The original Gypsy movie?

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 1:04am

I'm sitting here watching it on my TIVO and I don't like it much...and I'm only 27 minuets into the movie. Why didn't they get Ethel Merman? Why did they get Rosalind Russell? She's horrible! But that's just my opinion!

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 1:07am

There are several reasons:
1) Rosalind Russel was a star name, plain and simple. She was also one stellar actress (Compare this to Auntie Mame and Trouble with Angels), she just was lacking vocally
2) Have you ever seen Ethel Merman on film? NOT a pretty sight, she did not lend well to film, a lot of her warmth was lost without seeing her live. (Or so I've been told...she really doesn't have much screen presence though)

There are probably more I am forgetting.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 1:10am

Didn't her husband produce it?

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 1:10am

I loved her in Auntie Mame. Otherwise I'm not really a fan.

I LOVE the Call Me Madame and There's No Business Like Show Business movies she was in. I thought she had a good screen presence. not perferct but good.

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 1:33am

Was Merman upset she wasn't in the movie?

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 1:38am

Was Merman upset?

Well, when she found out that Russell's husband Frederick Brisson had secured the screen rights for Roz to star in the film version, Merman let forth a torent of expletives and dubbed him "The Lizard of Roz."

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 1:42am

Haha! Well she should've gotten it.

I'm still watchng it and there is some rotten singin' in this! The remake was great! Bette reminded me of Merman.

[Urban]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 2:40am

Wasn't Ethel also famous for playing the original Roz singing tapes at her parties and mocking them?

I actually like the movie and Roz. Just me anyway. Yeah the complete change in voice while singing is terribly jarring (barring the one and a half songs Roz actually does sing), but I thought Roz did legitimately act the hell out of the roll and I enjoyed that part.

[Kringas]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 2:45am

If you can take it on its own merits (which I usually can), it's not that bad a movie, and Natalie Wood gives one of her finest performances in it.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 3:18am

Merman's work in films tended to be overly broad, as if she was still playing to the back row of the Imperial theatre.

When directors could get her to modulate her performance for the camaras she could be surprisingly effective. See some of her dramatic scenes in SHOW BUSINESS, despite the stupid plot, although when Johnny ray comes home and tells his family he wants to be a priest - about as close to ":coming out" as a gay man could do in the 1950s!

CALL ME MADAM works well on screen because she is playing a loud brassy larger-than-life lady ambassador.

With a good director she could have been fantastic in a film version of GYPSY - but Mervyn LeRoy was not that director.

Now maybe if Judy Garland had played Madame Rose in the film of GYPSY...

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 8:25am

Roz is one of the best actresses of all time. She was an incredible talent.

She acted the hell out of Rose, which I feel made up for her lack singing, and all the dubbing.

And also Natalie Wood is a stellar Louise.

Do a little research on Roz Russell and Wonderful Town. I don't think a performer since has or ever will recieve the kind of rave she received in WT.

[jewishboy]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 8:41am

Really? I thought Roz was pretty much doing a older, dirtier version of Auntie Mame, but less funny. I love Rossalind Russell, my favorite comedic movie actress, but she is mostly one level during the entire movie.

I agree they should have gotten Merman, I think she has a lot of screen prescence. Have you ever seen Alexander's Ragtime Band? She is a great lively prescence and an excellent balance to Alice Faye. I agree that she handles her dramatic scenes very well in "There's No Business..."

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 9:05am

Merman's best work was in "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". Her acting was too broad for movies.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 11:26am

I love Russell as an actress, but I think the movie just grinds to a screeching halt every time she opens her mouth and Lisa Kirk's baritone comes out. I love Kirk too, but the match does not at all work. And Russell's own unaltered music takes are abominable.

Yes, Garland at her best would have made a stunning Rose.

[fflagg]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 11:59am

Natalie Wood is charming and should have been nominated for an Oscar.

Karl Malden is also good and very touching.

Merman def should have done the part. Since when does every leading actress have to look "pretty" to star in a film?

As has been said, Roz was the film star not Merm. I think Roz would have been better had she sung the whole part; plus, some of the staging does not work and the 'heat' of the Merm's perf is not replicated by Roz. Rose really has to sweat in "Rose's Turn" and I think Roz looks too glam.

The only other person who could have done this part on film is Judy Garland. Imagine the irony to her own childhood. Liza could have been Louise. Heck, all of her kids could have been in the film. :)

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 12:15pm

Merman's best performance was in "Airplane."

I love Roz.

[AugustBurns2]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 2:13pm

I love the Gypsy movie!

And I love all the performances - including little Ann Jullian and Morgan Brittany

I just wish I can see a widescreen version of it - I haven't done any research yet, but is there a widescreen DVD version of it?

[WalkOn]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 2:18pm

I have always liked Roz in the movie. Granted, the movie as a whole could have been better and Roz could have made some better choices, but I don't think it is the catastrophe and embarassment that people say it is.

For me the last third of the movie is best. Roz gets really ugly when she starts pushing Louise on-stage to strip.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 2:57pm

I don't find the dubbing to be that distracting (certainly not as bad as putting Bill Lee's vocals in place of John Kerr's in South Pacific, yowza'), but I do wish Roz's performance was a bit smaller in places and I think the film drags a bit.

[NathanLaneStalker]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 3:40pm

I didn't think Natalie Wood could sing either. Roz did act the hell out of it but they should've gotten Merman...just like they should've gotten Channing for the Hello Dolly film.

[fflagg]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 3:42pm

No way could Channing have done the film. The audience would have been scared to see her for 2 hours. And she was not b/o.

Wood was charming in "Gypsy" and her fragile singing voice benefitted the character. Louise is not a belter role. Rose on the other hand. . .

[roquat]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 6:30pm

I think that Natalie Wood has rarely been more gentle and "real" than she is in this movie, but she's still WAY too pretty to play Louise.

The studio sets are ugly, the playing style from everyone is too broad (Mervyn LeRoy was not a master of film subtlety) and Rosalind Russell (whom I love in other movies) induces headaches with her ear-shattering performance (and I'm not talking about the singing.)

[FoscasBohemianDream]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 6:50pm

I thoroughly agree with those who are saying Roz played Momma Rose as Auntie Mame gone mad. And I say this as a fan of Russell's work.

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 11/3/06 at 8:34pm

I loved Rosalind Russell in AUNTIE MAME. I HATED her in GYPSY. Because of her performance as Mama Rose I just can't watch the movie, despite a good Natalie Wood, and Paul Wallace as Tulsa from the OBC of GYPSY, dancing and singing "All I Need is the Girl" just as he did in the Broadway show.

I agree with FrontRowCentre2's thoughts about Merman's film career. And I agree with the person who liked her in ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND, a great 1938 film musical of Irving Berlin's music. It's worth buying just to see and hear Ethel.

It is a crime that Merman was not chosen to be in the film of GYPSY. Then Merman detractors could see how effective she was as Mama Rose, both in the singing and acting departments, especially if they had gotten Jerome Robbins to direct.