The story focuses on the madcap life of Mame Dennis (Ball), which is disrupted when she becomes the guardian of her deceased brother's son. She marries a wealthy Southern plantation owner (Preston), is widowed, yet through it all, with the help of her dearest friend, Vera Charles (Arthur), manages to keep things under control.
Plot
At the reading of the will of young Patrick Dennis' father, a trustee, Mr. Babcock, reveals that Patrick is to be left in the care of his aunt, Mame Dennis, and his nanny, Agnes Gooch. Taking a train to New York City ("St. Bridget"), Agnes and the boy arrive at Mame's home, where they walk into a wild party ("It's Today").
Mame wants to fill the child's life with adventure ("Open a New Window"), but when Babcock finds out she has enrolled Patrick in a non-traditional school, Patrick is taken from Mame's custody. Simultaneously, the stock market crash leaves Mame penniless. She manages to keep her home. Mame's friend, actress Vera Charles, offers Mame a small role in her newest show as "The Man in the Moon." Mame flubs her one line and causes the play to be a disaster, which puts a major rift in their friendship. Patrick reassures Mame that he still loves her ("My Best Girl").
A desperate Mame takes a job in a department store, where she meets Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside, to whom she attempts to sell a pair of roller skates. She cannot write up a cash order and is fired. At home, Mame decides to lift everyone's spirits by decorating the house for Christmas and giving everyone their gifts early ("We Need a Little Christmas"). Her hired help pays off the butcher until September.
Burnside appears at her front door and invites everyone to dinner. Mame and her servants all agree that Mr. Burnside is like Santa Claus; Mame says that Santa is more like Rhett Butler. They fall in love and move to his family's plantation in Peckerwood, Georgia. At first, Burnside's relatives are unhappy about his marrying a Yankee, but when Mame captures the fox in a fox hunt, they sing her praises ("Mame").
The Burnsides go on an extended honeymoon, traveling all over the world ("Loving You"). Meanwhile, Patrick goes from a young child who pulls in a B+ average to a high school senior failing many classes ("The Letter"). When Burnside dies in an avalanche, Mame returns home to be reunited with a now-grown Patrick, who is dating a snobby, conservative girl named Gloria Upson.
When Mame meets Vera for a drink, the two trade snippy comments, which they insist are not being made out of hatred, but simple honesty, as that's what "Bosom Buddies" do. The two come home and reminisce about men they've dated. Agnes, who is listening to the conversation, admits that she's never had a date. Mame and Vera decide to give the uptight, frumpy Agnes a makeover and send her out to live. Six months later, Agnes returns home, pregnant, and describes what she did while living it up ("Gooch's Song").
Mame visits the Upsons at their home in Connecticut, where she learns that Patrick and Gloria are engaged. After finding the Upsons to be insufferable bores and bigots, Mame is asked to help pay for a piece of property next door so that Patrick and Gloria could live there, as opposed to "the wrong kind of people". Afterward, she is candid with Patrick about her disdain for the family. He admits that he's ashamed of her and her "crazy" friends. A heartbroken Mame wonders what she did wrong with this boy she raised ("If He Walked Into My Life").
Mame and Patrick apologize to each other at her home. They are dressed for company: the Upsons. Mame promises to behave and Patrick meets Mame's new maid, Pegeen. Mr. and Mrs. Upson announce that the property they wanted has been bought by some "Jew lawyer". Mame reveals that she bought the property next door so she could build the Beauregard Burnside Memorial Home For Single Mothers. This is the final straw, and the Upsons leave, angry that Mame isn't "one of us." Patrick, visibly upset, also leaves.
Years later, following World War II, Patrick and Pegeen are married and have a child, Peter. Mame, who is going on a trip to Siberia, requests that Peter be allowed to go with her. The two get onto a plane, and Patrick states that Mame has not changed. Mame and Peter wave goodbye and go into the plane.
