{"id":56885,"date":"2024-10-30T09:00:27","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T13:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=56885"},"modified":"2024-10-30T03:34:31","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T07:34:31","slug":"mitzi-gaynor-50s-musicals-razzle-dazzle-gal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=56885","title":{"rendered":"Mitzi Gaynor: ’50s Musicals’ “Razzle Dazzle” Gal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"She was one of the last living links to the Golden Age of Hollywood musicals, and with her passing last week at the age of 93, singer\/dancer\/actress Mitzi Gaynor<\/a> leaves behind a memorable body of work in both movies and television. Born Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber in Chicago in 1931, she inherited the performer genes of her dancer mother and violinist father. Childhood ballerina lessons and years singing and dancing in the Los Angeles Light Opera (her family moved to California when she was 11) paid off when the 17-year-old “Mitzi Gerber” signed a film contract with 20th Century-Fox. One surname change later, Gaynor made her big screen debut in 1950’s My Blue Heaven<\/em> and over the next decade and a half appeared in an array of musicals and comedies. Mitzi shifted her attention to TV and stage shows in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s before entering the field of journalism as a columnist for the Hollywood Reporter. Along the way she picked up a Golden Globe nomination and numerous Emmy nominations. MovieFanFare remembers Mitzi with a look at six of her finest performances:<\/p>\n

\"\"Golden Girl<\/em> <\/a>(1951) \u2013 Starring as mid-1800s entertainer Lotta Crabtree (yes, that was her real name), Gaynor goes from a teen singing in mining camps in Gold Rush-era California to a stage sensation during and after the Civil War, catching the attentions of a handsome Confederate spy (Dale Robertson) along the way. This musical biopic earned a Best Song Oscar nomination for “Never” and also featured Dennis Day, James Barton, and Una Merkel.<\/p>\n

\"\"The I Don\u2019t Care Girl<\/em><\/a> (1953) \u2013 Another song-filled “true story,” this time based on the life of fin de si\u00e8cle<\/em> vaudeville sensation Eva Tanguay, whose uninhibited stage persona and backstage excesses made her the Madonna of her day. Done in a Citizen Kane<\/em> style as folks who worked with Tanguay share their reminiscences, the rather fragmented film is buoyed by Gaynor’s title turn and such tunes as “Kiss Me My Honey, Kiss Me,” “Pretty Baby,” and of course “I Don’t Care.” David Wayne, Oscar Levant, and (as himself) George Jessel, who produced and co-scripted, also star.<\/p>\n

\"\"Les Girls<\/em> <\/a>(1957) \u2013 Years after they went their separate ways, the professional and romantic travails of the travelling dance troupe Barry Nichols (Gene Kelly) and “Les Girls” Joy (Gaynor), Sybil (Kay Kendall), and Angele (Taina Elg) come to light during a libel case over Sybil’s tell-all memoirs. The final MGM musical to star Kelly, the film was also the last to be scored (“Flower Song,” “Ladies in Waiting,” the title tune, and more) by Cole Porter. Elg and Kendall shared the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy that year; Gaynor wasn’t even nominated.<\/p>\n

\"\"South Pacific<\/em><\/a> (1958) \u2013 Mitzi overcame her Les Girls<\/em> Golden Globe snub when she was nominated for her performance as U.S. Navy nurse Nellie Forbush in Fox’s lush adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway smash. Gaynor wasn’t the first choice for the part (Mary Martin, Doris Day, and Elizabeth Taylor (!) were all considered), but her effervescent personality and renditions of such familiar songs as “A Cockeyed Optimist,” “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” “A Wonderful Guy,” and “Some Enchanted Evening” make it all the ironic that this was essentially Mitzi’s last pure musical screen turn before she started working in romantic comedies. Oh, yes: Gaynor lost the Golden Globe that year to Rosalind Russell for Auntie Mame<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Surprise Package<\/em><\/a> (1960) \u2013 Based on a novel by columnist Art Buchwald, this Cold War-flavored satire stars Yul Brynner as Nico March, a mobster who is deported from the U.S. to the Greek island of his birth. There he meets a deposed European monarch, King Pavel II of Anatolia (No\u00ebl Coward), who offers to sell March his crown jewels. Instead of sending him the money for the deal, however, Nico’s crooked ex-associates ship his breezy moll Gabby (Gaynor) off to him.<\/p>\n

\"\"For Love or Money<\/em><\/a> (1963) –\u00a0 Mitzi’s final screen role came in this breezy romcom. An attorney (Kirk Douglas) in need of funds is hired by a client, a widowed hotel heiress (Thelma Ritter), to play matchmaker for her three adult daughters (Gaynor, Julie Newmar, Leslie Parrish). His attempts to find suitable beaus for the disparate and free-willed trio become complicated when each starts having feelings for him instead. The film’s tepid box office reception and the decline in Hollywood musicals both contributed to Gaynor’s decision to concentrate on stage revues and guest starring on TV variety shows and her own series of popular specials for CBS. Fun Fact: When Gaynor performed on The Ed Sullivan Show<\/em> on February 16, 1964, she loaned her hair dryer to another act on the bill: The Beatles, who were making their second appearance on the series.<\/p>\n

Do you have a favorite Mitzi Gaynor film that we overlooked? Let us know in the comments.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She was one of the last living links to the Golden Age of Hollywood musicals, and with her passing last week at the age of 93, singer\/dancer\/actress Mitzi Gaynor leaves behind a memorable body of work in both movies and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9748,"featured_media":56886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[9305,8025,7628,1460],"coauthors":[11329],"class_list":["post-56885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-articles","tag-classic-hollywood","tag-mgm","tag-mitzi-gaynor","tag-movie-musicals"],"yoast_head":"\nMitzi Gaynor: '50s Musicals' "Razzle Dazzle" Gal - MovieFanFare<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"MovieFanFare salutes singer\/dancer\/actress Mitzi Gaynor, star of "South Pacific" and "Les Girls," who passed away last week at 93.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=56885\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mitzi Gaynor: '50s Musicals' "Razzle Dazzle" Gal - 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