives a false verbal assessment of the start of his career, while a flashback shows his true debut to Hollywood.

c.       Fit as a Fiddle is a musical number in the flashback of Cosmo and Don tap dancing and playing fiddles together before Don’s big break in Hollywood.

d.      In the flashback, Don volunteers to be stunt man, and becomes a regular for Monumental Pictures.

e.      R.F. Simpson, Studio Head of Monumental Pictures, hires Don as a star in a picture with Lina Lamont in the flashback.

f.        Don takes over thank you speech after premiere from Lina which upsets her backstage.

g.       The producers, Don, and Cosmo express that Lina’s voice is too high pitched for public display.

h.      Don rejects Lina’s allegation to an engagement, and explains they are only posed in a relationship for publicity.

2.       Don Lockwood and Kathy Selden Meet:

a.       Don is attacked by a crowd of fans when he has a flat tire.

b.      Don escapes by falling into Kathy’s vehicle causing her to panic and flag down a police officer.

c.       Kathy discovers who Don is and offers to drive him to Sunset and Camden.

d.      Kathy gives her opinion of silent films, “You’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.”

e.      Don is offended, and mocks Kathy’s wish to be on a stage.

f.        Kathy turns down Don’s advances, and he exits the car tearing his coat.

3.       Talking pictures introduced at The Royal Rascal premiere party:

a.       Don questions his acting ability to Cosmo upon entering the party.

b.      R.F. displays a talking picture, and there is a negative reaction to the first one coming soon, “The Jazz Singer.”

c.       All I Do Is Dream of You is a musical number Kathy and other women perform at the premiere party.

d.      Don is surprised by Kathy’s appearance and pursues her.

e.      Lina shows jealousy, and Kathy, missing Don, mistakenly pies Lina in the face.

f.        Don pursues after running Kathy, but she escapes the part y in her car.

4.       Don and Cosmo on set:

a.       Don and Cosmo talk about Don’s thoughts of Kathy for the past two weeks.

b.      Kathy lost her job, and Don desires to find her.

c.       Cosmo tries to talk him out of it and to cheer him up by performing musical number, Make’Em Laugh.

5.       Don and Lena “silent” filming:

a.       Don and Lina separately emerge from dressing rooms.

b.      Don discovers Lena got Kathy fired.

c.       Don must pretend to be madly in love with Lina during the silent movie filming while actually fighting with her.

d.      R.F. shuts down the studio for a couple weeks to transition into making talking pictures.

e.      Everyone recognizes Lina’s inability to talk in the new talking pictures.

f.        A musical number about talking pictures occurs.

6.       Beautiful Girls musical number:

a.       A man, Kathy, and other women perform for a talking picture, singing a song and dancing.

b.      The man announces girls with different outfits.

c.       Kathy is hired to be in Don’s movie.

7.       You Were Meant for Me musical number:

a.       Kathy and Don admit their feelings for each other.

b.      Don establishes the proper setting to admit his affections for Kathy.

c.       Don sings to Kathy, and they dance together.

8.       Diction coaches:

a.       Lina has a class to improve her voice which has little effect.

b.      Don’s lesson goes well, Cosmo comes to mock his teacher, and the two have a comedic musical number of singing and tap dancing, Moses Supposes.

9.       Sound problems on set:

a.        Director Roscoe Dexter struggles to get Lina to talk into the microphone.

b.      Lina is wired with a microphone in her dress, and R.F. accidently pulls her wire later making her fall over.

10.   The preview of The Dueling Cavalier talking picture:

a.       People make fun of their talking picture attempt including their mistakes with prop sounds and timing.

b.      Everyone but Lina believes it will be a disaster if the film is released wide.

11.   Make it a musical:

a.       Negative thoughts about the film are exchanged between Cosco, Don, and Kathy.

b.      Don believes his career is over, so Kathy and Cosco cheer him up and encourage him to make The Dueling Cavalier a musical.

c.       Good Morning musical number full of tap dancing, singing, and dancing raincoats occurs when they realize it is past midnight.

d.      Cosmo has a brilliant idea to have Kathy be Lina’s voice in The Dueling Cavalier.

