Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death
Today on Classic Movie Review, we are taking on the beloved comedy and, to a certain degree, a Christmas movie, Auntie Mame (1958). Rosalind Russell is pretty amazing in this role.
I want to shout out to Theresa for her comment on The Garment Jungle (1957). Also, to Bob for the movie recommendations. I plan on doing a few of the films you mentioned. It is always good to hear from David. Thanks to Nicolas for the nice email from Europe. Please keep contacting me.
I have loved this movie for as long as I can remember. This film has a 7.9 rating on iMDB.com.[1] On Rottentomatoes.com, the film has 93 percent on the Tomatometer and 93 percent audience approval[2]. Pretty outstanding.
This movie was nominated for six Oscars but did not win in any categories. The nominations were for Best Motion Picture, Best Actress – Rosalind Russell, Best Supporting Actress – Peggy Cass, Best Art Direction – Malcolm Bert and George James Hopkins, Best Cinematography Color – Harry Stradling, and Best Film Editing – William Ziegler.[3]
New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther said in a December 5, 1958 review:
“Hurricanes may be out of season, but one blew into the Music Hall yesterday, along with the Christmas stage show. The name of it is “Auntie Mame” and it should be causing much turbulence in this area until well after the Christmas holidays. For this full movie version of the stage play, with Rosalind Russell again at the center of it all, does sure enough generate gales of laughter as it sweeps across the screen. Like the stage play before it and, indeed, like the character of Auntie Mame, its Beekman Place maharance, it is largely inflated with hot air—or a sort of intoxicating vapor or theatrical laughing-gas. There is little or no solid substance to its heroine and her milieu of cafe society jokers, free-loaders, phonies and freaks. Most of its whirling, swirling action is in a succession of virtual skits, strung together in a loose chronological order that extends from the Prohibition era until the present. And it scatters anachronisms as freely as a cloud scatters rain. But for all its absurd exaggerations and bland inconsistencies, this picture of a tireless party-giver is a highly entertaining thing to see. And, because of the gags that gush from it, it is a constantly amusing thing to hear. What’s more, in its superficial racing across several strata of rich society, it does catch some glimpses of behavior that flash a few glints of irony.”[4]
Actors – Auntie Mame (1958)
Returning
Patric Knowles played Lindsay Woolsey, a successful publisher and would-be suiter of Mame. Knowles was first covered in the John Wayne western Chisum (1970). Also covered in Chisum (1970) was Forrest Tucker, who played southern gentleman Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside. I don’t know how Burnside got in there with those Confederates.
Dub Taylor has a very small uncredited role as the county veterinarian in Georgia. Taylor was first covered in another John Wayne western, The Undefeated (1969).
Fred Clark, who specialized in playing unlikeable characters, played unlikable Dwight Babcock. Clark was first covered in the great Film Noir Sunset Blvd. (1950).
Pippa Scott played Mame’s secretary Pegeen Ryan. Scott got her first role as a kidnapped child in the John Wayne western, The Searchers (1956).
New
Rosalind Russell had the primary role as Mame Dennis, AKA Auntie Mame. Russell created the role of Mame on stage and received a Tony in 1957. Russell was born in Connecticut in 1907. After finishing high school, Russell attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, graduating in 1929. She worked in stock theater and on Broadway. In 1934, she signed with Universal but got out of the contract and went to work for MGM.
Russell got into comedy early with The Women (1939). Other comedies include His Girl Friday (1940), The Trouble with Angels (1966), and Where Angels Go Trouble Follows! (1968). In total, Russell was nominated four times for an Oscar in My Sister Eileen (1942), Sister Kenny (1946), Mourning Becomes Electra (1947), and of course for Auntie Mame (1958). Russell had another great role in Gypsy (1962), playing Rose Hovick, the driven showbiz mother of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee.
Russell worked on Broadway throughout her career. She died in 1976 from breast cancer.
Roger Smith played the adult version of Patrick Dennis. Smith was born in California in 1932. The handsome youth was trained in speech, dancing, and singing. When he was 12, the family moved to Arizona. Smith acted in high school plays and was a star football player.
