Debbie Reynolds: Remembering the Blood, Sweat, and Tears That Went Into the Joyful 'Good Morning' from 'Singin' in the Rain'

Good luck trying to find a more exuberant, joy-inducing scene in movie history than the “Good Morning” number from 1952’s Singin’ in the Rain (watch it above), performed by the trio of Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O’Connor. Reynolds, who died yesterday at the age of 84, was just 17 years old when she shot the MGM musical, which launched her Hollywood career and remains her most beloved role. Yet to watch Reynolds in “Good Morning” — radiant and youthful, with seemingly boundless energy — is to forget the literal blood, sweat, and tears she put into that number.

In the video below, excerpted from the 2002 American Masters documentary Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer, Reynolds reveals that she had no formal dance training when MGM producers cast her as aspiring actress Kathy Selden in the film (which was choreographed and co-directed by Kelly). Reynolds didn’t know basic tap steps, and yet was expected to perform complicated routines in a matter of weeks at the same level as her co-stars, two of the best dancers in film history. (Skip to the three-minute mark to watch Reynolds’ interview.)

“I was really that character [Kathy Selden],” Reynolds said. “I was this little na?ve girl who met this famous movie star and she had to learn how to keep up with his dreams for her.”

Kelly was a famously demanding choreographer, sometimes locking Reynolds in a room to practice until her feet bled. “Gene was a real taskmaster because he had to be,” Reynolds said. “In order for a young girl to learn that much, that’s almost impossible.” She added, “I was in tears a lot.”

Related: Debbie Reynolds: Her Most Memorable Roles

One of those times she was in tears, an unexpected ally came to the rescue. Reynolds often told the story of how Fred Astaire found her crying under a piano on the MGM lot, and invited her to watch his private rehearsal — something no one was ever allowed to do — in order to show her how much hard work went into making those breezy-looking dance routines, even for him. Watch her recall that day in the video below (from the American Film Institute, which put Singin’ in the Rain at the top of its all-time Greatest Movie Musicals list).

In her 1988 memoir Debbie: My Life, Reynolds called “Good Morning” — particularly that scene at the end, when she and the two men somersault over one couch and tip over another — “the hardest scene I’ve ever done.” But though the experience of working on that film wasn’t a happy one, she never regretted it, or resented Kelly for pushing her. “He worked me hard,” said Reynolds in 2002, “but he taught me so well that I’m still in the business 52 years later because of his teachings.”

Debbie Reynolds, Hollywood Legend, Dies at 84: