Mame

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.

Nearly 40 years later, this musical looks better than ever.

First off, the music and lyrics of Jerry Herman make this one of the great Broadway musicals, which happens to be based on a great play. The 1950s play and film version starred Rosalind Russell in one of the great roles of her estimable career.

The 1960s Broadway musical was a smash hit for Angela Lansbury, but Lansbury wasn't a big enough name to star in a lavish film version of the musical. In 1974 there were probably a lot of "middle-aged" stars who could have put this over, but Mame was a role Lucille Ball chased for years.

At the end of her long film and TV career, MAME should have been her crowning achievement, but nothing could mask the fact that she couldn't really sing, although in the final version they were able to piece a vocal performance together, Ball doesn't do Herman's music justice.

That aside, the 63-year-old Ball looks great and easily carries the comedy of the role, and she's in nearly every scene. The sets and costumes are lush and loud, and Ball gets great support from Beatrice Arthur and Jane Connell (Vera and Gooch from the Broadway show) and Robert Preston as Beau.

The rest of the cast is serviceable if not memorable. Don Porter and Audrey Christie as the Upsons, Bruce Davison as the grown Patrick, John McGiver as Babcock, Doria Cook as Gloria, Joyce Van Patten as Sally Cato, Lucille Benson as Mother Burnside, and George Chiang as Ito.

Ball and Arthur won Golden Globe nominations. Te film earned no Oscar nominations. The film opened to big numbers but fell off after a few months. Usually considered a bomb, the film did not lose money.

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.

Critics at the time complained that "Mame" was overproduced, but you simply can't stage a musical version of Patrick Dennis' novel/memoir "Auntie Mame" and not have it be splashy with all the trimmings. Screen-adaptation of the hit Broadway show (previously staged and filmed without songs as "Auntie Mame" in 1958 and starring Rosalind Russell) had a lot of people in 1974 crying foul over the casting (they were "anti-Mame"). The by-passing of Broadway's Angela Lansbury for the lead brought nothing but slings and arrows for this new Mame, Lucille Ball, who--despite a sandpaper voice--is to be commended for giving her all to a distinctly old-fashioned presentation. Ball has several amusing scenes, particularly when she's due to be on stage with gal-pal Vera Charles (Beatrice Arthur) and can't stop primping in her vanity mirror. The plot is the same as before: an orphaned lad goes to live with his merry, madcap aunt in 1920s New York and learns about life. Robert Preston is well-cast as a romantic suitor, and Arthur is wonderful reprising her Tony-winning role as Vera. The picture has gauzy, gaudy razzle-dazzle, though not enough to justify a two hour-plus movie. Portions of it creak and sag with the weight of sentimentality; worse, an unnecessary montage of hugs-and-kisses at the finish line is grueling. Still, the cast works hard to keep things bubbling along and there are some choice highlights. ** from ****

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.