Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

lasttimeisaw Mervyn LeRoy's sound-stage-bound musical is a biographical treatment of the American burlesque artiste Gypsy Rose Lee, neé Louise Hovick (Wood), yet unconventionally, the film puts Gypsy's mother Rose Hovick (Russell) to the forefront prevalently, an egoistic thrice-married single mother in the 1920s, who is spoiling for making her younger daughter June (Brittany and later Jilian) a vaudeville star, with the help of the stage agent Herbie Sommers (Malden, why on earth a benevolent gentleman is always afflicted with an ulcer?), who also offers to tie the knot with Rose when her dream comes true, if only he could foretell how long it would take.Yes, eventually, mama Rose's dream will come true, but not quite as she has expected. Getting sick of being typecast as a singing-and-dancing baby, June will ditch their itinerant group by eloping at the age of 13. But Rose is undeterred and given no other alternative, she nurtures her less talented (sole by vaudeville star criterion) elder daughter Louise as the new headliner, what would she know, eventually, Louise sinks her teeth in the less glamorous burlesque stage and makes her mark there, notoriously for her forte of stripping, but mama Rose is bereft by everyone else during Gypsy's ascending to fame, where will she be in the end of the day? In Rose's touching closing number ROSE'S TURN, she bells out her ambitions and grounds behind her obstinate pursuit in a quite candid register, states that the primacy is not for her daughters' sake, but herself, when her own vaudeville dream has been dashed by grim reality, all she could do is to invest and inculcate her dream into her daughters', often too blind to see clearly whether it is what the girls' want or not, one might call it self-serving, but the film doesn't paper over it with mawkish hokum, that's the spirit pertains to the epochal ethos, however tactless and outmoded, it is an astute take on the character psych in spite of the picture's fluffy genre default. Rosalind Russell's gravelly voice is predominantly dubbed in her singing part, but it is her obstreperous élan that brings down the house, ever so unapologetic-ally brash and brassy, her mama Rose is a woman rebuffs to bow to the vicissitude of fate, even if it means that she would lose the man she loves, it is incredibly rewarding to watch a middle-age woman goes all out without recourse to the opposite sex for help or comfort, especially under that sexist era, which instantly endows the flick with a more time-defiant quality compared to the lion's share of studio-backed Hollywood musical epics. After her gallant act in the Oscar BEST PICTURE winning musical WEST SIDE STORY (1961), Natalie Wood parlays the success into another star vehicle and fortunately, her singing is not dubbed this time, although Russell's gushing versatility is dauntingly all over the place and Ms. Wood seems to be still hemmed in her teen-idol shell, but as the titular Gypsy, she belatedly secures her own footing in the culminating showdown with Mama Rose, a child finally realizes what she wants to be, and trades on what she excels to steer the course of her own life. GYPSY is a sanitized entertaining commodity of Hollywood musical in its core, slightly drawn-out in its length, vaudeville's waning appeal might leave the acts and tunes look and sound mediocre and beyond our times, until the burlesque spectacle arrives, nudge nudge (wink wink), but its rare flair as a female-centered razzmatazz surely instills a distinctive charm to LeRoy's nimble and patient execution, also who can ever forget that iconic show-stopping piece YOU GOTTA HAVE A GIMMICK by three unabashed strippers Tessie Tura (Bruce, in gossamer flirtation), Mazeppa (Dane, with her horn and that throaty voice!) and Electra (Arlen, overshadowed by her lighting bulbs garment)?

Hitchcoc Because I could never accept Natalie Wood as Gypsie Rose Lee, I couldn't get into this musical. I find the songs sort of pedestrian. I know that Mama was a reality in her life and that she had to continually compete with her little sister, but I never really thought that the story was terribly interesting. Stage mothers have been the topic of so many plays and movies and this didn't offer me anything new. I think Rosalind Russell was fine as the mother. She did plenty of shouting and had genuine edginess in her role. She could also express hurt. Natalie is so beautiful, so striking. From what I've seen of film of Gypsie Rose Lee, she wasn't the dark beauty that Wood was. This is one of those movies that I remember, but it doesn't do all that much for me.

