Debbie Reynolds Gave An All-Time Great Performance In Singin' In The Rain When She Was Just A Teen
When I first came to know Debbie Reynolds as an actor, I didn't know her as Carrie Fisher's mother. I knew her as Albert Brooks' mother.
Specifically, I knew Reynolds as Beatrice Henderson in Brooks' delightful 1996 comedy "Mother." An eccentric widow who lives alone, Beatrice is more than a little perplexed when her grown son John (Brooks) — a neurotic sci-fi novelist struck by a case of writer's block after his second divorce — moves back home to live with her, hoping to gain some insight as to why his relationships with women keep failing. Reynolds is an utter joy in the film, her exchanges with Brooks ringing painfully but hilariously true to so many people's relationships with their parents as adults (from Beatrice's passive-aggressive "observations" about John's love life to her and John's squabbles over food brands and grocery shopping). It's a high crime that Reynolds didn't even receive so much as an Oscar nod for the movie.
Reynolds was 64 years old when "Mother" opened in theaters, but she was a mere 19 years old when she shot her scenes opposite screen legends Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor for Kelly and Stanley Donen's classic 1952 Hollywood musical "Singin' in the Rain" (a movie yours truly happily wrote about for /Film's Top 100 Movies of All Time). It wasn't Reynolds' first film; in fact, she had already appeared in nearly half a dozen movies by the time it arrived. But it was, without a doubt, the film that catapulted her into the spotlight for the first time thanks to Reynolds' all-timer of a great performance.
'Well, let's get started'
"Singin' in the Rain" casts Debbie Reynolds as Kathy Selden. A humble chorus girl with dreams of superstardom, Kathy gets her shot at the big-time upon meeting Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly), an in-demand silent film star struggling to stay afloat as "talkies" become the hottest new thing in late-1920s Hollywood. It's the perfect example of art imitating life. Reynolds, like Kathy, was determined to earn her stripes with "Singin'," even if that meant having to keep pace with Kelly and Donald O'Connor. At the time, those two were already masters of their craft at the height of their popularity, with (collectively) decades of experience singing and dancing on the big screen under their belts.
Whereas Reynolds, on the other hand, basically had none.
"You know, I was so dumb that I didn't feel you could fail. I felt [the role] was me, and I marched straight ahead," a smiling Reynolds told the American Film Institute in 2012 (via Vox). She added:
"To dance with Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor in three months — well, anyone else should've passed out. But I didn't. I just thought, 'Well, let's get started.'"
Reynolds readily proved she was more than right to have such unbridled confidence in herself. With only those three months of preparation, she managed to go toe to toe with Kelly and O'Connor, most notably during perhaps the film's most enchanting musical number, "Good Morning." Capping off a night spent racking their brains about how to salvage Don's disastrous post-converted talkie "The Dueling Cavalier" (turn it into a musical, of course!), the scene sees Kathy, Don, and Don's BFF Cosmo Brown (O'Connor) cheerfully tap-dance a storm across Don's house in celebration, grinning and crooning a harmonious melody as they do. It's an instance of genuine movie magic.
Debbie Reynolds had a wonderful third act
Her turn in "Singin' in the Rain" kicked off an impressive 60-year run for Debbie Reynolds, during which she continued to utilize her musical talents in hit '60s features like "The Singing Nun" and "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" (the movie that landed Reynolds her only Oscar nod for acting). Starting in the '50s, Reynolds also began scaling the Billboard charts as a pop music singer, in addition to eventually performing live at nightclubs. Even when film and television opportunities dried up for her in the '70s (because of, y'know, sexism and ageism), Reynolds gracefully shifted into stage acting instead. There was just no stopping her.
Reynolds' performances in the Disney Channel's "Halloweentown" movies as the charming matriarchal witch Splendora Agatha "Aggie" Cromwell are frequently credited for launching her third act. However, as much as I enjoy those adorkable family-friendly fantasy flicks, it's "Mother" that was the true catalyst for her return to the spotlight, arriving two years before the original "Halloweentown" came out in 1998. This also led to Reynolds doing voice acting in films like the English dub of Hayao Miyazaki's brilliant animated feature "Kiki's Delivery Service" (another title from /Film's greatest movies list), even as she continued to perform in nightclubs at a pace that would've been exhausting for a teenager, much less a senior citizen.
Those who have never watched it would do well to seek out "Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds," Alexis Bloom and Fisher Stevens' documentary about the titular mother-daughter duo that was released shortly after Fisher and Reynolds' heartbreaking, sudden deaths in late 2016. It's a funny, poignant, and deeply touching testament to a real-life showbiz parent-child duo, as well as the perfect complement to Reynolds' performance in "Singin' in the Rain."