12.   Singin’ in the Rain musical number:

a.       Don decides to walk home from Kathy’s, and begins to sing and dance in the rain-filled city streets.

b.      Don is discovered by a police officer, halts his singing and dancing, gives his umbrella to a needy stranger, and walks home.

13.   Don and Cosco pitch musical idea to R.F.:

a.       Agreeing to make the film a musical, the men pace the floor to think of a new title (The Dancing Cavalier), and a new plot, which are both fashioned by Cosco.

b.      Kathy does the voiceover for Lina, while Lina believes she is voicing the character.

14.   The Broadway Melody:

a.       Filming for The Dancing Cavalier begins with a musical number about introducing Broadway to a newcomer, played by Don.

b.      Don seeks to find an agent, and performs on stage for a club in the musical film.

c.       Don gets off stage as the floor empties of people, and Don tap dances to meet a shady woman’s leg. He steals away the woman from a scar-faced man to dance with her as she teases him.

d.      The scar-faced man offers her diamonds and gets the shady woman back.

e.      The agent finds Don and puts him back to work flashing Don on multiple Broadway stages.

f.        Don sees the shady woman again in a club, and imagines dancing with her again.

g.       In reality, the shady woman goes to the scar-faced man, leaving Don a tip for his hat and cane to leave the club.

h.      Don leaves the club, interacts with the next newcomer to Broadway, remembers his goal on Broadway, and sings the grand finale musical number.

15.   Lina’s Revenge:

a.      Kathy and Don are caught by Lina recording the voiceover for The Dancing Cavalier.

b.      Don confesses his love for Kathy, his desire to marry her, and his intention to give Kathy voiceover credit in the film.

c.       Lina leeks an exclusive story to the papers about her voice being original.

d.      Lina wants to keep Kathy as her voice, and tries to persuades R.F. to keep her there because Lina is “more valuable” to the company than Kathy.

16.   Opening night -The Dancing Cavalier:

a.       The crowd applauses at the close of The Dancing Cavalier.

b.      Lina announces backstage that she plans for Kathy to continue as her voice.

c.       Kathy refuses, but she is under contract.

d.      Lina makes a speech to the audience who demand to hear her sing.

e.      She lip-sings Singin’ in the Rain with Kathy singing for her behind the curtain.

f.        RF, Cosco and Don pull the curtain to show Lina as a fraud.

g.       Don sings musical number You are My Lucky Star to Kathy which transitions into a duet in front of the audience.

h.      The film closes with Don and Kathy kissing in front of the Singin’ in the Rain Billboard starring Don and Kathy together.

E. End Credits

Writing the Plot Segmentation for Singin’ in the Rain allowed me to view a film in a new manner. I was able to cognitively engage myself with the characters and the plot. Analyzing this film, I distinguished the film form. The film follows specific conventions of musicals in this era of Hollywood by having random song numbers placed within the plot. While writing the Plot Segmentation, I understood how the filmmakers strategically placed these musical numbers. 

I was able to portray the function the characters played in the film: the hero (Don), the heroine (Kathy), and the comic relief (Cosco). I noticed the use of repetition in the actors’ lines to help viewers keep track of cause and effect. For example, there are the reminders that Lina’s voice cannot be used in talking pictures. I noticed how they compare Lina and Kathy multiple times throughout the film to encourage viewers to prefer Kathy. I recognized the unity between Don and Kathy in contrast to the disunity involving Don and Lina.

 I also was able to pay more attention to the overall development of the plot of the film. The narrative qualities of this film follow the classic Hollywood style by displaying the protagonist (Don) with the problems of his career, his desiring of new girl Kathy, and his wish to further Kathy’s career. Using cause and effect, the chain of events unfolds into solutions. Don begins his career in talking pictures, gets the girl, and promotes her career in talking pictures with him. When I transitioned from passively watching films to actively analyzing one for this Plot Segmentation, I was able to engage myself with the film form and the narrative.