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Gypsy (1962 film)

Gypsy is a 1962 American musical film produced and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. The screenplay by Leonard Spigelgass is based on the book of the 1959 stage musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable by Arthur Laurents, which was adapted from the 1957 autobiography Gypsy: A Memoir by Gypsy Rose Lee. Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics for songs composed by Jule Styne. The film was remade for television in 1993.

Gypsy
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMervyn LeRoy
Screenplay byLeonard Spigelgass
Based on
Gypsy: A Musical Fable
1959 musical
by
Produced byMervyn LeRoy
StarringRosalind Russell
Natalie Wood
Karl Malden
CinematographyHarry Stradling
Edited byPhilip W. Anderson
Music byJule Styne
Lyrics by:
Stephen Sondheim
Music arranged and conducted by
Frank Perkins
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • November 1, 1962 (1962-11-01)
Running time
143 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesEnglish (intertitles and talking sequences)
Budget$4 million
Box office$11,076,923[1]
Natalie Wood as Gypsy Rose Lee
Rosalind Russell as "Mama Rose" Hovick

Plot

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Determined to make her beautiful, gifted daughter June a vaudeville headliner, willful, resourceful and domineering stage mother Rose Hovick will stop at nothing to achieve her goal. She drags June and her shy, awkward, and decidedly less-talented older sister Louise around the country in an effort to get them noticed, and with the help of agent Herbie Sommers, finally manages to secure a booking on the prestigious Orpheum Circuit.

Years pass, and the girls no longer are young enough to pull off the childlike personae their mother insists they continue projecting. June rebels, and elopes with Gerry, one of the dancers who backs their act. When the other dancers discover this, they also leave, presuming the act is finished. Devastated by what she sees as betrayal, Rose pours all her energy into making a success of Louise, despite her obvious lack of skill as a performer. Not helping matters is the increasing popularity of sound films, which leads to a decline in the demand for stage entertainment. Herbie sticks with mother and daughter through their struggles, vainly hoping that Rose will one day quit show-business and settle down with him. With bookings scarce, they find themselves in Wichita, Kansas, where a third-rate burlesque house books their act in hopes of keeping the vice squad at bay.

Rose appears to mature while at the burlesque house, deciding that this will be their last booking and suggesting that she and Herbie finally marry. However, when one of the strippers is arrested for shoplifting, Rose is unable to resist offering Louise as her replacement. Louise reluctantly agrees to go through with it, though it's clear she's only doing it to please her mother. This becomes the final straw for Herbie, as he is disgusted at the lengths Rose will go as a stage mother and realizes that she will never marry him. He offers her one chance to give him a reason to stay, and when she fails, he leaves her for good. At first, Louise's voice is shaky and her moves tentative, but she gains confidence as audiences respond to her, eventually blossoming as an entertainer billed as Gypsy Rose Lee. Exasperated by her mother's constant interference in both her life and wildly successful career, Louise finally confronts Rose and demands she leave her alone. Understanding that she has spent her life enslaved by a desperate need to be noticed and has driven everyone away, an angry, bitter, and bewildered Rose stumbles onstage at the deserted theatre and experiences an emotional breakdown. Realizing Louise witnessed this, Rose admits she tried to live vicariously through her and June, allowing her to reconcile with her daughter.

Cast

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Musical numbers

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  1. Overture – Orchestra, conducted by Jule Styne
  2. "Small World" – Rose
  3. "Some People" – Rose
  4. "Baby June and Her Newsboys" – Baby June, Chorus
  5. "Mr. Goldstone, I Love You" – Rose and chorus
  6. "Little Lamb" – Louise
  7. "You'll Never Get Away From Me" – Rose, Herbie
  8. "Dainty June and Her Farmboys" – Dainty June, Chorus
  9. "If Mama Was Married" – June, Louise
  10. "All I Need Is the Girl" – Tulsa
  11. "Everything's Coming Up Roses" – Rose
  12. "Together Wherever We Go" – Rose, Herbie, Louise
  13. "You Gotta Have a Gimmick" – Tessie Tura, Mazeppa, Electra
  14. "Small World" (Reprise) – Rose
  15. "Let Me Entertain You" – Louise
  16. "Rose's Turn" – Rose

"Together Wherever We Go" was deleted before the film's release, but it was included on the soundtrack album, and "You'll Never Get Away from Me" was abbreviated to a solo for Rose following the initial run. In the DVD release of the film, both numbers, taken from a 16-millimeter print of inferior quality, are included as bonus features.[2]

Production

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Rosalind Russell and her husband Frederick Brisson were hoping to do a straight dramatic version of the story based directly on the memoir by Gypsy Rose Lee, but the book was tied to the rights to the play. Coincidentally, Russell had starred in the film version of the Leonard Spigelgass play A Majority of One at Warner Bros., which Brisson had produced, and all parties came together to make Gypsy, with Russell starring, LeRoy directing, and Spigelgass writing the highly faithful adaptation of Arthur Laurents's stage book.

