Auntie Mame
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Movie Reviews of Auntie Mame
Movie Review: Timeless classic
Summary: 5 Stars
Rosalind Russell is wonderful as the lively, vivacious, outgoing and flamboyant Auntie Mame raising her nephew, Patrick Dennis. She is wealthy and lives high, but she is no snob. She lives life to the fullest and teaches Patrick to do the same. Because of her adventurous lifestyle, she is talked into writing her autobiography and a young actress who was later to become a game show panelist regular, Peggy Cass, is supurb as her mousy secreatary (rememeber Peggy as a panelist in shows such as I've got a Secret, What's my Line, etc?).
We see Patrick evolve from a young boy to a young adult contemplating marriage. Mame alway's raised Patrick to "live Live LIVE," and she ingrained in him the axiom that "life is a banquet and most people are starving to death." As I said earlier. Mame is no snob but, the adult Partick shows signs of becoming one. His choice of a shallow fiancee, who has pretentions of being a classy socialite, is questionable. Also, this movie, in a humorous way, probes the issue of social antisemitism (after all, a shallow socialite of that era certainly would live in a restricted community, wouldn't she?). Patrick begins to become ashamed of some of his aunt's audacious antics. The question is, can Mame, gently, without being heavy handed lead him back to the right path? I think you can surmise the answer (OK, maybe some of her techniques are outrageously funny and not so gentle).
This movie is great fun and is also the type of movie you can watch many times without becoming bored. I first saw it as a young child in 1958 and I have enjoyed many times since. This DVD is highly recommended.
Movie Review: One of the best comedies ever!
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the funniest, most enjoyable romps ever to be produced on film is this hysterical comedy based on the popular Broadway play. Rosalind Russell gives the signature performance of her career as the free-wheeling, liberally-minded society dame who takes in her recently orphaned nephew Patrick (Jan Handzlik) and finds herself mad about him from the start. She raises him in an openminded environment that includes all manner of friends and educational styles, and nearly sees it all destroyed when a teenage Patrick (Roger Smith) brings home an obnoxious bore of a white upper-middle-class suburban girl (Joanna Barnes). Nothing worse than conformity, of course, so naturally it's Auntie Mame to the rescue! On the surface it's a breezy comedy, but you don't have to look too deep to find the many ways in which Betty Comden and Adolph Green's witty screenplay rightly criticizes the American social structure of racism, segreation and intolerance that reigned supreme in the 1950s (even Mame's saving the fox from the hounds during a hunt in Georgia is a sharp political statement of its own). Still, audiences didn't mind its calling them to task, making it the top moneymaker at the box office for 1958 (something rare for a movie that would be labelled as "a woman's picture"). Peggy Cass (like Russell recreating her Tony award-winning stage role) has a hysterical supporting turn as Miss Gooch, the geeky, raspy-voiced secretary who is assigned to help Mame write her memoirs. Remade in 1974 as an abysmal musical with a near-comatose Lucille Ball.Movie Review: Life Is A Banquet, and Most Poor Suckers are Starving
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't use the term "perfect" lightly. But Auntie Mame is surely one of the most perfect comedies <if not one of the most perfect movies> ever made. If you're not splitting your sides with laughter by the time Patrick rushes into Mame's bedroom, throwing open the draperies to share his latest discovery, only to be asked by a "hung" Mame, "Patrick, darling. How can you see with all that light?" In that case, my friend, you are beyond all help or hope.Auntie Mame is sheer fun from the opening credits until the final fadeout. Lavish photography, a rapier-sharp script, an enchanting musical score, and Rosiland Russell in a tour-de-force perfomance give us a reminder of what the Movies are all about. Auntie Mame was a best-selling novel <by Patrick Dennis, no less! Go Figure.>, a popular stage play, that was adapted into an award-winning Boradway musical with Angela Lansbury in the title role of Mame, before it was done to death by an aging Lucille Ball <who really should have known better; how often did we laugh at Lucy Ricardo's inablility to sing?>.
The DVD of Auntie Mame restores the freshness, spectacle <Who wouldn't want to attend a party at that fabulous Beekman Place apartment?>, and genuine warmth and vitality of the original film.
Buy it, and when it arrives, call the bootlegger, mix the martinis, and just drape the furs on the Gooch, and sit back and enjoy a "perfect" movie. All I can honestly say is that if you're going to see it for the first time, I'm very, very jealous.
Movie Review: "I'm your Auntie Mame!"
Summary: 5 Stars
I will not try to write a review of the movie... it speaks for itself. Hollywood could never remake this so perfectly if they tried, with all the money and actors in the world. No one could ever hold a candle to Rosalind Russell in the title role. All the characters are perfectly cast. My favorites are Coral Browne as Vera Charles and Joanna Barnes as Gloria Upson. Morton DaCosta had everything going for him with this film and it comes off perfectly.
The score by Bronislau Kaper is glorious. The lush sound of the Warner Bros. studio orchestra, under the always-inspired direction of veteran musical director Ray Heindorf, sounds wonderful. Although this is not a musical (that would come 16 years later), there was a soundtrack album of the score released back in the 50s (Hint, hint, Warner Bros).
The DVD transfer is super, but unfortunately not perfect, however a vast improvement over the VHS (which itself wasn't even that bad). So if you already have the tape, RUN to buy the DVD. Buy it for the widescreen transfer if for nothing else. The DVD's a little skimpy on extras, which include a music-only track and trailers for this film and Lucy's 1974 musical remake "MAME," which we need on DVD NOW. A nice "making-of" documentary would be nice, and maybe some newsreel footage of the Hollywood premier, but I guess you can't have everything.
As others have said, this is one you could watch over and over again and it never gets old. A classic!
Movie Review: Rosalind Russell is Auntie Mame now on WideScreen DVD!
Summary: 5 Stars
AOL/Time Warner and Warner Brothers does an outstanding job bringing us "Auntie Mame" digitally remastered DVD and enhanced for widescreen tvs. The widescreen color and sound presented are absolutely fantastic and we get to thoroughly enjoy Rosalind Russells performance as "Auntie Mame". Summary: Rosalind Russell reprises her Broadway Play role as Mame and received a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar Nomination. The setting is 1928 New York & Ten year old Patrick Dennis goes to live with only surviving family member rich eccentric "Auntie Mame" after his father dies. The zany Mame is his guardian but an estate lawyer is in charge of the boys strict inheritance requirements. Mame & Patrick immediately have a true devotion to each other and try to outwit the lawyers strict rules. Through Mames advant garde life style loses close control of her nephews upbringing and Patrick is sent off to boarding school. The Depression occurs and Mames money is lost so she must climb her way to the top with her eccentric friends. This movie is a typical 1950's Broadway/Hollywood extravaganza with the promised traditional happy ending after many obstacles & detours along the way.
Special Features: Music-Only Sound track, Theatrical Trailers Cast / Director highlights.
This is a most delightful movie for the family and brings the audience to 1950's world of Hollywood and the grand style of movie making. Russell is "Mame". Enjoy.