For the next two weeks we'll be celebrating all three of the Honorary Oscar Recipients at TFE. Here's Dancin' Dan to kick things off... with musical numbers. - Editor
Debbie Reynolds may not have started out as a dancer, but she sure made a great one on film. I can be (and honestly have been known on occasion to be) somewhat churlish and point out the exact moment from the legendary "Good Morning" number in Singin' in the Rain where the 19 year-old ingenue starts cheating her steps... but it's my favorite movie, and we're here to honor the unsinkable Ms. Reynolds, so why would I want to?
And besides, she's already proven herself the cat's meow in her first number in the film, the perfectly pretty in pink "All I Do is Dream of You". (more...)
Never mind the other (clearly over-the-hill) chorus girls surrounding her, never mind the constant barrage of streamers threatening to trip her up, Debbie doesn't miss a beat. But even more important than that, she performs the HELL out of this number. She radiates so much charisma your eyes would still be drawn to her if she weren't front and center. Somehow, even though she's mugging for that camera like her life depended on it, she doesn't look like she's overdoing it. It's her most defining trait as a performer.
Take, for example, this number from I Love Melvin, the underrated follow-up she and Donald O'Connor made together not two years after Singin' in the Rain:
Putting Debbie and Donald, two of the biggest hams in the business, together should make the film stock sag from exhaustion from sheer overexuberance, but instead the number is a pure blast. Debbie's face-pulling looks cute instead of overbearing, and she has a grounded quality to her that stops her from flying away completely. Moreso than most modern-day stars, she has the amazing ability to draw you in and make you love her, no matter what she's doing. If what she's doing is ridiculous -- which it often is -- she looks like she knows it's ridiculous, and loves doing it still. This is true star quality.
If you doubt that star quality - or her dancing ability - just watch this clip from 1953's The Affairs of Dobie Gillis, in which she steals focus not just from co-stars Bobby Van and Barbara Ruick, but from none other than the man himself, Bob Fosse.
She may not have been a trained dancer, but she sure played a damn good one on film. None of her films came anywhere close to the level of Singin' in the Rain (what could?), but she consistently gave it all she's got, which is not an inconsiderable amount of talent.
Congratulations, Debbie! For these performances, and so much more, we are glad you're receiving an Honorary Academy Award.