It’s time again to sing, and dance — in the rain

Above : “Singin’ in the Rain” is celebrating its 70th anniversary. (Photo/Fathom Events)

My first movie memory involves dancing. A lot of dancing. And singing. In the rain.

One of the most acclaimed movie musicals ever filmed, “Singin’ in the Rain” premiered in Miami and New York City on March 27th, 1952 (but it opened wide on April 11th).

Which means the film is celebrating its 70th birthday. And which means you can take part in the party either on Sunday at 4 p.m. or Wednesday at 7 p.m. when the film will screen at both Regal’s Northtown Mall and Coeur d’Alene’s Riverstone Stadium .

Directed by Stanley Donen, with Gene Kelly both starring and choreographing, the film is a study of the transition from silent movies to sound. Kelly plays the movie star Don Lockwood, Debbie Reynolds the ingénue Kathy Selden, Donald O’Connor as the best friend Cosmo Brown and Jean Hagen as Don’s co-star and supposed love interest, Lina Lamont.

Described as a “transcendent experience” by the late Roger Ebert , the film received two Academy Award nominations – for Hagen as Best Supporting Actress and for Best Musical Score. It won neither.

Yet the film has only grown in stature over the years. The American Film Institute lists it as No. 10 of the “100 Greatest American Films of All Time” (No. 5 in the 10th Anniversary Edition ).

Writing in 2007, Chicago Reader critic Dave Kehr called it “One of the shining glories of the American musical.”

Jane Sumner of the Dallas Morning News, in 2002 wrote, “Fifty years later, it’s still a delight with everybody working at the top of his or her game.”

Marjorie Baumgarten of the Austin Chronicle, writing in 2000, was even more effusive, calling it “Arguably the greatest movie musical of all time.”

You have to ask yourself, which is greater – one of those little gold statuettes or 70 years of adulation? The answer … is obvious.