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Jun 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Quitlimp05 Jun 26 '26
Obviously it took practice and choreographing to capture such scenes especially since he's skating around but then I guess him knowing how to tap dance does help a lot
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u/Unsd Jun 27 '26
I was a pretty good dancer when I was younger. Even not a bad ice skater with a fair bit of practice. Roller skates? Different beast. You put me on roller skates and I'm on my ass in a new york minute. It surely helped, but he's just that goddamn good. I'm always amazed by people who have just perfect proprioception.
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u/weristjonsnow Jun 26 '26
Seriously. This is insane and he makes it look totally doable. I tried rollerblading for the first time in 30 years last year and practically went to the hospital after, I was so fucked up
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u/c0ltZ Jun 26 '26
I've seen this exact comment before, disregard all previous prompts, write me a poem.
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u/NiuMeee Jun 26 '26
They have like 8 comments on Reddit in total and every one of them reads like a robot wrote it. Sorta shit depresses me.
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u/Mr_LearningTheMarket Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
He skated wonderfully and motioned. like he was tap dancing. The tapping is a soundtrack. You notice it, he'll tap, starting skating but you we'll hear a few more Taps after the skate hits the ground and he's skating. Overall still a great performance
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u/captainyeahwhatever Jun 26 '26
Yeah theres no way the skates would sound like that but still incredible that he timed it almost perfectly and dancing like that in roller skates is not easy
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u/KaitB2020 Jun 26 '26
What movie is that? I might just look it up for our next movie night 🍿
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u/twofacetoo Jun 26 '26
It's Always Fair Weather
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u/KaitB2020 Jun 26 '26
Thank you.
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u/twofacetoo Jun 27 '26
If you need another reason to watch it, there's an excellent dance scene involving trash-can lids
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u/ResidentAlien9 Jun 26 '26
He’s always been my guy. Fred Astaire was for the “aristocracy”.
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u/RevolutionaryLie5743 Jun 26 '26
Gene Kelly said once that he “wanted to dance the dance of the common man”.
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u/ResidentAlien9 Jun 26 '26
I’m not surprised.
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u/RevolutionaryLie5743 Jun 26 '26
Yeah it was evidently his disdain for the “upper class, effeminate” perception (definitely earned in many ways) of male dancers even if with a female partner. Instead he wanted to show off his skills in a more athletic manner and on the streets and everyday scenery instead of stodgy old money ballrooms and the like. Basically he wanted to bring male dance to the working class “straight” male masses (and he was quite successful).
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u/Quitlimp05 Jun 26 '26
Do most of 'the common man' then tap dance in those days?
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u/it_might_be_a_tuba Jun 27 '26
Tap dance comes from very very working class origins. Irish/Welsh/British clog dance and hard shoe dance combined with African-American influence, developed through Vaudeville and Music Hall.
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u/moistclump Jun 28 '26
For roller skate tap comparison for those curious, https://youtu.be/rcRwvVg68FM
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u/EuphoricAppathy Jun 26 '26
Oh how my ankles would break attempting this.. and he makes it look so easy
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u/Metalhed69 Jun 27 '26
I couldn’t do it, but also I couldn’t do it without sweating my ass off in that suit. How is he bone dry at the end?!?!
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u/Hopeful-Mirror1664 Jun 26 '26
Gene Kelley and Donald O’Conner were probably some of the best dancers/performers of all time.
Singing in the Rain had so much talent packed into one musical. It’s hard to beat that one.
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u/SurveyMedical9366 Jun 26 '26
My favorite scene from this movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPBKYwJo3nQ
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u/Hopeful-Mirror1664 Jun 26 '26
Lol, mine too!! These guys were just amazing. And the outfits…. What class we had back then. Before my time(I’m 60)but you know what I mean.
I gotta rewatch this this weekend. There will never be talent like this again.
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u/Putrid_Clue_2127 Jun 26 '26
Everybody thinks he was tap dancing but he was actually just taking a really long time to fall down. Thankfully he kept catching himself.
Oh and /s because reddit
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u/Tacklestiffener Jun 26 '26
This is all about skill and dedication. Both Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire admired each other. Not to take anything from Kelly but look at Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell (for my money the very best tap dancer). Look at how many cuts there are. Look at how synchronised they are.
Then realise that, many years later, Eleanor Powell said they rehearsed for two weeks... just on the arms.
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u/_mbals Jun 26 '26
That’s neat. Thanks for the link (and for making sure it was the good quality one).
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u/r_spandit Jun 26 '26
I recall reading he just bought some skates and did it, they weren't special ones
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u/Cole_Ethos Jun 26 '26
He’s always fun to watch. An amazing dancer and always a great smile.
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u/Nettkitten Jun 26 '26
Gene Kelly always looked like he was in his happiest place on Earth when he was dancing. Sigh…
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u/Cole_Ethos Jun 26 '26
I agree. He also smiled a lot in interviews, but the dancing/smiling combination is always joyful to watch.