Smith attended the University of Arizona having earned a football scholarship. Smith sang and played guitar in talent contests and appeared on television. Smith was stationed in Hawaii in the Naval Reserve and had a chance meeting with James Cagney. Cagney encouraged the young man to come to Hollywood. When Smith did, he signed a contract with MGM in 1957.
Smith began working on television and made a few movies such as No Time to Be Young (1957), Operation Mad Ball (1957), and Crash Landing (1958). Cagney cast Smith as Lon Chaney Jr. in Man of a Thousand Faces (1957), and the musical Never Steal Anything Small (1959). He was in Auntie Mame (1958) between these two movies.
Smith switched to Warner Bros. and was cast as a detective on “77 Sunset Strip”1958-1963. It is a very good show, and the episodes are still worth watching. Smith left the show after being diagnosed with a blood clot in the brain.
Smith divorced his first wife in 1965. He married Ann-Margret in 1967. While Smith continued to work in show business until 1968, his primary focus became supporting his wife’s career. He did this through management, production, and writing. The couple remained married for 50-years until Smith died in 2017.
Peggy Cass was a riot as Agnes Gooch. Cass was born in Boston in 1924. Cass spent three years in Cambridge High & Latin School without landing a speaking role. Cass moved to New York and studied at HB Studio in Greenwich Village. Cass worked various jobs and performed overseas with the USO. In 1949, she had her first lead role on Broadway. Cass received a Tony for the Broadway production of “Auntie Mame.”
Cass was a regular on “The Tonight Show” with Jack Parr. Her quick wit made her a regular on television shows such as “To Tell the Truth,” “Password,” and “Match Game.” Cass died in 1999.
Story – Auntie Mame (1958)
Edwin Dennis, a very wealthy Chicago businessman, executes his will. He leaves his vast wealth to his only child, Patrick Dennis (Jan Handzlik). The will directs that in the event of his death, housekeeper Norah Muldoon (Connie Gilchrist) will deliver Patrick to Edwin’s sister, Mame Dennis (Rosalind Russell), in New York City. He also directs that Dwight Babcock (Fred Clark) of the Knickerbocker Bank will have financial control to keep what Edwin calls his too damned eccentric and crazy sister for bringing Patrick up anything like her.
Edwin dies the next day. It is just about one year before the Great Stockmarket Crash.
Norah delivers the 10-year old Patrick to Mame’s apartment, where a wild party is taking place. The door is answered by Mame’s butler Ito (Yuki Shimoda). Mame comes down to meet all sorts of prohibition booze drinkers. Mame thanks Norah is a cleaning lady. Mame perpetually gets the date wrong and is not expecting her nephew until the next day. She introduces Patrick as her little boy.
Mame introduces Patrick to caviar and other party food. She introduces Patrick to her actor friend, Vera Charles (Coral Browne), a Lithuanian Bishop that doesn’t speak English, and Acacius Page (Henry Brandon), who teaches at an advent guard teaching academy. In the crowd of party-goers is Gloria Holden, whom actor William Holden is named after and was the star of Dracula’s Daughter (1936). Mame gives Patrick a book to write down words he doesn’t understand.
Lindsay Woolsey (Patric Knowles) is Mame’s part-time boyfriend, but he senses Patrick may end their relationship. At the end of the party, Patrick has a list of words, primarily sexual, but one drink called a Monkey Gland.
Mame continues her carefree life with no regard for money. Mame sleeps all day after drinking all night. But this is harder to do with a child around. Mr. Babcock plans to meet with Mame and decides to drop in on her.
Patrick goes to meet Mr. Babcock and makes him a fine martini. Mr. Babcock does not approve of anything about Mame. The first thing he does is take Patrick out of the advent grade school and places him in an exclusive boy’s school.
Babcock later finds that Mame has never enrolled Patrick. Lindsay Woolsey wants Mame to marry him, but she is more interested in raising Patrick. She is also independently wealthy. When they go into the apartment, Babcock and Patrick are in the room. Babcock is mad as a wet hen. Babcock sends Patrick to a boarding school. Mame breaks down, and Lindsay doesn’t know what to do.
Vera rushes in and announces that the stock market has crashed. Mame and Lindsay have lost all of their money, but Mame is more upset about Patrick going to boarding school. Vera says Mame can have a part in her upcoming play, which is a drama.
