Take home the beloved classic, “Singing in the Rain” restored in glorious 4K for its 70th anniversary, and I sit down with Gene Kelly’s Wife, Patricia Kelly!
Today you can take home the newly remastered 4K version of “Singing in the Rain,” in celebration of its 70th anniversary! The new 4K master was created by meticulously aligning the three positive separation masters that were made from the original Technicolor negatives. Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging carefully scanned each of these B&W “records” which represent the primary Red, Green, and Blue primary colors. The result is an unprecedented presentation that shows off the phenomenal Technicolor photography as never seen before. This is a significant leap forward from previous video iterations. For the film’s 50th anniversary in 2002, Warner Bros. proprietary Ultra-Resolution technology was used to re-align the separation masters, which were a big step forward from previous video releases. For the 60th anniversary in 2012, the process had been improved for the film’s Blu-ray release. Now, for the 70th anniversary, the improvements are even more significant using the most progressive tools for image realignment and stabilization, with an image that looks even better than when the film was brand new.
To celebrate, I also had a chance to speak with Patricia Kelly, the wife of the late great Gene Kelly and star of “Singing in the Rain.” Patricia and Gene first met at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. in 1985, when he was the host/narrator for a television special and she was a writer. Soon after, he invited her to California to write his memoir, a job for which she recorded his words nearly every day for over ten years. They married in 1990 and were together until his death in 1996. Currently, Mrs. Kelly serves as Trustee of The Gene Kelly Image Trust and Creative Director of The Gene Kelly Legacy, Inc., a corporation established to celebrate Gene Kelly’s artistry worldwide. She lives in Los Angeles where she curates the Gene Kelly Archives and is completing the book about her late husband.
I had the opportunity to ask Patricia about all the different stories and rumors surrounding the production of “Singing in the Rain,” and how many of them actually held true.
“Sining in the Rain” in now available today in 4K!
