It's true that Gertrude was no singer, still she did The King And I on Broadway!
Julie is an actress, and a great one! She was able to play Gertie as she was, a tough, demanding woman. Not as nasty as Anne Baxter in All about Eve, you actually like Gertie.
In the scene where she gets drunk and turns into a screaming harpy, nobody knows the hurt she has just suffered when learning her daughter Pamela won't make the trip to New York. The result are the zingers she fires at everybody. I love that part of the movie.
And who couldn't like the way she bumps and grinds in the final number. Her Jenny is fantastic!
That is the sigh of a great actress, taking a roll and making it her own. Gertrude Lawrence was no Julie Andrews, she didn't have the sparkle that Julie does. But Julie could make Gertie lovable.
Actually, Julie studied this charictor for a year. And when Gertie's daughter asked her "Did daddy leave you, or did you leave him?" had to hurt! Julie's real life daughter Emma, was about the same age, and that line must have hit home.
This role was the first time Julie could break away from the Maria Von Trapp role, and act like a real person. And she did it with class!
And now, after her vocal problems, she still knock em dead. Julie is even better now, because she is an actress, not a singer who acts.
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