Auntie Mame

".....Boxed, like Proust!"
There are certain roles that are inextricably linked to their portrayors. Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Yul Brynner as The King of Siam, Ethel Merman as Madame Rose, and, of course, Rosalind Russell as Auntie Mame. Rosalind Russell was, in my opinion, a class act. The lady had style, warmth, modesty, and a great acting talent, particularly in comedy, especially the fast-talking kind. Sure, she had some career misfires, such as her unconvincing Jewish mama in "A Majority of One", and her "slumming society dame" Madame Rose in "Gypsy", but Roz reigned supreme in comedies such as "The Women", "His Girl Friday", and, of course, "Auntie Mame" which, having created it on Broadway, it became HER signature role. Her performance is recorded for generations to come in this delighful film. Also on hand from the original Broadway cast are Peggy Cass as the frumpy, would-be butterfly Miss Gooch, and Jan Handzlik as 9-year-old Patrick Dennis,...

Life's A Banquet--and Auntie Mame Invites You To It
The Patrick Dennis novel was a runaway bestseller--and it was soon followed by a stage version starring Rosalind Russell, who was born to play the madcap Mame in this story of an eccentric, fast-living society woman of the 1920s who "inherits" her nephew when her brother died. Determined to "open doors" for her adoring nephew, Mame exposes to him everything from bootleg gin to oddball characters--all the while doing battle with her nephew's ultra-conservative trustee, who is equally determined that the boy's life remain free of "certain influences."

This is a knockout show, and Rosalind Russell delivers a knockout performance in it--easily her finest comedy performance since 1939's THE WOMEN. She is extremely well supported by the sadly under-acknowledged Coral Brown in the role of Vera Charles, an actress who passes out in Mame's apartment with considerable regularity, and Forrest Tucker as the Southern gentleman who becomes her knight in shining honor; the supporting cast, which...

One of the best that isn't on those Top 100 lists
This is the one and only version of Auntie Mame that anyone should ever see. Rosalind Russell is brilliant as the eccentrically loving Mame who takes in nephew Patrick and includes him in her madcap life. Having been charmed by the original release of the film back in the '50s, I had the great pleasure of introducing my (now-adult daughter) to Mame--thereby bringing another generation forward to share the pleasure of the production.

Dealing as it does with the highs and lows of Mame's fortunes, her loves and losses and, always, her devotion to Patrick, there is great comedy, genuine sentiment and some wonderful social comment as well. While Russell always turned in fine performances (The Women, most notably), she put subsequent wannabe efforts to shame. The Lucille Ball version (in which she looks as if she was shot through Vaseline-covered cheesecloth) is lamentably bad, going for cheap laughs. But there is nothing cheap about this, the original. From Mame's efforts to be a...

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