"Open a New Window" (reprise) – Mame, adult Patrick
"Finale (Open a New Window/Mame)" – Mame, Chorus
Production
Production had been scheduled to begin in early 1972 but was postponed until January, 1973 after Ball broke her leg in a skiing accident. Owing to the delay, George Cukor, the original director, was forced to withdraw from the project. The assignment then went to Gene Saks, who had helmed the Broadway production.
Shortly after shooting began, Ball, who had casting approval, became dissatisfied with Madeline Kahn's interpretation of Gooch and had her replaced by Jane Connell, a member of the original Broadway cast.[3]Bea Arthur reprised her Tony award-winning role as Vera Charles.
Warner Bros. executives passed over Angela Lansbury for the title role, even though she had won the Tony for her performance of the role on Broadway.[4]
Radio City Music Hall selected the film to be its Easter attraction. The film was a U.S. box-office failure and many reviews, especially those for Ball, were particularly brutal; the movie holds a 36% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 11 reviews.[5]Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four, calling it "a total bust, devoid of joy, wit, good music, or decent dancing", adding:
Much ado has been made about the film's photographic treatment of Lucille Ball's face. Each time we see Miss Ball in closeup, it appears as though the camera lens has been smeared with Vaseline. This is no small matter. The goal of almost every film is to make you forget you are watching a movie. But the continual softening of focus each time Miss Ball's mug comes into view is at first distracting, then annoying, and, ultimately, offensive to our intelligence and to Miss Ball's strength as a performer.
Someone should have told Miss Ball that her public cares not about her face, but, rather, about what's behind it. The very essence of the Mame character, as I understand it, is that she is able to stare old age in the face and make it slink away. And she does this not with makeup, but with her personality...
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Zindel ["The Effect of the Gamma Rays on the Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds"] is credited with the screenplay for "Mame," and it's a mess. Editing is partially to blame. There are many awkward transitions that render character motivation absurd.
Talking about "Mame" in terms of character motivation gives the enterprise more credit than it deserves. The film is coarse, embarrassing, and tedious in turn. That it has been billed as "wholesome family entertainment" is an insult to each of those words.
Aside from Robert Preston's brief appearance as the wealthy southerner, and an amusing music hall routine that smacks of the fine burlesque comedy of the original I Love Lucy television show, "Mame" is a failure.[6]
Time wrote "The movie spans about 20 years, and seems that long in running time ... Miss Ball has been molded over the years into some sort of national monument, and she performs like one too. Her grace, her timing, her vigor have all vanished."[7]Time Out London declared she "simply hasn't the drive and steel of a Rosalind Russell, an Angela Lansbury, or a Ginger Rogers, all of whom played the part before her," and wrote of Saks: "When he's not ogling his star in perpetual soft focus and a $300,000 fashion parade, [he] fails to get enough retakes, match his shots, or inject the essential vim."[8]Pauline Kael in The New Yorker wondered, "After forty years in movies and TV, did she discover in herself an unfulfilled ambition to be a flaming drag queen?" The New Republic's Stanley Kauffmann, though he pointed out that Ball would have made a perfect Mame had she played the role "fifteen years earlier," described her as "too old, too stringy in the legs, too basso in the voice, and too creaky in the joints." Virtually every critic took notice of the heavy-handedness in photographing Ball out of focus, Rex Reed going so far as to suggest, albeit jokingly, that chicken fat was put over the lens. Some regarded this as evidence that those executives responsible for signing Ball, and Ball herself, knew from the outset that she was too old for her role. In her defense in regards to her lack of singing ability, Ball told one interviewer "Mame stayed up all night and drank champagne! What did you expect her to sound like? Julie Andrews?"[citation needed]
In his Movie Guide, critic Leonard Maltin rated the film as "BOMB" and wrote: "Hopelessly out-of-date musical...will embarrass even those who love Lucy. Calling Fred and Ethel Mertz!"[9]