On the opening night of the performance, Mame gets her jingly jewelry snagged and generally turns the entire production into a comedy. This ends her run in the theater. Patrick comes back after the end of the play and makes Mame feel better.
As the Christmas holidays and Patrick’s vacation approach, Mame is out of money. She tries to work as a switchboard operator, but she is wholly unqualified. Mame takes a job as a sales lady at Macy’s. She is terrible and only knows how to take COD orders. A shopper, Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside (Forrest Tucker), wants to buy 24 pairs of skates for children in an orphanage outside of Savannah.
Beauregard helps her fill out a sales ticket, and the floor walker gets snotty. When he fires her, Beauregard takes up for her. Mame walks sadly through the growing Christmas joy. Patrick makes her happy again with his Picasso Santa Claus when she arrives home.
Mame calls Norah and Ito so they can have an early Christmas. Norah and Ito have used their savings to pay off some of Mame’s food bills. She vows to pay them back one day. I cry. Norah asks about Lindsey. Mame says she told him no so many times when she was had money, she couldn’t accept his proposal when she was broke.
The doorbell rings, and it is Beauregard. He has left his taxi running on the street in the middle of the Great Depression. He says it’s okay because his oil wells just keep pumping. He tells her that his plantation in Georgia is called Peckerwood. He takes the entire group to dinner.
She goes to Peckerwood to meet Beauregard’s family in the New Year. His mother, Mrs. Burnside (Carol Veazie), is unhappy about everyone waiting around to be left in her will. Sally Cato MacDougall (Brook Byron) has designs on Beauregard and is unhappy about Mame’s presence. Neither woman is happy about Beauregard bringing a Yankee home.
Mame claims that she knows how to ride horses. Sally Cato decides that they will have a fox hunt in the morning. To try and get out of it, Mame says she only rides side-saddle. Sally Cato interrupts Beauregard trying to propose. Sally Cato mounts Mame on Meditation, a vicious horse.
They help Mame onto the wild beast. She is riding side-saddle and has no idea how to control the animal. The poor little fox is released. Because Mame can’t control the animal, she takes the lead easily makes all of the jumps. At last, Mame saves the fox and is the first one back.
The County Veterinarian (Dub Taylor) arrives and says that he has to stop the hunt because Meditation is a killer.
Beauregard finds Mame in the bushes, and the vet chews out Sally Cato for attempted murder. Beauregard asks Mame to marry him, and she accepts.
Beauregard and Mame go on an extended honeymoon trip around the world. Patrick will visit during his school vacations. They have a wonderful time.
Patrick is becoming more attached to Babcock and his people. Patrick Dennis grows and is acted by Roger Smith as an adult. Babcock has been introducing Patrick to all of the blonde New England debs. Mame and Beauregard continue to travel the world. Sadly, Beauregard falls off a mountain while trying to take a picture.
Vera and Lindsay prepare for Mame’s return. Patrick is planning on having Mame write a book about her life. Agnes Gooch (Peggy Cass) arrives to be the secretary for Mame. Mame and Patrick arrive at the apartment. Mame embraces the project, and Gooch takes down every word. They bring in Brian O’Bannion (Robin Hughes) as a live-in editor. He’s a smooth-talking rouge.
O’Bannion lives the high life while Gooch and Mame work on the book. Lindsey wants O’Bannion and Mame to explore the options of having her life made into a movie. Gooch is enthralled by O’Bannion. O’Bannion goes after Mame, and Patrick comes in mid-seduction. Patrick wants by O’Bannion gone.
Patrick announces that he wants to marry Gloria Upson (Joanna Barnes). Patrick will be bringing Gloria by, but only if O’Bannion is gone. He hurts Mame by saying he wants her to act right and normal. Patrick is all in for team Babcock. Mame calls Patrick a snob. Mame won’t let him leave mad, and they reconcile.
Mame sends O’Bannion to Lindsay’s party with Gooch after Mame transforms her dress and style. During the transformation, Mame delivers her key line – life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death.
Mame convinces O’Bannion that Gooch is a Countess and very wealthy. Mame lets O’Bannion use the Duesenberg for his date.
