For a person who claims to love Rosalind Russell, I hadn't seen many of her movies -- just the fabulous one. I decided to watch Auntie Mame so I could expand my Ros knowledge. Her friends call her Ros, no big deal. Unfortunately, AM has none of the charm that His Girl Friday has -- probably because the movie is 2 1/2 hours long, is made in Technicolor, and features the flamboyant little boy from a choice Twilight Zone episode "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street." It also lacks feminism and Cary Grant, which are the two buttresses for the cathedral wall that is Ros Russell in HGF. Maybe I should forget architectural metaphors.
Auntie Mame has a lot of problems. The first the viewer encounters is racism. Mame's servant - yes, servant - is an Asian man named "Ito" with a very heavy racist accent. This is almost as bad as another movie. The second problem is that this movie is loud. Mame is pretty much a blabber mouth -- picture Lorelei Gilmore + Ros Russell in His Girl Friday + Ethel Mirman in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World + Ralph Kramden + Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Russell had one thick script for this movie. The third problem is that they use the same gags over and over. Rape may also be a big joke for this movie.
Auntie Mame has a lot of problems. The first the viewer encounters is racism. Mame's servant - yes, servant - is an Asian man named "Ito" with a very heavy racist accent. This is almost as bad as another movie. The second problem is that this movie is loud. Mame is pretty much a blabber mouth -- picture Lorelei Gilmore + Ros Russell in His Girl Friday + Ethel Mirman in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World + Ralph Kramden + Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Russell had one thick script for this movie. The third problem is that they use the same gags over and over. Rape may also be a big joke for this movie.
Don't watch it.
2/5 pizzas
Barf.
ReplyDeleteLorelei Gilmore reference? Really?
ReplyDeletereally!
ReplyDelete