Scene from Singin' in the Rain

It's the best-known of all the Gene Kelly numbers: he tap-dances his way through a catchy song, splashing in puddles, swinging from lamp-posts and wielding his umbrella to emphasise his nimble choreography. He had a fever of 103° at the time.

The film was made at the studios at Culver City in western LA, and two permanent streets were plumbed up for this particular scene. A complex system of pipes was used to create the rainfall, and special puddles made to key in to Kelly's choreography. Milk was mixed with the water to make it more visible to the cameras. From the word go the shoots were arduous and long – sometimes up to 19 hours a day – and shooting had to be arranged around the sudden water shortages that arrived every day at 2pm, when the local residents at nearby Beverly Hills turned on their lawn sprinklers. Days of water-logged rehearsals took their toll on Kelly's health, and he developed a raging fever at the time the scene was shot. His fine grey suit had also shrunk badly from all the dousings, partly restricting his movements.

It's said that Kelly was so enraged by the scene's subversion in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, for an especially violent rape scene, he ostentatiously snubbed actor Malcolm McDowell at a Hollywood gathering.

Roger Clarke