Auntie Mame

Sometimes you see a movie and you know that the actor or actress in it was born to play that part.

Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind

Bette Davis in All About Eve

Barbra Streisand in Hello, Dolly

Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame

I love Russell and the parts she played. She was a liberated woman before the rest of the world knew that women needed to be liberated.

But in Auntie Mame she reached her peak. Mame is so vibrant and alive. She flaunts every one of Mame's eccentricities without stepping over the line into caricature. She also brings alive Mame's decency, compassion and tolerance. When I watch it, I almost feel ashamed of myself for being such a stick in the mud.

I enjoyed the musical with Lucille Ball, but all the way through it - I wanted it to be Rosalind Russell playing the part. It takes very little imagination on my part to hear her singing the songs. Rosalind, you are "just sensational" as Mame.

Rosalind Russel in the role of a lifetime. Auntie Mame leads her beloved nephew on a roller-coaster ride from riches to rags back to riches, always teaching the boy to "live life to the fullest". The story begins just prior to the great stock market crash of 1929 and spins into present day (1958).

There are delightful moments with colorful characters, most noteworthy "Miss Gooch", an unwed mother and thus an outcast of respectable society. There are several touching scenes when the family is suffering in the great depression, but just as many funny ones, i. e. where Auntie Mame puts some biggoted snobs in their place.

I enjoyed this film slightly more than the later Lucille Ball musical version. Although Rosalind Russel is quite flamboyant, Lucille Ball is completely "over the top" and thus less credible. I recommend the 1958 original over the remake, although both are wonderful entertainment.

With a perfect match between character and actress, Rosalind Russell's unforgettable performance as "Auntie Mame" is almost enough to carry the whole movie by itself. The story is also interesting, if quite contrived, and most of the supporting cast helps out when needed. The variety of settings and situations also helps to make the movie an effective portrait of a life.

The story works best when taken as an appreciative but light-hearted portrayal of a memorable character. Many of Mame's adventures are stylized, and they work best when not taken too seriously. Given that, there are plenty of amusing sequences, and just enough thoughtful moments to maintain some balance.

Russell herself is in her element. With a character whom it is almost impossible to overplay, she gives the role plenty of energy and charm. She also works very well with the other characters, giving believable (given the character) and usually interesting reactions to what they say and do.

In the supporting cast, Forrest Tucker and Peggy Cass make good use of their scenes, and Fred Clark works well as Mame's frequent adversary. Coral Browne gets some good moments as Mame's old friend. The filming was approached in a rather stagy fashion, yet much of the time this seems appropriate. All told, the movie has a number of strengths, yet the memory most likely to remain is Russell's portrait of Mame herself.

When "Auntie Mame" was first published, I read and re-read it (and its sequel, "Around the World with Auntie Mame") for several summers. Believe it or not, the books are even funnier than the film. They were not "memoirs," though that was the PR at the time. Edward Everett Tanner, or "Patrick Dennis," ultimately admitted as much. Auntie Mame was a creation from Tanner's own talented imagination.

No one ever has, or ever will, embody Auntie Mame as well as Rosalind Russell, who, by the time her Broadway performance in the role was filmed, had honed her portrayal to one of the finest in American theatre and film.

Listen to her vocal technique: from high girlish squeals to basso-profundo sarcasm.

Or watch her remarkable body language throughout -- from grande dame theatricality to lowbrow burlesque.

Russell's supporting players are magnificent -- from the 12-year old Jan Handzlik, through Coral Browne, Peggy Cass, Forrest Tucker, Fred Clark, Patrick Knowles, Connie Gilchrist, Yuki Shimoda, Robin Hughes, Roger Smith, Pippa Scott -- and, my own particular favorites who almost, but not quite, steal their scenes from Miss Russell: Willard Waterman, Lee Patrick and Joanna Barnes as the unforgettable Upsons.

George James Hopkins' brilliant sets and set design, and Orry-Kelly's amazing costumes, along with Branislau Kaper's score and Morton Da Costa's direction are like Tiffany settings, showing off this flawless cast at the top of their form.

Lawrence and Lee's original Broadway script was adapted by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, whose main contribution would appear to be the hydraulic furniture at the final dinner party.

The famous line, originally from the Broadway play and not found in the novel, is "Life is a banquet! And most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death!" "Damn" and "hell" both are heard in the film: but "sons-of-bitches" was apparently too strong for the MPAA in 1958.

Is the film dated? I suppose. In the same way that "Citizen Kane" is dated, or "Some Like It Hot." It's also timeless. And Miss Russell's performance, here at the zenith of her long and distinguished comedic and dramatic career (Eugene O'Neill's "Mourning Becomes Electra," anybody?) is an acting lesson unto itself.

From the cartoon kaleidoscope opening to the last walk up the staircase for Mame Dennis, this comically-contrived and highly theatrical movie version of the celebrated Broadway success is nevertheless pleasing in almost every sense. Director Morton DaCosta, who also helmed the stage version, uses the theatricality of the piece to his advantage, giving the proceedings the shiny look and feel of a holiday bauble. The movie takes off running, bursting with chatter and frivolity, and Rosalind Russell is a great crazy-quilt hostess, often going in three directions at once. The story of an orphaned lad in 1928 who goes to live with his batty aunt in New York City started life as a book by Patrick Dennis, with Russell playing the lead once it was turned into a play. The film-version doesn't try to disguise the stage origins, but then it doesn't really have to; DaCosta keeps the pacing so brisk, with characters entering and exiting rapidly, that initially the viewer may feel as though something important may have been missed. The picture isn't loaded down with artificial charm. On the contrary, the romantic sub-plot between Russell and oil tycoon Forrest Tucker (which, again, is quick--in and out) is genuinely sweet (this is Tucker's triumph as much as it is Russell's) and the supporting players are impeccably well-cast, bouncing off each other like frenetic ornaments. While the plot does slip into an episodic structure (and does feel a bit lengthy), the smooth maneuvering of characters and quirks and hang-ups and hang-overs is an awful lot of fun. As for Russell, she gives shading and feeling to this woman; her exuberance can be taken as a put-on (for laughs), yet we never lose sight of Mame Dennis as a ballsy, bright lady, and she never lapses into bitchiness. Mame may have been real, or maybe just a literary confection, but she isn't a phony. She believes life is a banquet, and gets us to believe it too. *** from ****