Although Russell had starred and sung in the 1953 stage musical Wonderful Town and the 1955 film The Girl Rush, the Gypsy score was beyond her. Her own gravelly singing voice was artfully blended with that of contralto Lisa Kirk. Kirk's ability to mimic Russell's voice is showcased in the final number "Rose's Turn". Kirk's full vocal version was released on the original soundtrack, but it is not the version used in the finished film. In later years, Russell's original vocals were rediscovered on scratchy acetate discs and included as bonus tracks on the CD reissue of the film's soundtrack.[3]

Marni Nixon had dubbed Natalie Wood's singing voice in West Side Story the previous year, but Wood did her own singing in Gypsy. While Wood recorded a separate version of "Little Lamb" for the soundtrack album, she sang the song in the film "live" on the set. Other songs performed live were "Mr. Goldstone, I Love You" and the reprise of "Small World", both sung by Russell (not Kirk).

Reaction

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Critical reception

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Film historian Douglas McVay observed in his book The Musical Film, "Fine as West Side Story is, though, it is equaled and, arguably, surpassed - in a rather different idiom - by another filmed Broadway hit: Mervyn LeRoy’s Gypsy. Arthur Laurents' book (for) West Side Story (adapted for the screen by Ernest Lehman), though largely craftsmanlike, falls short of his libretto for Gypsy (scripted on celluloid by Leonard Spigelgass), based on the memoirs of the transatlantic stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. The dialogue and situations in Gypsy have more wit, bite and emotional range, and the characterizations are more complex."[4]

Variety noted "There is a wonderfully funny sequence involving three nails-hard strippers which comes when Gypsy has been unreeling about an hour. The sequence is thoroughly welcome and almost desperately needed to counteract a certain Jane One-Note implicit in the tale of a stage mother whose egotisms become something of a bore despite the canny skills of director-producer Mervyn LeRoy to contrive it otherwise. Rosalind Russell's performance as the smalltime brood-hen deserves commendation...It is interesting to watch [Natalie Wood]...go through the motions in a burlesque world that is prettied up in soft-focus and a kind of phony innocence. Any resemblance of the art of strip, and its setting, to reality is, in this film, purely fleeting."[5]

Box-office performance

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Gypsy was a financial success. Produced on a budget of $4 million, the film grossed $11,076,923 at the box office,[1] earning $6 million in U.S. theatrical rentals.[6] It was the 8th highest-grossing film of 1962.[7]

Awards and nominations

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Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
Academy Awards Best Cinematography – Color Harry Stradling Nominated [8]
Best Costume Design – Color Orry-Kelly Nominated
Best Scoring of Music – Adaptation or Treatment Frank Perkins Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy Karl Malden Nominated [9]
Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy Rosalind Russell Won
Natalie Wood Nominated
Best Director – Motion Picture Mervyn LeRoy Nominated
Most Promising Newcomer – Male Paul Wallace Nominated
Laurel Awards Top Musical Nominated
Top Female Musical Performance Rosalind Russell 5th Place
Natalie Wood Nominated
Top Male Supporting Performance Karl Malden Nominated
Writers Guild of America Awards Best Written American Musical Leonard Spigelgass Nominated [10]

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

Home media

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Warner Home Video released the Region 1 DVD on May 2, 2000. The film is in anamorphic widescreen format with an audio track in English and subtitles in English and French.

The Region 2 DVD was released on December 6, 2006. The film is in fullscreen format with audio tracks in French and English and subtitles in French.

Gypsy is one of six films included in the box set The Natalie Wood Collection released on February 3, 2009.

Gypsy was released on Blu-ray Disc through the Warner Archive Collection on November 20, 2012.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Box Office Information for Gypsy. The Numbers. Retrieved June 13, 2013.
  2. ^ "Gypsy". DVD.net.au.
  3. ^ "Gypsy". CD Universe. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  4. ^ McVay, Douglas (1967). The Musical Film. London: Zwemmer. LCCN 67022885.
  5. ^ "Film Reviews: Gypsy". Variety. December 31, 1961. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  6. ^ "All-Time Top Grossers". Variety. January 8, 1964. p. 69. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  7. ^ "Top Grossing Films of 1962". Listal.com. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
  8. ^ "The 35th Academy Awards (1963) Nominees and Winners". Oscars.org. Archived from the original on February 2, 2018. Retrieved August 23, 2011.
  9. ^ "Gypsy". Golden Globes. Retrieved December 17, 2023.
  10. ^ "Awards Winners". Writers Guild of America. Archived from the original on December 5, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2010.
  11. ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs Nominees" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 17, 2015. Retrieved August 13, 2016.
  12. ^ "AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved August 13, 2016.
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