The I Don't Care Girl

The musical comedy biopic gets the Rashomon treatment in this faked-up biopic of Eva Tanguay, one of the great stars of turn-of-the-century vaudeville. Mitzi Gaynor, as always, gives a great performance and it's a pity that, with the exception of the movie version of SOUTH PACIFIC, she was always Fox's B musical star, doing whatever they gave her. The musical numbers are all overdone, as if choreographer Jack Cole is mocking the form; the semi-strip-tease to jazzed up Mozart (I'm not making this up! It's the most out-of-place dance number outside of Sally Forrest's weird one in EXCUSE MY DUST) and other numbers that recall LADY IN THE DARK -- all very modern for the era and absolutely bizarre in context.

Oscar Levant plays the piano magnificently a few times and David Wayne gives a typically graceful performance in support.

It's a great pity but "The I Don't Care Girl" was indeed severely cut. Scenes and numbers were shuffled, scenes and numbers ended up on the cutting-room floor, scenes were re-filmed, Jack Cole was brought in (and even his 'I Don't Care' and 'Beale Street Blues' traded places so that the one designed to end the film, didn't, and the other one, with its scene to follow, did), until what was released (in 1953, rather than 1952) was the hodge-podge you see today. Yet despite all of the butchery the multi-talented Mitzi sets the screen on fire whenever she appears, whether it's in a dramatic scene or dazzling her way through those Cole-choreographed production numbers. Sadly we'll never see the complete version, or those cut numbers. Drat!

Oddly, while Mitzi Gaynor only made 17 films, two of them are pretty similar and certainly did NOT help her career very much. Both "Golden Girl" and "The I Don't Care Girl" are supposed biographies of 19th to 20th century actresses. Most of their work was done on stage but in the case of Eva Tanguay in "The I Don't Care Girl", she also made a few films. The additional reason both films are similar is that they should have come with the warning "Any similarities between anyone living or dead is strictly coincidental"! In other words, the films bear very little similarity to either women and their careers.

"The I Don't Care Girl" is also interesting because Mitzi Gaynor looks absolutely nothing like the person she was portraying. Mitzi was tiny and cute and Ms. Tanguay was a bit on the chunky side and had dark hair...and was French-Canadian. And, Tanguay was known for her bold personality which was anything but subtle...and a style MUCH different than Gaynor's...and to try to compensate, Gaynor actually had to deliberately sing badly! What were they thinking?!

The irony of this fake biography of Tanguay is that it starts as a movie within a movie. A guy goes to see a film producer to talk about the REAL Tanguay so they get the movie right. They then argue WHAT the real Tanguay was like. The rest consists of long flashbacks filled with all sorts of stuff but the truth!! The oddest is at the start when you see Tanguay on stage and she loses her voice and the curtain is dropped...with no explanation of this at all after! I can only assume the film edited out a subplot and they somehow forgot to edit out this scene as well.

Is this a decent biography of Tanguay? Not in the least. Is it watchable even if you don't mind that it plays fast and loose with the facts? Perhaps...perhaps not. My problem with it and inferior musicals is that the songs take precidence over plot. In other words, they cram in tons of song and dance numbers as if that is THE reason for the movie...not the story. I think excising a few of these forgettable numbers and including more of her life would have vastly improved the movie. A good example is Oscar Levant's* great piano portion about 20 minutes into the movie. It's great...but also irrelevant to the plot and doesn't even feature Tanguay in any way.

Overall, a slick looking full color film chock full of songs but not much else. Not terrible...but it falls short in many ways. And, a film which will likely leave you wishing you actually KNEW about Eva Tanguay and her extraordinary life! My score of 4, if anything, is a big generous.

*By the way, I love Oscar Levant. He was a funny and brilliant raconteur...and I liked him in the movie. But this scene just didn't make sense.

What could have been a very good musical ends up being bunch of mixed up scenes that make no sense whatsoever. Fox had a good idea with the material, but somehow botched it up. A good vehicle for poor Mitzi Gaynor, and she must have very dismayed with what ended up on the screen.

Fox Archives has released this recently along with other older films. Too bad they couldn't include the missing footage as it's very obvious scenes and details to the plot were left out on the 'cutting room floor', so to speak. The musical numbers, for the most part, are very good to excellent, even though they do not belong in the time element of the story. One very strange number, the second I DON'T CARE sequence, has Mizi changing costumes RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ACT, and a character that was long gone, back in the scene. I'm sure this number was supposed to be a 'dream sequence', that would be the only reasonable explanation!!!! What did Mr. Zanack have in mind when he edited this film??? I know he was responsible for all editing of films under his regime. He also ruined the fabulous MM movie, NIAGARA along with sever cuts to THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS. And he was supposed to be a 'movie' person? I think not.

I understand that The I Don't Care Girl was severely cut by Daryl F Zannuck which was his usual practice, despite this Mitzi showed what a Great talent she was, unlike other great female dancers of the time Mitzi was set apart because she had personality, I also think Mitzi was at the wrong studio and totally wasted in Hollywood, although she was'nt wasted in Las Vegas where she was the top box office star for years, and later her great tv shows.