SnoopyStyle Based on Broadway musical, Rose Hovick (Rosalind Russell) is a stage mom from hell. Her daughter Louise (Natalie Wood) is a shy dutiful wallflower. Her younger daughter June is the bubbly blonde star of the show. Herbie Sommers (Karl Malden) becomes their manager who is ever hopeful to marry Rose. When June finally runs off to get marry at 13, Rose refuses to settle down and sets Louise up as the new star. They end up broke and stranded at a burlesque show. At first Rose refuses to let her daughter to lower herself to burlesque. However when she's faced with settling down with Herbie, she jumps at the chance to push her daughter on the road to becoming big burlesque star Gypsy Rose.I find most of the songs are very Broadway. Rosalind Russell's singing is dubbed, and the result is unsatisfying. Of course, the big song is 'Everything's Coming Up Roses'.Rose is a tough character to take. I guess that's the point. The start with the daughters as little girls is sometimes fun. However the middle is a little extended. This is probably where the long running time of 143 minutes could have been trimmed. When they get to the burlesque, the movie gets dramatic and good. However the ending is a little bit abrupt and too happy. The story seems to be begging for a more powerful outburst from Louise to finally break off with her mother.

Bob Pr. This is an unusual musical film, loosely based on (not directly copied from) the Broadway musical of the same name, using the music by Sondheim & Stein. (Among its better known songs are: "Everything's Coming Up Roses," "Let Me Entertain You"). The Broadway play was loosely based on Gypsy Rose Lee's fairy tale version of growing up under the strong hand of her mother (Rose Hovick) along with her younger sister, June Havoc, who earlier escaped Momma Rose's clutches and much later became a stage, movie, & TV star.Rosalind Russell's performance (Momma Rose) has often been criticized as being inferior to Ethel Merman's although Russell (IMO) delivers a very strong performance. Much of the difference is that in the stage version, most of Momma Rose's dark side is not shown; in Russell's version, one sees a slightly more realistic version of Momma Rose.Russell's Momma Rose increasingly becomes (IMO) an unlikeable character rather than one brassy, funny, and larger than life. This is a bit closer to the real Momma Rose (read Noralee Frankel's "Stripping Gypsy" for an excellent biography). Momma was an extremely demanding woman, more than a bit psychopathic, who not only pressed both of her daughters to earn money for her but also drove them emotionally away. Karl Malden as Momma Rose's put-upon lover-in-waiting stands in for the many men Momma Rose actually conned and he brings enough sympathy to his role that it adds more fuel to disliking the Momma Rose that Russell brings to life. Natalie Wood is a very believable Gypsy.An interesting film, both for its presentations of family relationships and for an era. If the film was less detailed, shorter, possibly its emotional impact would have been closer to that of the stage version. As it is, Momma's selfishness, her determination to get whatever she wanted at any cost, becomes dominant and one is thankful her two daughters escaped.The difference between the versions of Momma Rose presented in this film and that of the stage musical stimulated me to read Frankel's excellent biography ("Stripping Gypsy"), Preminger's (Gypsy's son) "Gypsy & Me" AKA "My G-String Mother," plus June Havoc's "Early Havoc" & "More Havoc." (Plus Abbot's less helpful biography of Gypsy: "American Rose.")Fascinating family to explore! I also read Gypsy's fantasy, "Gypsy, a Memoir," the foundation on which the musical was built. It's interesting storytelling but a fairy tale. Momma Rose died a few years before "Gypsy," her book, was published. On her death bed, Momma Rose died putting a curse on Gypsy as Gypsy was trying to comfort her. But a great story is more acceptable than the truth and, besides, Gypsy had learned quite well from her mother the marketable advantage of spinning interesting stories!