Not all the reviews were bad. Vincent Canby in The New York Times, for example, expressed "great reservations" about the film and Ball's close-ups, but noted that the film is "as determined to please in its way as Mame is in hers" and that the opening credits, "which look like a Cubist collage in motion, are so good they could be a separate subject." Canby went on to praise Ball as well: "When the character of Lucy, an inspired slapstick performer, coincides with that of Auntie Mame, the Big-Town sophisticate, 'Mame' is marvelous. I think of Lucy's turning a Georgia fox hunt into a gigantic shambles, or of her bringing the curtain down on a New Haven first-night when, as a budding actress, she falls off a huge cardboard moon. I even treasure her prying loose the fingers of a sloshed Beatrice Arthur who won't give up her martini glass."[10]Variety reported in its February 27, 1974 review that Ball was "showcased, coiffed, made-up and ably guided from almost television-like slapstick to character sincerity with loving care." Molly Haskell in The Village Voice was "pro-Ball but anti-'Mame'" and felt that Lucy, "a great comedienne...brings it off and even manages to make palatable the kind of character--relentlessly 'on' and trying desperately to be unforgettable--you'd walk a mile to avoid in real life."[11] In the March 18, 1974 issue of New York, Judith Crist similarly was displeased with the film but supportive of its star: "Lucille Ball is – and no 'still' about it – a first-rate entertainer, supplementing her superb comedic sense with a penetrating warmth and inner humor. She is without peer in making a hung-over stagger from bed to bathroom an exercise in regal poise, in using her slightly crooked smile to vitiate the soppiness of an overly sentimental sequence, in applying her Goldwyn Girl chorine know-how to a dash of song and dance."[12] Milton Krims, the film critic for The Saturday Evening Post, wrote (in the magazine's March 1974 issue) a breathless paean to Lucille Ball and the film, concluding that "Mame is Lucille Ball and Lucille Ball is Mame."
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association awarded Ball a Golden Globe nomination (Arthur received one as well) but, disheartened by its reception, she swore she never would appear on the big screen again, and the film proved to be her last theatrical film (not counting Stone Pillow, her 1985 made-for-TV film).
Bea Arthur later called her involvement with the film a "tremendous embarrassment", and expressed regret at having participated. Although she enjoyed working with Lucille Ball, she made no secret of her opinion that Ball was "terribly miscast".[13]
On June 19, 2007, Mame officially was released on DVD both separately and in a special DVD collection of Lucille Ball's films.[14] The DVD includes a remastered version of the film in anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Digital 1.0 mono sound, the original theatrical trailer, and the featuretteLucy Mame.
Although Warner had intended to give the film a 5.1 stereo remastering, it was unable to do so due to several factors. The main factor was the fact that Ball's vocals in her songs often had to be pieced together line by line in order to get a more pitch-perfect performance (this method is a lot more obvious on the soundtrack CD, where one often hears a difference in fidelity in each individual line as well as the occasional line that sounds like two Lucys singing.) This and the varying conditions of the original master copies caused Warner Bros. to simply restore the original release's mono soundtrack and remaster it in Dolby Digital 1.0 mono and use it for the DVD's audio track.
Mary Margaret "Peggy" Cass was an American actress, comedian, game show panelist, and announcer.
Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade is a 1955 novel by American author Patrick Dennis chronicling the madcap adventures of a boy, Patrick, growing up as the ward of his Aunt Mame Dennis, the sister of his dead father.
Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury was a British-American actress. In a career spanning 80 years, she played various roles across film, stage, and television. Although based for much of her life in the United States, her work attracted international attention.
BeatriceArthur was an American actress, comedienne and singer. She began her career on stage in 1947, attracting critical acclaim before achieving worldwide recognition for her work on television beginning in the 1970s as Maude Findlay in the popular sitcoms All in the Family (1971–1972) and Maude (1972–1978) and later in the 1980s and 1990s as Dorothy Zbornak on The Golden Girls (1985–1992).
Vivian Vance was an American actress best known for playing Ethel Mertz on the sitcom I Love Lucy (1951–1957), for which she won the 1953 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress, among other accolades. She also starred alongside Lucille Ball in The Lucy Show from 1962 until she left the series at the end of its third season in 1965. In 1991, she posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is most commonly identified as Lucille Ball’s longtime comedic foil from 1951 until her death in 1979.
