MovieChat Forums > Singin' in the Rain (1952) Discussion > Anyone feel for Lina Lamont?

Anyone feel for Lina Lamont?

posted 13 years ago by There_Is_No_Sayid
50 replies | jump to latest

Everyone seemed to hate Lina, but why? Sure she's a ditz and she can't take the hint that Don's not into her, but I kept on thinking that here's this woman who worked her way to the top of her profession and is trying to keep her career intact and everyone's always dumping on her. I particularly find it ironic that they treat Lina as a villain for trying to cover up the fact that Kathy was dubbing her voice when they dubbed Debby Reynold's voice in the movie.

"Unless Alpert's covered in bacon grease, I don't think Hugo can track anything."

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] elisedfr 9 years ago

I tend to agree the treatment of Lina as "the baddie" was a bit far-fetched in the film. It's like the scriptwriters tried all the time to convince us she was really no good (except at being funny) and that we ought to root for Don and Kathy's couple. Cosmo, in particular, was always bashing her.
Still, the only bad things she had really done were : 1) getting Kathy fired (an extreme reaction but I can understand she did not like getting a cake in the face at a big reception) 2) forcing Kathy to remain her voice when she wanted to break the contract. Again, it's not nice at all: but I felt for her when the studio producer said the credits would mention it was not Lina's real voice but Kathy's. Letting Kathy run her own career seems just natural but if they wanted to save the movie and their reputations, why make a fool out of Lina ?

" You ain't running this place, Bert, WILLIAMS is!" Sgt Harris

[–] tgemberl 9 years ago

I felt sorry for Lina. She was an actress at an unlucky time, when her talents would no longer be desired.

But then I feel sorry for Adolf Hitler, too. He was lucky to have great gifts as a speaker but unlucky to have no wisdom in using them.

"Extremism in the pursuit of moderation is no vice."

[–] snsurone 9 years ago

I DO hope you're kidding!

Hitler was the personification of pure evil, whether he was a great speaker or not.

[–] tgemberl 9 years ago

No, I don't think so. The formula for great evil is power without wisdom. Hitler had power from his speaking ability but no wisdom for using it.

I remember there was a scene in a bar where Hitler is sitting with a group of his party members. He is the only one who is not drinking. Apparently he realized he needed to discipline himself to avoid saying or doing something stupid. That shows even things we think of as positive, like self-discipline, can be used for evil.

I don't like the idea of individuals as "personifications of evil," because I think we use that idea to convince ourselves we couldn't do the things they did. I believe in fact we could if the circumstances were right. We all have the capacity to be good or evil.

Probably 90% of the time Hitler was a "normal" person, kissing babies and other things we think are normal and good.

"Extremism in the pursuit of moderation is no vice."

[–] snsurone 8 years ago

Hitler was a raving lunatic who used his personal charisma as well as the horrid state of the post WWI German economy to rise to power and impose his evil and his lies (especially about the Jews) on the world.
Part of the blame for his rise falls on the Allies who insisted that the defeated Germany pay war reparations, which it was unable to do.
If that nation had been allowed to recover economically, nobody would ever have heard of Hitler.

In fact, the Hitler of 1933 can be likened to Donald Trump today, especially the way people run to his side.
It's really scary!

[–] greenpen33 9 years ago

I do feel slightly sorry for Lina when I watch this film, although I do realize she does some malicious things. She is an interesting character to watch though, and provides some great comedic moments in the film. For example, when everyone is walking out of the theater after her and Don's talkie film screening, and everyone is remarking on how terrible the film is, and Lina says, "I liked it!"

Jennie

[–] Maddyclassicfilms 9 years ago

Yes I feel sorry for her as well. She represents in my opinion, all the Silent stars who's careers ended when the talkies came about because their voices didn't sound right to some people. I always feel awful for her when the curtain is lifted and it's revealed she's not singing, how embarrassing must that have been!

Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .

[–] thesnowleopard 8 years ago

I find this thread fascinating because I think the debate is intentional on the movie's part. You *do* feel sorry for Lina at first. She's not allowed to talk because she has an embarrassing voice. She's apparently being upstaged by her costar and his new girlfriend. And her career's about to go down the tubes thanks to the introduction of sound.

But as the film progresses, you start to see what a vindictive, self-absorbed, mean-spirited snake Lina really is. It's not her central conflict (that her career is dying) that's the problem. That's nobody's fault, including hers. It's how she responds to it.

You also see that while initially, Don and the others seem to be pushing Lina around, they're actually scrambling to cover for her. Sure, they're doing it to save the picture, not her, but throwing her under the career bus isn't their first move.

And as you go along, you see that Lina responds to every embarrassing situation with overt hostility, that she treats anyone beneath her on the Hollywood ladder like dirt just because they're beneath her. She's vindictive and she's mean, not just to Don and Kathy, but to Cosmo and even RF. And the fact that she's actually a lot more cunning than anybody gave her credit for highlights her colossal self-absorption that much more. The other main characters grow and become better people--not Lina.

Jean Hagen must have had a field day with the role.

Innsmouth Free Press http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com

[–] elena-28 8 years ago

Jean Hagen must have had a field day with the role.

TCM has a very nice short - an interview with Donald O'Connor talking about "Singin' in the Rain". He talks about the character of Lina and the fantastic wisdom of casting Jean Hagen in the role: a serious actress, he explains, who understood the tone of the story and was able to play Lina "straight" while keeping in tune with the rest of the movie. He says it was Hagen who was able to make Lina such a richly enjoyable villainess.

[–] snsurone 8 years ago

Well, considering what she tried to do to Kathy, it served her right!

[–] ilovemyrv 8 years ago

I think the fact that so many of us don't hate Lina, despite her many flaws, is a great testament to Jean Hagen's wonderful skill as an actor.

[–] thesnowleopard 7 years ago

I think the fact that so many of us don't hate Lina, despite her many flaws, is a great testament to Jean Hagen's wonderful skill as an actor.

Oh, hell, yes, I loooooooooove to hate her. But there's just that small bit of pathos. Great comic performance.

The Historical Meow http://thesnowleopard.net

[–] lubin-freddy 7 years ago

For sure. She wasn't a bad person, she just became the image the studios created for her, and she was threatened. For real, she saw her whole life in danger.

What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.

[–] snsurone 7 years ago

Of course, nobody is born bad, but success in silent movies went to Lina's head, and she couldn't (or wouldn't) see that she was unsuited for talkies with her ear-splitting voice.

Lina was desperate to save her career at the expense of the young actress whose star was beginning to rise.
Sheer vindictiveness!
She deserved her humiliation and being the laughing stock of Hollywood.
She probably ended up drinking herself to death, like Marie Prevost.

[–] DarthBill 7 years ago

I feel a little sorry for Lina despite her nastiness mostly because she symbolizes however unsympathetically the silent film actors who were put out of work because of their voices. As nasty as she was to lose her job because she had a poor speaking voice (and I don't mean to dismiss how the public humiliation she suffers at the end was partly self-engineered) still elicits some sympathy.

And the Heck of it is Lina's career might have survived the sound conversion if she say reinvented herself as a comedienne, using her squeaky voice as a source of humor, but her ego was probably too big for that.