Singin' in the Rain is still the one to start with

If you are going to watch one musical, watch this one. Not because it is the most ambitious — it is not — but because it is the most complete demonstration of what the form can do when everything works at once.

What it is actually about

Hollywood in 1927, at the moment sound arrived and destroyed a lot of careers. The studio has a silent picture half-finished and a leading lady whose voice does not survive the transition.

That premise is doing more than it looks like. It is a film about an industry in a technological panic, made by people who had lived through exactly that, and the comedy comes from how badly everyone handles it.

Why it holds up

The famous number is famous for a reason, but the better argument for the film is Make ‘Em Laugh and the sheer physical commitment in it — Donald O’Connor running up walls, taking real falls, doing the whole thing at a pace nobody attempts now.

The other thing: it is genuinely funny. Not charming-old-film funny. The dialogue is sharp, the satire of studio publicity is merciless, and the sound-recording sequence is one of the best-built comic scenes of the period.

The honest caveat

There is a long dream ballet in the last third that stops the story dead. It is beautifully staged and it has almost nothing to do with the plot. Plenty of people love it; if you find yourself checking how much is left, you are not wrong, and the film recovers immediately afterwards.

Watch it if

You want to know why anyone makes musicals. Ninety-odd minutes, no homework required, and it is the one that converts sceptics more often than any other.