The Mitzi Gaynor Thread

ClassyCo

ClassyCo

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How did I miss that Mitzi Gaynor passed away this past October? She was 93 years old. It must've been all the post-wreck recovery and post-baby birth adjusting I was going through at the time.

I must admit, I'm not terribly familiar with Mitzi Gaynor and her work. I know her primarily as a star of movie musicals at the tail-end of Hollywood's Golden Age. I've only seen her in THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS (1954), the overstuffed Fox musical that is soured by Ethel Merman's overbearing screen presence and lessened by Marilyn Monroe being relegated to a secondary role. Mitzi is actually one of the saving graces of the story, her presence and performance of the song and dance numbers flowing effortlessly. Several reviews at the time favored Gaynor to both Merman and Monroe. Gaynor has defended Monroe and her determination to be good at her job in interviews.

Outside of that, I don't recall seeing Gaynor in anything. I know SOUTH PACIFIC (1958) is her signature role, and I've owned it for a few years, but I've yet to watch it. Her filmography isn't too extensive, so I might get around to seeing more of it one of these days. She seems to have a smooth, breezy on-screen personality that I'll like.

Any Mitzi Gaynor fans out there?

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Snarky Oracle!

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I thought she was great. But she herself didn't think she was so good on screen.

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ClassyCo

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As it's been stated elsewhere, Mitzi Gaynor was the original choice to play Sugar, the ditzy, unlucky-in-love ukulele player, in SOME LIKE IT HOT. Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond said "Mitzi Gaynor was who we had in mind" when they began writing the script. Their idea was to cast Gaynor in a trio with Tony Curtis and Frank Sinatra.

Sinatra ended up being too difficult to actually commit, so after Jerry Lewis and Danny Kaye passed over the role, it went to Jack Lemmon. Curtis accepted the role to work with Wilder.

But Mitzi didn't get the chance. "The word came that Marilyn wanted the part," Wilder later said, "and then we had to have Marilyn." So out goes Mitzi, in comes Marilyn.

Since learning this, however, I've sometimes wondered how successfully SOME LIKE IT HOT would've been, both as a film and at the box office had it been Mitzi instead of Marilyn as Sugar. One speculates that with the same screenplay and direction that Mitzi would've been good in the film, but that it wouldn't have been the box office success it ended up being without Marilyn.

What do you think?

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