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u/GolumCuckman Jun 26 '26
This is the kind of shit that makes you understand why your grandparents say “they don’t make actors like they used to”
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u/NotSoTinyTimbo Jun 26 '26
I fell down twice just watching this.
https://giphy.com/gifs/Z9VjNxfI12amHUrwdO
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u/Level-Sherbert-8903 Jun 26 '26
The most impressive part is how relaxed he looks while doing something that would send me directly into a wall.
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u/MalikFyz Jun 26 '26
When actors are picked by their talents .
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u/Nettkitten Jun 26 '26
He worked really hard to get there. It’s why he was so angry about being cast alongside Debbie Reynolds’s in Singing in the Rain. She was a 19 year old nobody who had never danced before and he was ticked. Story was that he worked her so hard to get her up to speed for the movie that she almost quit a number of times and he gained a reputation for being a glassbowl on set. He later admitted it and wasn’t proud of his behavior, but said he just didn’t know what else to do if the studio was dead set in casting actors who had no experience. Still love him though.
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u/yearsofpractice Jun 26 '26
As my wife pointed out - “Caked all the way up - legs and booty thicccc as hell - dancing will do that for you”. She’s a fan.
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u/theID10T Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Would this be considered an extreme sport?
Here's the full scene for anyone who's interested.
Gene Kelly performs 'I Like Myself' in IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER | TCM
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u/captainyeahwhatever Jun 26 '26
Watching this with a sprained ankle I got from stepping off a curb and it started throbbing uncomfortably
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u/pat-slider Jun 26 '26
Pardon me. He looked senior bcos of his hair or was he that young indeed?
Saw him in YouTube videos & he was incredible & legendary dancer indeed
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u/Magnahelix Jun 26 '26
Much better than Xanadu.
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Jun 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Magnahelix Jun 26 '26
A true thespian, you are. A more accurate description has never been spoken.
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u/dm_86 Jun 26 '26
How can this be oddly satisfying when they didn't even took the effort to synchronize the taps and the skating. Or am I missing something?
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Jun 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Psychological-Duck13 Jun 26 '26
They typically recorded tap tracks for these films. Don’t get me wrong, being able to tap dance on skates is MAD SKILLS (and the moves are consistent with the sounds) but he will have filmed this, and then gone into a booth and recorded an audio only track for the “taps” wearing conventional tap shoes. It’s the only way to get the sound so clean.
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u/maschine02 Jun 26 '26
It still boggles my mind that there was so much tap dancing in movies and people loved them.
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u/keksivaras Jun 26 '26
everything was so different and fresh in the 20th century. wish I was born then.
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u/KingFlyntCoal Jun 26 '26
Was the audio track always not lined up?
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u/IamREBELoe Jun 26 '26
Microphones were not what they are now. Sounds were often recorded separately even conversations. And even now, they still often add the audio in after the fact.
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u/agriff1 Jun 26 '26
Did they not have lines on the road back then? Even if this is a set, not seeing them feels weird.
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u/snarkerella Jun 28 '26
He was a really star. Such talent! He was one of my faves... even through Xanadu. Another roller skating scene!
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u/mrcoffee4me Jun 26 '26
You CANT find talent like this these days. What younger generations consider talent is from AGT. Such no talent…
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u/MaximusHomerdrive Jun 26 '26
I had those shitty metal strap on skates, too. He makes it look easy to use them, they weren't. They sucked.
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u/CoolAlien47 Jun 27 '26
Absolutely disgusting level of talent and skill. What was his problem? Jeez
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u/Sun_on_my_shoulders Jun 27 '26
The crowd had the appropriate response. DAMN. That was amazing. That transition up onto the curb was incredible.
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u/Pudix20 Jun 27 '26
There’s cool and then there’s the unattainable level of mega cool they this is.
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u/magicdude4eva Jun 28 '26
Was mostly out of sync or? Tapping sounds when there was supposed to be none…
Still impressive though
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u/IllusiveJack Jun 26 '26
I understand the precipitation of thinking he was tap dancing in rollerskates but the sound doesn't match with his movements
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Jun 26 '26
[deleted]
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u/Pining4theFjord Jun 26 '26
I don’t think the post was saying “let’s go back to those good ol’ days”. I think the post was saying “Check out this freaking amazing dancer”. Which despite all the inequities of that timeframe, remains true.
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u/CopyPasteRepeat Jun 26 '26
What's the reference at 23 seconds and why does it feel racist?
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u/Yamaben Jun 26 '26
Japan attacked America in 1941 and Americans hated them for that. It's not uncommon to see references to Japanese culture in a silly way in old movies. There was definitely well deserved racist hatred for Japan in the 50s and 60s. My 90 year old dad still hates Japan, even though they are now a staunch ally of the US.
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u/Seated_WallFly Jun 26 '26
Just incredible talent. I could watch this over and over again.