Mame

It has been a puzzlement to me ever since seeing Mame in it's premiere run way back in 1974, that so many people have so many different views of this movie. It is either absolutely loved or positively hated by the people who see it. I believe Lucille Ball is, and always will be Mame. She plays the character exactly the way she should be played, hard, tender, funny, bitchy, loving, sophisticated and free-spirited.

This film has a bright cheery look and feel with big splashy production numbers which lovingly look back at the grand old Hollywood Musicals of the past. The production values are stunning, with beautiful sets and costumes that are truer to the period than the ones in Auntie Mame. The supporting cast is great, with Bea Arthur as Vera Charles and Jane Connell as Gooch. And concerning the complaints about the filming of Lucy through gauze, just go back to the MGM Musicals of the 40's and 50's and you'll see almost every major female star, young and old, filmed through heavy gauze.

I've come to the conclusion that this movie has been labeled a bomb for so long that some people already have their minds made up not to like it before the opening credits have ended. And the ones who see it for the first time without any idea of it's troubled history, end up loving it!

Mame was Lucille Ball's last movie, and to honest she was too old to be convincing in much of it. She throws away probably the best song in the musical - If He Walked Into My Life - but claws back a bit of class for Bosom Buddies (with the fabulous Bea Arthur, from the stage production), and the whole Southern sequence, starting with the hunt and culminating in 'Mame' the song. Lucy on roller skates is also pretty funny. I'd have liked to have seen someone like Angela Lansbury or Janis Paige, both who had done the role successfully in stage, star in it, but there are compensations (Jane Connell, who was Agnes on stage, is good here, as is Robert Preston as Beau). It's not bad - it just could have been just that bit better.

I saw this film when it was originally released in the theatre and I was too young to know that Lucy wasn`t exactly a great choice for Mame. I only knew that the music (Lucy`s singing aside) was wonderful. I`m talking about the orchestrations and the arrangements of the score. From the opening title when the firts strains of MAME are played I was hooked. Over the years I have come to realize that Lucy was miscast as far as the singing goes but having seen a video of Angela Lansbury in the role, I have to say that as far as acting the part, Lucy did an admirable job. Some things about the play were changed for the film but that happens in almost all transfers from stage to screen. It worked well for Cabaret and the Sound of Music and for the most part works well here. No, Lucy can`t sing like Angela Lansbury (who I think is one of the most accomplished actresses of film, theatre and television) but she has her moments, such as MY BEST GIRL with Kirby Furlong and BOSOM BUDDIES with the wonderful Bea Arthur and she brings all her years of experience to the role. She also has a wonderful cast around her to help the film along. My favorite part is the title song sung by Robert Preston and the plantation crowd. A great arrangement of the music and a wonderful adaption of the stage choreography (and Lucy dances wonderfully as well). All in all, if you like musicals and can get past Lucy`s minimal singing talent, then I think you`ll love Mame

I wasn't surprised to learn that Lucille Ball bankrolled this movie adaptation of the Broadway musical MAME -- that explains her miscasting. Don't get me wrong: Ball looks gorgeous in the spectacular costumes and her slapstick is still up to par. But even her bullfrog singing voice (which proves that even the worst voice can't completely ruin Jerry Herman's wonderful songs. They *could* ruin Cole Porter's songs in AT LONG LAST LOVE, but that's a review for another time :-) didn't bother me nearly as much as the fact that Ball is too old and, worst of all, too *COLD* to play lovable madcap Mame Dennis. It's comical in the wrong way to see Lucy in soft focus in her solo shots and everybody else photographed crystal clear. She looks more like she's modeling than acting, and she has all the warmth and tenderness of the iceberg that sank the Titanic. She also tends to look like she's trying to seduce Kirby Furlong and Bruce Davison as, respectively, the younger and older Patrick -- creepy! Moreover, it's obvious the dances have been slowed down considerably to accommodate Lucy's rusty dancing skills (notice how people seem to dance *around* her rather than with her). Madeline Kahn, the original choice for Agnes Gooch, should've been playing Mame, not Ball. Luckily, Lucy's miscasting is balanced out by the terrific casting in the other roles, especially the hilarious Beatrice Arthur and Jane Connell recreating their stage roles as Vera Charles and Agnes, Joyce Van Patten as Sally Cato, and Robert Preston as dashing Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside. Worth a look for both its good and bad points, if you stumble across it on AMC in its letterboxed form.

This was Lucille Ball's penultimate film ("Stone Pillow" being her last) and proves, despite her age, she still has all her youthful charms and charisma, but strengthens the "Lucy Ricardo" in her as well--she can't sing. But she is quite talented on her feet (and she was recovering from a broken leg!). She brought a bit of the 'Lucy' persona into the Mame, which I feel didn't hurt the character-- now Auntie Mame is both free-spirited and screwballed; strengthening Mame's brother's wariness to let his son stay with her.

Rosalind Russell's 50's version was great as well, but was more solemn and serious than this, and was the nonmusical adaptation. That's all good and well, but I feel music enhanced the airy blitheness that is Mame.

Oh, and I forgot to mention Bea Arthur, who played Vera Charles impeccably, as if she was born for the role.

Let's face it: If you like Russell, you'll abhor this film; if you like Lucy you'll fall in love with it; if you like the nonmusical you'll feel the musical was deprived of proper depth; and if you liked the musical you'll think the nonmusical was rather pensive.