RIP Debbie Reynolds

she was personality really more than anything. She wasn't much of an actress, and couldn't sing - her voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon in 'Singin' in the Rain', and very ironic that at the end of the picture when the curtain is drawn to reveal Jean Hagen miming with Reynolds apparently singing behind her, Reynold's voice is itself being dubbed by Nixon's.

 

almost all of the movies she was in were terrible, but her performance as a teenager in just that single picture was enough to guarantee her screen immortality. She didn't come from a show business family and had no dance training at all, and MGM, although they could dub her voice, they couldn't get a stand in dancer the same way, and it really is her dancing on the screen, so they put her through this incredibly arduous 15 week or something long crash dancing course which if she hadn't been only 18 years of age, might easily have killed her. And it worked. She holds her own on screen with two of the greatest screen dancers ever who'd been dancing in front of audiences since they were like 3 years old - Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor. They did have to wheel out Cyd Charisse to do the really challenging female dance part in that film, but the routines Reynolds did take part in, she was more than satisfactory. But she never danced like that, at the absolutely top level, in another film ever again.

 

she was popular because the camera caught this girl next door personality and although she came across as being bubbly and effervescent, she wasn't in the least bit threatening to anybody. And being involved in one of the greatest movie star scandals as the 'wronged woman', brought her a lot of public sympathy.

 

but if you look through her list of films, all of them are terrible, except Singin in the Rain. All the obituaries are mentioning the Unsinkable Molly Brown, for which she got an Oscar nomination, but if you have actually seen the movie, it's only marginally less bad than most of the rest of her films were.

Wow what a misery you are.

It's a time for respect not for gobbing off on what is meant to be a tribute thread

It's a time for respect not for gobbing off on what is meant to be a tribute thread

He did the same when Richard Attenborough died, not that long ago.

She was a brilliant performer but not much of an actress or a singer. And she only ever danced for real, in that one superb film (all the rest she was in were dross) in which she was incredibly lucky to be involved. Like her daughter, Reynolds was a self deprecating person and I doubt if she'd disagree with much of what I've said. If you read her frank and open memoirs, she said that she hated the public always thinking she was this pretty, but not too beautiful dancing girl that just popped out of the MGM cake. But really that was exactly what she was.

RIP

really sad for family