Auntie Mame [Blu-ray]

Director: Morton DaCosta Morton DaCosta

Overview

Auntie Mame began as a novel by Patrick Dennis (aka Ed Fitzgerald), then was adapted into a long-running Broadway play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. This 1958 film version permits Rosalind Russell to recreate her stage role as Mame Dennis, the flamboyant, devil-may-care aunt of young, impressionable Patrick Dennis. Left in Mame's care when his millionaire father drops dead, young Patrick (Jan Handzlik) is quickly indoctrinated into his aunt's philosophy that "Life is a banquet--and some poor suckers are starving to death." Social-climbing executor Dwight Babcock (Fred Clark) does his best to raise Patrick as a stuffy American aristocrat, but Mame battles Babcock to allow the boy to be as free-spirited as she is. In 1974, Auntie Mame was remade as the filmmusical Mame with Lucille Ball.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/05/2017
UPC:	0888574551346
Original Release:	1958
Source:	Warner Archives
Language:	English
Time:	2:23:00
Sales rank:	14,114

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Rosalind Russell	Mame Dennis
Forrest Tucker	Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside
Fred Clark	Mr. Babcock
Coral Browne	Vera Charles
Patric Knowles	Lindsay Woolsey
Peggy Cass	Agnes Gooch
Roger Smith	Patrick (as an adult)
Jan Handzlik	Patrick (as a boy)
Pippa Scott	Pegeen Ryan
Joanna Barnes	Gloria Upson
Willard Waterman	Claude Upson
Yuki Shimoda	Ito
Connie Gilchrist	Norah Muldoon
Robin Hughes	Brian O'Bannion
Lee Patrick	Mrs. Upson
Carol Veazie	Mrs. Burnside
Brook Byron	Sally Cato
Henry Brandon	Acacius Page
Olive Blakeney	Dowager
Booth Colman	Perry
Morton DaCosta	Edwin Dennis
Paul Davis	Stage Manager
Margaret Dumont	Noblewoman
Gregory Gaye	Vladimir Klinkoff
Rand Harper	Pianist
Charles Heard	Dr. Feuchtwanger
Terry Kelman	Michael Dennis
Owen McGiveney	Man wearing Monocle
Doye O'Dell	Cousin Jeff
Barbara Pepper	Mrs. Krantz
Dub Taylor	Veterinarian
Ruth Warren	Mrs. Jennings
Richard Reeves	Mr. Krantz
Cris Alexander	Mr. Loomis

Technical Credits

Betty Comden

Adolph Green

Morton DaCosta	Director,Producer
Betty Comden	Screenwriter
Adolph Green	Screenwriter
Jerome Lawrence	Playwright
Robert E. Lee	Playwright

Editorial Reviews

This rip-roaring comedy, based jointly on a bestselling novel by Patrick Dennis and the Broadway play adapted from it, allowed Rosalind Russell to reprise the role she had created on stage. She plays Mame Dennis, a spirited, eccentric bohemian who believes “life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death.” Forrest Tucker plays her husband, southern millionaire Beauregard Burnside. Coral Browne shines as Mame’s cynical actress friend, and Fred Clark shines as the dyspeptic banker determined to free Mame’s nephew (Jan Handzlick) from her corrupting influence. Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s script expands the play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, retaining the Broadway show’s best material and adding some comic set pieces of their own devising. Director Morton DaCosta (The Music Man) proves himself unusually adept with this kind of material; his handling is thoroughly cinematic, but it simultaneously suggests the presence of a proscenium arch. DaCosta’s deliberate theatricality is tailor-made for Russell, whose dynamic performance seems more suited to stage than screen. Later musicalized as Mame -- which, like its predecessor, enjoyed Broadway success before coming to the screen -- this buoyant comedy is studded with memorable moments and endearing characters. Unless you’re one of the “poor suckers” Mame pities, you’ll see it as something you’ll want to revisit many times. The DVD offers a music-only audio track along with trailers for both this movie and Mame.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

Auntie Mame reunites star Rosalind Russell and her Broadway director Morton DaCosta in an enthusiastic film version of their long-running stage hit. While less polished than many stage-to-film adaptations, Auntie Mame has a vitality that allows the audience to share in the fun that the characters are having on the screen. The film's major flaw is its episodic nature and lack of narrative flow between sequences. Nonetheless, the good scenes are very, very good, and the story has a consistently upbeat tone. Tech credits are strong, with cinematographer Harry Stradling and set designers Malcolm C. Bert and George James Hopkins contributing splendid work. Indicating the production's overall high quality of production, it was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. A word of caution: when looking for this film at the video store, be careful not to confuse it with the inferior 1974 Lucille Ball musical remake.

All Movie Guide - Richard Gilliam