Auntie Mame

Auntie Mame

Auntie Mame directed by Morton DaCosta. Starring: Rosalind Russell as Mame Dennis, Forrest Tucker as Beauregard Burnside, Coral Browne as Vera Charles, Jan Handzlik as the young Patrick Dennis, Joanna Barnes as Gloria Upson, Fred Clark as Dwight Babcock, and Roger Smith as the grown Patrick Dennis.

“Live! Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!”

Auntie Mame ( Rosalind Russell reprises her successful Broadway role) delivers this piece of advice with much aplomb to her mousy secretary, Agnes Gooch. (played by Peggy Cass)
Mame glides through the movie with permanent smile on her face, gesticulating fancifully whenever given the chance. She lives larger than life and encourages everyone around her to do the same.

The film opens with 10-year-old Patrick Denis, a recently orphaned boy being unceremoniously dumped into his Auntie Mame’s lavish lifestyle during a swinging party. Even though little Patrick is a bit of a prig, his Auntie Mame takes an instantly liking to him and assumes parenting with the gusto that she brings to all that crosses her path.

In the opening partying scene done in one long take, Auntie Mame flits about the party, introducing her young nephew to indifferent artists, socialites, pretentious academic bores, and the unconventional riff-raff. There is even a gaggle of masculine bulldaggers gathered together on the balcony in the background!

The plot revolves around Auntie Mame’s trying to give her nephew a broad and unconventional upbringing while her nemesis, Mr. Babcock, Patrick’s trustee, tries to do the opposite, and almost succeeds.

Auntie Mame is one of the last of the great witty and urbane liberal New Yorkers. Although it is never fully explained how a former actress can afford a posh Manhattan duplex on Beekman Place (during the start of the Great Depression no less) the movie spans nine years and follows Mame around the world on her wacky escapades. The cleverly written zingers and amusing pratfalls that befall Auntie Mame make her character appealing and touching. Rosalind Russell was truly a versatile female comedienne, able to deliver tongue-tripping dialogue rapidly while being able to execute physical comedy expertly.

The movie runs long, but the sharp dialogue and slapstick scenes should keep the viewer’s interest. If you enjoy an upbeat film, Auntie Mame is a great rental choice.

Breaking Away – Love It!

Rita takes umbrage with a reviewer who called Breaking Away, “a silly little cycling movie.” P-shaw! This is one of my favorite movies from the 1970s….For all those cyclists out there, this little flick will warm your heart and justify those shaved legs….

How could you not be rooting for working-class hero Dave? (Dennis Christopher) He plays the earnest, cyclist fanatic who practices saying “Caio, bella!” in his passable Italian accent, listens to opera (much to the chagrin of his car-salesman pops) and pretends to be an exchange student to woo a pretty college student whose name is Catherine but Dave calls her “Katerina.” (Robyn Douglass)

Dave is one of four buddies who are townies from Bloomington, Indiana. They have just finished high school and rather than figure out what to do with the rest of the lives, they go to the defunct local quarry (now a natural pool) and dive to pass the time.

Dave is the one with the most ambition: he dreams of becoming a champion cyclist like the Italian racing team coming to visit Bloomington. Watching him prance around his working-class parents and be excited by his cycling and budding Italian lessons, is fun to watch.

Director Peter Yates handles the action cycling sequences with much aplomb. Those scenes are exciting, well-paced and well-written. The screenplay won an Oscar in 1979. I remember enjoying it immensely as a kid and after viewing it a second time, I know why. I highly recommend this heart-warming film.

Clue

Based on the Parker Brothers board game of the same name, Clue, the comedic whodunit, was released in theaters in 1985 with a huge ensemble cast. When it originally opened in theaters, it received mixed reviews and was considered a flop at the box office. It was then released on DVD in 2000 and has had a resurgence as a cult favorite. Clue has received very favorable customer reviews on Netflix.

After I saw that my brother had recently watched it, I decided to see for myself, since Clue was one of my favorite childhood board games. I awaited my little red envelope anxiously, like a little kid. I was not disappointed!

The director, Jonathan Lynn and John Landis developed the screenplay. They use the same character names as the game: Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving) is the man murdered in the game—in the movie he is the mysterious host who has invited six strangers to his sumptuous mansion on a dark and stormy night in 1954.
Mr. Boddy’s butler, Wadsworth (Tim Curry), assigns each guest the names to those of you familiar with the board game: Mr. Green (Michael McKean), Col. Mustard (Martin Mull), Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan), Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), Miss Scarlet (Lesley Ann Warren), and Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn). Two additional servants, the Cook (Kellye Nakahara) and Yvette, the maid (Colleen Camp), help the butler as he informs the guests that they have been invited to meet the man who is blackmailing them.

It is very campy and over the top. Many memorable one-liners ensue. It is a riot to see the old game pieces, the candlestick, the lead pipe, the rope, etc..worked into the plot. The expressions of Eileen Brennan are priceless and I especially love Madeline Kahn’s character, Mrs. White who is suspected of murdering two of her former husbands. She deadpans: “Husbands should be like Kleenex – soft, strong, and disposable.” See under Blogroll for links to Clue fan web sites where you can find more fun quotes from the movie.

A Place in the Sun (1951)

The radiant Elizabeth Taylor and handsome Montgomery Clift star in this social drama about the haves and the have-nots. George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) is the working class protagonist with aspirations to work for his rich Uncle, Charles Eastman (Herbert Heyes) in his bathing suit factory. He hitchhikes his way from Chicago to his Uncle’s factory. His Uncle decides to put him to work immediately in one of his assembly lines and on the first day, he meets a fellow co-worker, plain Jane Alice Tripp (Shelly Winters). He starts an affair with Alice but he life gets more complicated when he is invited to a party at his Uncle’s lavish home and meets ravishing debutante Elizabeth Taylor. His entanglement between a high society girl and impoverished Alice, causes George Eastman to hatch a plan that portends a calamity.

One of the extras on the DVD is an interview with Elizabeth Taylor. She was 18 at the time of this role and it was on the set of A Place in the Sun where she met and became life-long friends with Montgomery Clift. This was Taylor’s first adult film role and she looks absolutely stunning. She talks at length about her friendship with “Monty” in the interview and how she really learned what acting was about from him. It is a marvelous, B/W film directed by George Stevens emphasizing the complexity of the class divide in America. The film was adopted from Timothy Drieser’s 1925 novel, An American Tragedy which in turn, was based on a real life 1906 trial of Chester Gillette in the state of New York.

Many of the external shots of Lake Tahoe were shot on location and add to the beauty of the film.

Suspicion

Suspicion (1941) I just adore this b/w movie by the master of suspense. It stars Joan Fontaine as the shy and provincial Lina. She is a schoolmarmish woman who falls for the debonair cad, Johnny Aysgarth, cooly played by Cary Grant. They marry and Lina begins to suspect her husband is only after her money, then plotting murder, and that she may be the next victim. As the movie progresses, her “suspicions” get the best of her—the suspense expertly built by the film score and the more sinister shots of Johnny, as he slowly turns on his wife, as her fear of him grows. There are some marvelous scenes leading up to the climax, one with Cary Grant climbing the grand staircase with a glowing glass of milk. The dialogue, like in many of these old b/w movies, is well-crafted.

The film does amble along in the first hour, but the pace picks up. Based on Francis Iles’ novel, Before the Fact, with some substantial changes to preserve Cary Grant’s romantic hero image.

Joan Fontaine won an Oscar for Best Actress but many critics feel that it was because she did not win the Oscar for another outstanding performance for Rebecca, the previous year. (Hitchcock’s first American directed feature)