What a waste of my time!!!

Critics,are you kidding us

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Gypsy is a bit of a mixed bag. Rosalind Russell plays her part well and dominates the movie, at once a stage mom, independent woman, and a bohemian, but her singing voice is so deep and flat it seems like she's Tony Curtis in drag belting out her musical numbers. The idea of Natalie Wood playing the part of striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee is intriguing and she's as cute as ever, but the movie is not balanced; for 2 hours we see her as "one of the boys" and nothing but sweet and innocent, then in a flash she's a fully independent and very successful stripper. The music by Styne and Sondheim includes some classics, "Let Me Entertain You" and "Everything is Coming Up Roses", but most of the performances (not just Russell's) are jarring on the ears – the notable exceptions being Wood's performance of "Little Lamb", and Paul Wallace's performance of "All I Need is the Girl". Gypsy Rose's childhood is not unhappy, at least in this account, and in fact it's touching in some ways, though certainly different. She didn't get an education, and didn't even know her real age, as her mother needed her to remain under twelve well into her teens, because of child labor laws. We see her out of sync in the early group performances, and in the shadow compared to her younger sister June (Suzanne Cupito and later Ann Jillian), who her mother says has the "real talent". A funny scene shows her relegated to the front end of a cow costume, mooing out replies to June in one of their barnyard numbers. It's interesting to see this bygone world of vaudeville, and the Broadway number where Russell pantomimes June as she auditions is entertaining in its own right.Unfortunately, there is a veneer of feel-good dishonesty to the entire movie. One exception, however, is stage manager and boyfriend Herbie's (Karl Malden's) shocked reaction to the mother's decision to have Rose fill in for a missing stripper. She is so stubborn, refusing to admit that it's over, and never taking no for an answer. The look on Malden and Wood's face when she pushes Rose into it instead of leaving that final night and settling down into quiet, married life is priceless. Her own daughter! She says there is an invisible barrier between the crowd and the stage, and that she'll be an artist – but Malden knows better, while Wood, resigned, simply begins changing into a hurriedly put together outfit. She comes out in a blue dress, of course immaculate, and transformed. Wood is seductive as she slinks around the stage, increasing in confidence over time until she's practically purring "Let Me Entertain You", but the performances are ridiculously tame, even for the period. The movie needs something – editing (at 243 minutes it's too long), or more of an edge, or better vocal talent, or more honesty – but there is enough here to make it worth watching.One 'quote', the lyrics to "Let Me Entertain You", my goodness: "Let me entertain you / Let me make you smile / Let me do a few tricks / Some old and some new tricks / I'm very versatile ... And if you're real good / I'll make you feel good / I want your spirits to climb / So let me entertain you / And we'll have a real good time, yes sir / We'll have a real good time"

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.

Gypsy is one of the greatest musicals of all time. In fact, I, personally, think the book for Gypsy is the finest of all time. Take away the score to most musicals and a tedious and usually hardly serviceable book is left behind. However, even if you took out all the songs from Gypsy, you'd still be left with a terrific play with great characters, humor, terror, suspense, and heartache. It's everything one would ever want in a musical.How they managed to screw up such wonderful material is beyond me! The orchestrations are lush, the sets and costumes look great, most of the actors are solid and game, but the screenplay and direction are pedestrian at best. Once the screenplay finally decides to get faithful to the source material half way in, the pace tightens up immensely. The direction, however, remains equally as dull from frame one to the last frame of the movie. There's simply no imagination put into the staging of the musical numbers at all. In fact, most of the time, I was hoping they'd just skip past most of the musical numbers and get to the book scenes.This is also, in no small part, due to the fact that no one in the cast can really handle the vocal demands of the score. Natalie Wood sounds just fine in her numbers, even charming, but poor Rosalind Russell had to be almost completely dubbed for her numbers. Strangely, Russell got rave reviews for her performance in the Broadway musical Wonderful Town. Karl Malden has so little to sing that it doesn't really make a big difference.The only numbers that pop a little bit are "You Gotta Get A Gimmick" and Louise's transformation into sexpot stripper Gypsy Rose Lee in "Let Me Entertain You". The rest fall flat. Thankfully, even if they can't handle all the vocals with the best of 'em, they certainly act the hell out of their roles. Russell, while far from perfect, at least doesn't embarrass herself like Bette Midler did in the 1993 TV movie version. Her monologue right before "Rose's Turn" is subtle and well delivered, even if the number that comes directly after it is horrendously executed. Malden is warm and charming as Herbie, Rose's poor bumbling love interest and Wood shines as timid and naive Louise. The final dressing room scene between her and Russell is quite good. This version is really only marginally better than the TV movie version and that's really only for the acting.

I suppose most musicals are dated. But in a sense, this one seems more so, even though it was released in 1962. But somehow, film musicals like "Bells Are Ringing" (1960) seemed more modern. Ah well, that's not to say this film isn't worth a watch, because it is.First off, it's a great cast. Although some disagree -- perhaps because of a less than stellar singing voice -- Rosiland Russell's performance as the stage mother is exceptional. Here, her voice was combined in some numbers with a professional singer (and done rather well, BTW), so I think she shines...and at least in terms of a film, so much better than I think Ethel Merman would have (although I enjoyed EM in "There's No Business Like Show Business"). And Karl Malder -- what a gifted and underrated actor. He's perfect here...although how anyone could love the mother here is anybody's guess...but (relative) truth is stranger than fiction. And, although I'm not a fan, Natalie Wood turns in a stellar performance here, as well.Then, there's the music. "Small World", "Some People", "All I Need Is the Girl", "Everything's Coming Up Roses", "Let Me Entertain You" are the show-stoppers by Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) and Jule Styne (music).And, of course, it's a relatively true story. I'm old enough to remember Gypsy Rose Lee...on television, not in burlesque, and it's difficult for me to imagine she was that "hot" at one time (take either meaning you wish). But, she did make history.Definitely worth watching, but again, and not because of the era of the story, this film seems very dated...but enjoyable. Rose's Turn ... Rose