Cult Flops - Mame

Warner Bros, 1974
Starring Lucille Ball, Robert Preston, Beatrice Arthur, and Jane Connell
Directed by Gene Saks
Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman

Auntie Mame - a fictional biography of a madcap society woman and her loving if bewildered nephew and staff - was a smash hit book by Patrick Dennis in 1955. It later became an equally popular play, and then a blockbuster movie with Rosalind Russell in 1958. The stage musical debuted in 1966, and with Angela Landsbury as Mame, was an even bigger hit. Mame's charmed life seemed to end there. Landsbury was passed over for the film version in favor of Lucille Ball, who was then at the tail end of her her celebrity as the biggest comedienne on television. When it finally debuted around Easter 1974, reviews were scathing and the film was a major flop. It didn't help that the brassy musical comedies that were big in the 60's had gone out of style by the mid-70's. What happened here? Let's head down to Beekman Place in New York City, where the party is just getting started, and find out...

The Story: For Mame Dennis (Ball), every day is an adventure. It's the Roaring 20's, and she's determined to roar right along with it, especially after she adopts her late brother's son Patrick (Kirby Furlong). She wants to show her "little love" and everyone around her, including Patrick's shy nanny Agnes (Connell), how to live life to the fullest. Trips to speakeasies and fire houses and schools where children run around naked may amuse Patrick, but it doesn't delight his conservative trustee, Mr. Babcock (John McGiver). Babcock has him taken away, just as the Depression hits.

Mame first gets a job in a "terribly modern operetta" starring her friend Vera Charles (Arthur), but she forgets her one line. She goes through a series of jobs, until she meets the handsome and charming southerner Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside (Preston) while working as a saleswoman in a department store. They end up getting married after she charms his family during a wild fox hunt. Beau dies in a skiing accident, leaving Mame back in the black but alone. She and Vera decide that Agnes is their next project, but she gets a little too into the "life is a banquet" thing and comes home pregnant. She's even less happy when a now-grown Patrick (Bruce Davidson) announces that he's going to marry a snotty college girl from Connecticut (Doria Cook-Nelson). Mame has to find someone more appropriate for Patrick while helping Agnes with her delicate condition, too.

The Song and Dance: Most of the complaints centered on Lucille Ball's performance, claiming she was miscast. I thought she was just fine, especially during comic set pieces like the roller skating sequence after she meets Beauregard and the wacky fox hunt. Arthur and Connell are even better repeating their Broadway roles, and Preston makes for an especially charming southern gentleman. The costumes are a lot of fun, from Mame's 20's lounging outfits to that stunning red gown with the massive fan trim she wears to her party for the Upsons in the late 1940's.

Favorite Number: "We Need a Little Christmas" is probably the best-known song from the show, and the number based after it is too adorable. Mame comes home from her sales clerk job and decides to cheer everyone up by celebrating early. (I love Agnes doubling as a tree covered in tinsel garlands.) Robert Preston gets a touching ballad Jerry Herman wrote expressively for the film, "Loving You," performed during the montage of Mame and Beau's decade-long honeymoon. Ball is hysterical flubbing her line in "The Man in the Moon."

Honestly, the movie is worth seeing just for Beatrice Arthur and Lucille Ball going at each other in the classic friends song "Bosom Buddies." They're just too funny in that number; their expressions at each bit of sarcasm is perfect.

What I Don't Like: Ball's singing voice was never terribly good, and while that works for chorus songs or in the comic "Bosom Buddies," her croaking does the dramatic ballad "If He Walked Into My Life" no favors. The soft-focus filters used to make Ball look younger just makes the film look out of focus at some points.

The Big Finale: I think the critics have been way too rough on this one for years, especially those who saw Landsbury in the stage show. If you love Lucy, the original book or movie, or big, bold musical comedy, you'll want to give Mame another chance at life, too.

Home Media: Ball's ongoing status as a major icon of comedy is probably the reason this one can be found on most formats; it was just released to Blu-Ray by the Warner Archives last week.

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