Robert Edwin Lee was an American playwright and lyricist. In the early years of World War II, Lee partnered with Jerome Lawrence to create Armed Forces Radio while serving together in the U.S. Army. Lawrence and Lee became the most prolific writing partnership in radio, with such long-running series as Favorite Story among others.
Mame is a musical with a book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. Originally titled My Best Girl, it is based on the 1955 novel Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis and the 1956 Broadway play of the same name by Lawrence and Lee. A period piece set in New York City and spanning the Great Depression and World War II, it focuses on eccentric bohemian Mame Dennis, whose famous motto is "Life is a banquet and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death." Her fabulous life with her wealthy friends is interrupted when the young son of her late brother arrives to live with her. They cope with the Depression in a series of adventures.
Here's Lucy is an American sitcom starring Lucille Ball. The series co-starred her long-time comedy partner Gale Gordon and her real-life children Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. It was broadcast on CBS from 1968 to 1974. It was Ball's third network sitcom, following I Love Lucy (1951–57) and The Lucy Show (1962–68).
Life with Lucy is an American sitcom starring Lucille Ball. Created by Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Davis, the series aired for one season on ABC from September 20 to November 15, 1986. It is the only Lucille Ball sitcom to not air on CBS.
Edward Everett Tanner III, known by the pseudonym Patrick Dennis, was an American author. His novel Auntie Mame: An irreverent escapade (1955) was one of the bestselling American books of the 20th century. In chronological vignettes, the narrator — also named Patrick — recalls his adventures growing up under the wing of his madcap aunt, Mame Dennis. Tanner wrote a sequel, titled Around the World with Auntie Mame, in 1958. He based the character of Mame Dennis on his father's sister, Marion Tanner. Tanner also wrote several novels under the pseudonym Virginia Rowans.
Donald Cecil Porter was an American stage, film, and television actor.
Lucille Benson was an American character actress.
Jane Sperry Connell was an American actress and singer.
Auntie Mame is a 1958 American Technirama Technicolor comedy film based on the 1955 novel of the same name by Edward Everett Tanner III and the 1956 play of the same name by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. This film version stars Rosalind Russell and was directed by Morton DaCosta. It is not to be confused with a musical version of the same story that appeared on Broadway in 1966 and was later made into a 1974 film, Mame, starring Lucille Ball as the titular character.
Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture Mame is the soundtrack from the 1974 Warner Bros. movie adaptation of the Broadway musical Mame. The album features music and lyrics by Jerry Herman and retains all but one song, "That's How Young I Feel," from the original Broadway musical and adds a new song, "Loving You."
Anne Hollingshead Francine was an American actress and cabaret singer.
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American actress, comedian, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by Time in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for her work in all four of these areas. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She earned many honors, including the Women in Film Crystal Award, an induction into the Television Hall of Fame, a Kennedy Center Honor, and the Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
The Big Street is a 1942 American drama film starring Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball, based on the 1940 short story "Little Pinks" by Damon Runyon, who also produced it. It was directed by Irving Reis from a screenplay by Leonard Spigelgass.
Lucy & Desi: Before the Laughter is a 1991 television movie from CBS about the lives of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The movie begins when the two actors met in the 1940s and ends with their divorce in 1960. The movie covers how their careers developed, their often rocky marriage, and how they came to develop the I Love Lucy show. It recreates a number of scenes from classic I Love Lucy episodes, including "Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying to Murder Her" and "Lucy Does a TV Commercial". The television movie was directed by Charles Jarrott and written by William Luce, based on a teleplay by Luce and Cynthia A. Cherbak.
Auntie Mame is a comedic stage play written by American playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. The play was adapted from the novel of the same name first published in 1955 by Patrick Dennis. The play was a critical and commercial success, and was nominated for five Tony Awards, running for 639 performances.
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