A Mulher do Século

Rosalind Russell -IS- Auntie Mame and there is no doubt in my mind that she being cast in the role was a perfect choice. I read Dennis' book and I have to stress that anyone who loves this film but who has not read the book should read it. I think they did a great job in adapting the novel to film although I could imagine the great temptation to include the very racy parts of the novel. If they did include them, the "G" rating would probably have needed to be changed to "R". One of my favorite lines in the film is delivered so expertly by actress Coral Browne (Vera Charles), who upon being wakened out of a drunken sleep (with bottle still in hand) looks out the window at the sun and says "Ohhh---that moon is bright". Another favorite line delivered by Russell (in Mame's comment about Vera Charles' phony English accent) "When your from Pittsburgh, you have to do something". Rosalind Russell brought such magic to the character of Auntie Mame so much so, that I wish I had an Aunt like her. Auntie Mame helps stress the point to appreciate diversity in life and to live life to the fullest. I have often chosen to watch my copy of this film when feeling low and I can tell you it is a spirit lifter.

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.

Auntie Mame is a long movie, but it goes by as fast as a giggle!! There are few movies that I care to watch over and over again. I never tire of Auntie Mame because the screenplay is simply a brilliant piece of work. Comden and Greene are from the laudable days where one was expected to engage the brain when writing comedy! Practically every line is a quotable classic. Warner Brothers did us all a service by hiring theater director Morton da Costa to recreate the Broadway stage play. The movie is classy, sumptuously designed and brilliantly staged with those exquisite blackouts after each scene. Rosalind Russell should have won an Academy Award for this role (she refused to campaign for it) because no one will ever come close to getting that perfect timing that she displays in every scene. You love her from the moment she shakes the monkey's hand in the second scene. The supporting cast is perfection, especially Coral Browne, an undeservedly little known actress who makes a meal of Vera Charles. Peggy Cass is hilarious as Agnes Gooch; Forrest Tucker a charmer as Burnside. Everything about this picture makes it a true classic of the American cinema; one of those rare movies that makes you laugh, but even more important, makes you feel good!!! They don't get any better than this!

For many years, "Auntie Mame" was *that* movie the AFI list buff I was couldn't ignore: 94th entry in AFI's Top Laughs and 93th quote: "Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death", that's all I had to heighten my expectations of a comedy with an inspirational life message, featuring one of these happy-go-lucky and flamboyant characters who'd made better life therapists than experts in the flesh. Now if I can think of better candidates as classic comedies, I admit Rosalind Russell is a spectacle by herself, giving a tremendous and rightfully Oscar-nominated performance.

The film opens with its best gag: the reading of a will made by Mr. Edwin Dennis, a wealthy businessman, putting his sole heir Patrick under the care of his aunt Mame. It starts with straight, sane and sound, reading and then the voice-over goes all hysterical at the mention of the woman's usual shenanigans, to which Edwin insists they shall never interfere with his son's education, with which he entrusted the conservative Dwight Babcock, a trustee of the Knickerbocker Bank. Doubting this will would have any effect in the next years given his healthy condition, Mr. Dennis signs on what will be his penultimate day on Earth. News headlines reveal his death the day after and that made me think: if the film can make me laugh without any characters present, that's quite promising.

The reading is also narratively efficient as it sets up the exuberant personality of Mame Dennis or Auntie Mame and puts the viewer in the right mindset before the plot takes off. Still, there's not much plot in Morton DaCosta film which is a succession of vignette-like episodes spanning 18 years from 1928 to 1946, with only one mention of the 1929 crash and a mere allusion to World War II that the older Patrick Dennis miraculously dodged. But I guess any movie lover from the 2020s would find elements of enjoyment most notably the peculiar but so appealing personality of Auntie Mame, a flamboyant and exuberant spinster who brings a vibrant energy in every scene she in, which means all the film.

Her first scene sets the tone: she's a party-giving socialite, a thrill-seeker with a unique talent to surround herself with the weirdest personalities: a man running a nudist school, an orthodox archbishop, a constantly giggling Japanese butler (Yuki Shimoda) and so and so. But she passes the first test of character when she welcomes the young orphaned Patrick (Jan Dizlmick) with the kind of reassuring warmth and gentleness many of us who had an eccentric aunt can relate to; and while Rosalind Russell, with her unmistakable raspy voice and her larger-than-life personality; provides all the spices that makes the story digestible, the film benefits from strong supporting players like Vera (Coral Browne) a friend who's made a habit of passing out before any party ends and there's the big Fred Clark as the conservative banker and comic-relief antagonist.

Mame's antics might get on some viewers' nerves, this is why one should remember the time of its release, a darling for costume comedy-dramas and stage adaptations (it was the year of "The Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "Gigi"). If anything, "Auntie Mame" is an extravaganza trip with a clothesline-plot on which to hang slightly disjointed episodes: Mame being broke after the crash, Mame as an actress, as a toy seller, as a wannabe Southern belle and lousy cavalier in the one action sequence, Mame as the wife of a smitten Southern played by Forrest Tucker, Mame as a globe-trotter, a merry widow etc. Etc.

The story can be regarded as a studio excuse for a superproduction with lavish award-baity costumes and set designs. Indeed, the fashion changes, so does the decoration of the apartment where the living room and the stairs are the most permanent elements, these changes in style (but not in colore) highlight the one unmovable force: Mame. And the conflict comes from the very fact that Patrick changes, becoming a stuffy adult (Roger Smith) since Mame's marriage allowed Babcock to strengthen his influence and push the boy into courting one of these rich vain college girls, Gloria (Joanna Barnes) who's so caricatural you'd wonder what he found in her.

It's a miracle that the film avoids confusion with all the things going on and the inclusion of late characters: Robin Hughes as a writer helping Mame to write an autobiography and an awkward secretary named Agnes Gooch played by Peggy Cass. The film oscillates between some serious and light moments, there is black comedy and attempts at seriousness, but one shouldn't overthink it and consider that it's just a stage turned into a film. The attempts to recreate the Egyptian setting and Indian have the obsolete charms of old silent films, there' even a scene with Paris in the backdrop and you can clearly see the immobile cars. Less than flaws, these are artistic licenses giving the film its theatrical touch, just like this way DaCosta ends each scene with a fade out but leaving a little spotlight on Russell's face.

Indeed this is a film that asks us to embrace the histrionic and joyful spirit of Mame, I doubt this would work as efficiently as Edward Everett Tanner's book, which I haven't read but from the readers' comments, struck me as a real eye-opener and life-changer. At the end, "Auntie Mame" is a product of its time and I guess the best thing it does is reminding of the comedic potential of Rosalind Russell who gives the performance of a lifetime. I just saw her in a "What's My Line" clip from 1953, and it's got to be one of the funniest mystery guest segment sever so she was definitely fit for the role because she can be funny without trying hard, and also genuinely warm and nice.

So there are directors' films, producers' films, "Auntie Mame" is definitely what we can call an actress' film, and her name was Rosalind Russell.

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.