The 'I Don't Care' Girl

20th Century Fox, 1953
Starring Mitzi Gaynor, David Wayne, Oscar Levant, and Bob Graham
Directed by Lloyd Bacon
Music and Lyrics by various

We've seen serious takes on biographies of famous performers in the last few weeks, but this oddity is really more of a spoof. Though Eva Tanguay was a major vaudeville headliner in the late 19th and early 20th century, by the early 50's, she was largely forgotten by all but nostalgia buffs and stage historians. They try to get around this with a comic story that has the three men in Eva's life come to Hollywood to relate very different stories of how they met her and she became a star. How does this unusual approach work today? Let's head to Hollywood, as producer George Jessel (himself) prepares for a biopic of Tanguay, and find out...

The Story: Three men come to Jessel and his team, all claiming to have the real scoop on the vivacious, publicity-loving vaudeville headliner. Ed McCoy (Wayne) says he met here when she was a waitress in a bar and they became a team. She goes on when another vaudeville team, Charlie Bennett (Levant) and Larry Woods (Graham) fight over her. Later, McCoy convinces Bennett to be her accompanist in her first big number. Nonsense, says Bennett. She was really a singer with an alcoholic partner who was dropped when the management gave her part to major star Stella Forrest (Hazel Brooks). Flo Ziegfeld (Wilton Graff) discovered her to spotlight in his Follies. Woods has still another version, about how they fought when she thought he was going to give his operetta to Stella...at least until he went away to World War I, and she went after him.

The Song and Dance: This strange, goofy musical is as bright and wacky as Tanguay herself was said to be. Gaynor gives it her all in the truly oddball numbers, kicking up her heels and shaking Tanguay's signature feathers and having a ball. I do appreciate that they tried for a different approach with the story, with the Rashomon-style device of having each leading man tell a different version of Tanguay's life. Some of the costumes and sets are downright amazing, especially in the "Beale Street Blues" and "Johnson Rag" numbers on stylized Technicolor stages.

Favorite Number: The first version of "I Don't Care" on a bare stage has Gaynor climbing all over the audience in the boxes and shaking her tail feathers with abandon. It probably gets the closest to what was reportedly the real Eva Tanguay's wild performance style. Wayne joins Gaynor for "Pretty Baby," which starts out with them courting on a bench and ends with them dressed as a nanny and a baby, and then her swirling around the stage. "Beale Street Blues" is a colorful and gritty finale, with dancers slinking around a bar in bright pinks and blues and Gaynor in a feathered headdress. Levant gets to show his stuff on the piano with two solo Liszt numbers.

Trivia: Renown Broadway choreographer Jack Cole did the dances for "Beale Street Blues," "Johnson Rag," and the second version of "I Don't Care." Long-time Hollywood choreographer Seymour Felix staged the smaller numbers. Broadway dancer Gwen Verdon can be seen in "Beale Street Blues." She also did the dive into the circle of water in "I Don't Care" because Gaynor couldn't swim.

None of the men's stories get remotely close to the real Tanguay. She was born in Canada, but her family ended up in Massachusetts, where she started singing at local music halls as a child. She made her Broadway debut in a Broadway musical in 1901; by 1905, she was one of the biggest stars in vaudeville, famed for her brassy, sassy self-confidence. She did appear in the Ziegfeld Follies in 1909...but she took a number from Sophie Tucker. No one took a number from her. She became best known as one of the earliest celebrities, coming up with stunts to keep her in the news well into the 1930's.  Her marriages to a dancer in 1913 and a pianist in 1927 were brief... and neither bore any resemblance to the men in the film.

What I Don't Like: What on Earth does any of this have to do with vaudeville, Eva Tanguay, or the early 20th century? The big opening number under the credits stops to tell us that there's something wrong with Eva...but we never find out what, or how it fits in with the rest of the story. Cole's abstract numbers are truly weird, especially the ridiculous Renaissance-themed "Johnson Rag," and has nothing whatsoever to do with anything. Ironically, the numbers staged by Felix mostly come closer to the real style of the era.

It's also obvious that 20th Century Fox messed around in the editing room. The movie is way too short. You don't really get to know anyone, including Eva, and the story lurches along with no real rhyme or reason. Levant's his usual self, but Wayne and Graham are so bland, you have no idea what "bad girl" Eva would be doing with either of them.

The Big Finale: Ultimately, it's too weird and disjointed to be a favorite. Worth seeing once for Gaynor and the really strange Cole chorus routines.

Home Media: Currently available only as part of the 20th Century Fox Cinema Archives made-to-order DVD collection.

DVD