Patrick arrives with Gloria, and she is an obnoxious nuevo riche debutante. Mame is really put off by the vacuous-headed girl. Mame is also taken back when she finds out that they plan to marry and live in a restricted neighborhood.
O’Bannion has not returned the car, and Gooch comes in and can’t remember anything that happened. She remembers watching a movie about a wedding. O’Bannion took off in the car when he found out that Gooch’s mother lived on Staton Island.
Mame dies her hair a respectable color and heads north to meet the parents of Gloria, Claude Upson (Willard Waterman), and Doris Upson (Lee Patrick). They are pretty well stuffed up their own butts, just like their daughter. Claude and Babcock have already planned Patrick’s career on Wall Street. Claude tells Mame that he plans to buy a nearby house for the young couple and wants her to chip in half the money. Claude throws in some anti-Semitic land restrictions. Mame decides she will give a family dinner in the city before the wedding.
Mame has hired a new secretary Pegeen Ryan (Pippa Scott). Patrick comes in for the party and meets Pegeen. They hit it off right away. Gooch is several months pregnant.
Gloria, Claude, and Doris arrive for the party. Mame has chairs that raise and lower by a cord system that looks like an abacus. Babcock arrives, and he is very tight with the Upton’s. Pegeen is introduced to the group. Mame serves flaming drinks and pickled rattlesnake. Gooch comes down the stairs, and all the proper people are offended when they find out she is not married.
Lindsey and Vera arrive for the party. Later Acacius, from the advent guard teaching academy, arrives. Vera toasts Patrick and Pegeen, thinking they are a couple. Lindsey brings the draft of Mame’s book. She passes out chapters to each of the guests. Patrick realizes what a great life he has had with Mame and their impromptu family. Gloria tries to take the spotlight and shows her general unawareness.
A telegram arrives for O’Bannion, and he wants half the royalties for the four pages he edited. In the telegram, O’Bannion mentions that he is married to Gooch. She realizes the wedding she watched was hers.
Gloria rages on Patrick and says people like this will never come to their house when they are married. Mame has dedicated all of her royalties to finance a home for refuge Jewish children next to the Upson’s house. Gloria trips into the chair controls, and the Upson’s storm out.
Babcock and Mame argue about who has the right to plan Patrick’s future. Mame realizes Patrick is grown, and neither can control his life. Mame says Gloria is an Arian from Darenian and has braces on her brain. Vera wants to know if Mame planned the entire event. She denies she did and offers them rattlesnake to eat.
Sometime later, Patrick and Pegeen, who are now married, get a telegram from Mame saying she will be returning from India on June 31. She plans to return to India when Lindsey finishes his yoga study in two weeks.
Mame gives presents for India to Michael, Patrick and Pegeen’s son who is about 9. Mame lobbies to take Michael to India. The parents refuse, and Michael says they don’t live, live, and that life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death. Patrick and Pegeen laugh and allow the child to travel with Mame. They specify that he must be back by Labor Day. Mame says that Labor Day is sometime in November. As she leads Michael away, he asks what a word means, and she says she will give him a pad where he can write words he doesn’t understand. They ascend the stairs together as she tells him of adventure.
Conclusion – Auntie Mame (1958)
Morton DaCosta gave the film the feeling of being a play by ending each scene with a “Flanagan Fade.” The lights faded to black and most often ended on Mame’s face, but once, it was her back. iMDB.com states that author Richard Tyler Jordan wrote that the “Flanagan Fade” was named after the chief electrician at Warner Bros. Frank Flanagan, who came up with this flourish.
Rosalind Russell was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress, However, she lost to Susan Hayward from I Want to Live! (1958). Following the ceremony, Russell reportedly said, “…I have to admit that nobody deserved it more than Hayward. If it had to be somebody else, I’m glad it was Susie.”[5]
World-Famous Short Summary – life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death
Beware the moors.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051383/
[2] Auntie Mame – Rotten Tomatoes
[3] Auntie Mame (film) – Wikipedia
[4] https://www.nytimes.com/1958/12/05/archives/screen-auntie-mame.html
[5] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051383/trivia/
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