Every once in a while there is a performer for whom all those showbiz superlatives are accurate. Even rarer are performers for whom said superlatives simply do not suffice. Mitzi Gaynor: Razzle Dazzle! The Special Years showcases just such a performer. A star of Hollywood’s golden age, a professional dancer since her teen years, and one of the most versatile talents film has known, Miss Gaynor simply is a knockout in City Lights/Green Isle’s new DVD release.
You want dancing? Miss Gaynor, with her chorus of dancers and co-stars, showcases every type of dance from soft shoe to modern to ballroom. You want gorgeous costumes? Bob Mackie, the undisputed king of the bugle bead, is at peak form here. You want sketch comedy and acting that will tug at your heartstrings? That’s here too, a-plenty. And the singing. You want singing too? Miss Gaynor is one of the most gifted singers I have yet heard, and her torch songs will have you picking your jawbone off the floor. Impeccably chosen array of music? Miss Gaynor sings from a catalog ranging from Cole Porter to Ira Gershwin to Stevie Wonder. This DVD, touchingly dedicated to Miss Gaynor's late husband Jack Bean, has it all.
Specifically, this is a retrospective documentary honoring Miss Gaynor’s overall career but focusing mostly on eight television specials aired from 1968 to 1978. We hear about Mitzi’s beginning as a "gypsy" or chorus dancer. We see her as Nellie Forbush in the film version of South Pacific, which she calls “the end-all, be-all” of her career. Various of her friends and colleagues including Bob Mackie, Carl Reiner, former core dancers Alton Ruff and Randy Doney, along with critic Rex Reed and the director/choreographer of the TV specials, Tony Charmoli, bookend the clips providing background, anecdotes and general narration. There are lively stories and quotable quotes from all of them. Two recent actresses who have played Nellie Forbush, Kristen Chenoweth and Kelli O’Hara, pipe up also.
And the clips. The clips are such fun to watch. Aside from clips of South Pacific and Miss Gaynor’s later Vegas nightclub act, we see sizable clips from eight of her musical variety TV specials. These begin with grand, MGM musical-style production numbers in 1968 with “Mitzi” and wrap up in 1978 with disco-inspired dance in “What’s Hot... What’s Not.” We even see the Charleston and hear old-fashioned blues belting in 1976’s “Mitzi... Roarin’ in the 20s.” The staging is consistently stunning, incorporating bold, primary colors in the set design, echoed in vibrant costumes. The choreography is very visual and perfectly suited to film, since the choreographer doubled as director. Tony Charmoli certainly gives Busby Berkeley a run for his money with those overhead kaleidoscopic dance numbers and ups the ante with then-unheard of special effects. Those effects hold up even today, though they were created decades before digital post-production existed.
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