Auntie Mame
Rosalind Russell is something like my favorite older actress, like Cary Grant is my favorite older actor. I like that she is not beautiful and doesn’t even have a pleasant voice. That makes her great acting just so much more powerful. She has the face of a modern woman, making her perfect for Hildy in “His Girl Friday” (still one of my favorite movies of all times), and she seems like it is entirely impossible for her to play a wide-eyed dumb girl. Rosalind Russell is always a full-fledged woman and I love her so much for that. “Auntie Mame” is certainly no exception, where she is the core and without a doubt the most interesting character of the film.
I didn’t know what “Auntie Mame” would be about, and that it was a story in episodes throughout Mame’s and Patrick’s life. At times I was even wondering if the film is ever going to become sad, with all the drama that happens to Mame and the general instability of her life. But “Auntie Mame” was a lot like “Sylvia Scarlett” or even “A King in New York” in the way every troublesome conflict is resolved in the most carefree manner possible. This is Hollywood for you – everything gets resolved as soon as the characters break into song.
Hollywood has so many different ways of displaying rich people. Mame is certainly filthy rich, but her lifestyle is bohemian in some strange way because her way of obliviously stumbling through life and crazy partying suggests a rather superficial view on culture. Comparing that to the Upsons, their plump way of being “top-drawer” is also probably not timely anymore. The rich investment banker of today is into buying and selling arts, and prides itself with bourgeois knowledge of which the Upsons seem to have absolutely none. Some of these young, dynamic rich people today even talk like they are from some screwball comedy. Oh how I love Rosalind Russell’s fast talking – nobody is as great as her when it comes to that.
As you can see, “Auntie Mame” is not that much more than a means for me to be a shameless fangirl. However, despite its surprising length, the movie is actually a lot fun and immensely heart-warming. I recommend it for any evening where you have some time to kill and expect no less than great enjoyment.