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)?

The title makes one think that this movie is about stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, when it's really about her pushy backstage mother Rose Hovick, played by Rosalind Russell (even though it was Ethel Merman who made the part famous on Broadway). In fact, the DVD is included in Warner Home Video's Natalie Wood Collection, further confusing the matter.It's Wood that plays the title role, as Rose's youngest daughter Louise, who grows up in the shadow of her singing and dancing older sister June (played by Morgan Brittany, her film debut, and Ann Jillian), who went on to become actress June Havoc. Russell and eventually Wood are equal to their parts as is Karl Malden as Herbie Sommers, a stage director that falls in love with Rose and becomes the manager-agent of her ever growing child stars on the vaudeville circuit.Herbie loses his patience with Rose when he finally realizes that her ambition has become exploitation as she convinces poor Louise to be the star of a burlesque show, where she's transformed into the renowned stripper.This musical drama, which was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and adapted by Leonard Spigelgass from Lee's memoir and the play by Arthur Laurents, features two renditions of the song "Let Me Entertain You", "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and many others. Its Color Cinematography and Costume Design as well as its Score received Academy Award nominations. Harvey Korman appears uncredited as Miss Lee's agent.

Gypsy a musical based on the life of Gypsy Rose Lee takes liberties with the true story, its a clunky musical drama with some comedy, rather tame by today's standards as its not erotic or sexy, the musical numbers are rather forgettable and goes on for too long.The film is dominated by Rosalind Russell's overbearing and pushy stage mother who wants to make her children stars. She plays it loud and brash. Karl Malden is the put upon suitor who wants to marry her but gets nowhere as she loves the limelight too much.Natalie Wood plays Gypsy as someone who is sweet and innocent, a vaudeville act who stumbled into stripping and ended up being a successful showgirl. Even though the film was made in 1962 and there were censorship rules, its too wholesome. Burlesque is supposedly rather sleazy and she was a stripper for goodness sakes but here we hardly get to see any bare flesh and when Woods does her turn, the men are going crazy when all she has done was show a bit of shoulder.

Merman deserved to be put on screen and was denied her place in cinematic history. Roz is fine, to a point, but her singing voice and general flash over any subtle moves, both emotionally and musically, keeps her character at a very polished distance. Natalie is the real sore point. She's terribly miscast. The real Gypsy Rose Lee had a body and way about her that, even though she's a young girl through most of this story, made it almost her destiny to be onstage. She had a grittiness that Natalie could never pull off because she's from such a different background. It's like the stripper says about the mother after she leaves the dressing room -- she could have been a good stripper in her day. Well, no, not for Roz and certainly not for Natalie. This production is really overbearing. It has the heavy hand of a lot of money being poured into the visuals and as such you never feel the dust or greasepaint. There's also a stagey feel to the set pieces and this detracts from it being more of a cinematic journey. Still, there's that glorious score. Even though most of the songs are sung terribly, the brilliance of the music still shines. It's another one of those what could have been. Not only with better casting then, but, if they had waited about ten years, they could have used Angela Lansbury as Mama Rose in one of the most brilliant performances ever put on stage. You never hear much about it, but her performance rivaled, and perhaps even outshone Merman's. Bad timing all around.