- This is an article about a 1974 film. For the Broadway musical upon which it's based, see Mame.
Mame is a 1974 American musical
film based on the 1966 Broadway musical of the same name, and starring Lucille Ball.
Summary
The film focuses on eccentric Mame Dennis, whose madcap life is disrupted when her deceased brother's son Patrick is entrusted
to her care. Rather than bow to convention, Mame introduces the boy to her free-wheeling lifestyle, which includes his nanny
Agnes Gooch, "bosom buddy" actress Vera Charles, and husband Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside, a Southern aristocrat with a
Georgia plantation called Peckerwood.
Plot
The film starts with the reading of the will of Patrick Dennis' (Kirby Furlong) late father,
Mr. Babcock. (John McGiver) This will states that Patrick is to be left in the care of his
aunt, Mame Dennis (Lucille Ball), as well as his nanny, Agnes Gooch. (Jane Connell). The
two take a train ride to live with Mame. (Main Title Including St. Bridget) When they arrive a day early, they walk into a
big party that Mame is giving for a holiday she herself created. (It's Today) Patrick introduces himself by asking if he
may slide down her bannister, then reveals that he is Patrick. Mame introduces him to several of her friends, including aspiring
stage actress and famous lush, Vera Charles. (Bea Arthur).
The following morning, Patrick awakens a hungover Mame with his bugle. After Patrick tells Mame what Mr. Babcock has said
about her, she decides that she wants to fill his life with adventure. (Open A New Window) She decides to enroll him in
"the School Of Life," a very non-traditional school, but when Vera Charles inadvertently leads the trustee, Mr. Babcock, to
Patrick's school, Patrick is taken from Mame's custody. In that same moment, Mame gets a phone call and learns that the stock
market crash has left her without any money to hire a lawyer to get custody of Patrick back. Vera, knowing that Mame is now in
need of money, offers Mame a very small role as The Man In The Moon in her newest play about a lady astronomer.
Unfortunately, Mame flubs her one line and causes the play to be a disaster, which puts a major rift in her friendship with Vera.
Meanwhile, Patrick, who was in the audience, reassures Mame that she's not a failure and lets her know that he still loves her.
(My Best Girl)
Now broke, Mame has worked a string of jobs, including one selling shoes. While working in the shoe section of the department
store, a customer comes in wanting a present to send to someone back home. Mame helps him make the decision to buy a pair of
rollerskates by trying them on. The customer tells her of his name - Beauregard
Jackson Pickett Burnside. (Robert Preston) However, Mame's inability to write
up a cash order as opposed to a C.O.D. order gets her fired. Mame rollerskates home, dejected because she's unable to pay Ito
(George Chiang) and Agnes, who reassure her that they're not going anywhere. Even though it's
only a week from Thanksgiving, Mame decides to lift everyone's spirits by decorating the house for Christmas and giving everyone
their Christmas gifts (We Need A Little Christmas), which include Patrick's first pair of long pants. Agnes and Ito
surprise Mame with the news that the butcher bill has been paid. Mame promises to pay them back someday. Meanwhile, Beau, who's
been looking for Mame since she was fired earlier that day, finally finds Mame's house and invites everyone to dinner, and it's
obvious that the two are meant for each other.
Beau brings Mame and Patrick to his plantation in Peckerwood, Georgia, where they're immediately greeted by Sally Cato.
(Joyce Van Patten) However, much of Beau's family, especially Mother Burnside
(Lucille Benson) and Cousin Fan, (Ruth McDevitt)
are not happy about Beau marrying a "Yankee." Sally then invites Mame to a foxhunt. Despite not knowing a thing about
horseriding, Mame accepts the invitation. The following day, Mame accidentally wins the fox hunt, despite not knowing what she
was doing, and all of Beau's family and friends, except for Sally, sing the praises for Mame.
Mame and Beau, now happily married, go on an extended honeymoon, traveling all over the world. (Loving You) Meanwhile,
Patrick goes from a young child who pulls in a B+ average to a high school senior (Bruce
Davison) flunking many classes. (The Letter) When an avalanche in the Alps kills Beau, Mame returns home and is
reunited with a now grown Patrick, who is dating a very snooby conservative girl named Gloria Upson. (Doria Cook-Nelson) Mame, who decides that she's tired of looking like she's just come from a funeral, goes to
reunite with her old friend, Vera, for a drink. The two enjoy some drinks and some snippy comments, which they insist are not
being made out of hatred, but simply honesty, as that's what Bosom Buddies do. The two come home and continue to
reminisce and discuss men that they've dated. Agnes, who is listening to the conversation, admits that she's never had a date.
Mame and Vera decide to give the uptight frumpy Agnes a makeover and send her out to live, because "Life is a banquet, and most
poor sons of bitches are starving to death." After Agnes comes out of her bath with her new image, she goes off in a taxicab.
Six months later, Agnes returns home, visibly pregnant. At the same time, Mame is currently visiting with her guests, Patrick
and Gloria, and they agree to bring Gloria's parents to Mame's home to meet. However, once Patrick sees Agnes, who's hiding in
the kitchen, he decides it'd be a better idea for Mame to visit the Upsons at their home, since Patrick is ashamed to have the
Upsons see an unwed pregnant Agnes. Agnes then describes what she did after her big makeover. (Gooch's Song)
Mame visits the Upsons (Don Porter and Audrey Christie) at
their home, Upson Downs. She learns there that Patrick and Gloria are engaged. After spending several hours with the Upsons, Mame
discovers that she definitely dislikes the family and their overly conservative and bigoted views on everything from
African-Americans and onward. (They praise their African-American maid, noting that "so many of them are so snotty these days"
and ask Mame to help pay for a piece of property next door to Upson Downs so that Patrick and Gloria could live there, as opposed
to "the wrong kind of people.") When Mame leaves, she confronts Patrick about her disdain for the family, calling him a snob when
he admits that he's ashamed of her and her "crazy" friends. A heartbroken Mame drives home, wondering what she did wrong when he
was younger. (If He Walked Into My Life)
Mame and Patrick apologize to each other off-screen and are dressed for company - the Upsons. Mame promises to behave.
Patrick, still embarrassed by Agnes's condition, begs Agnes to stay in her room while the Upsons are there, while Mame reminds
her to take her calcium pills. Patrick talks to Mame's new maid, Pegeen, (Bobbie Jordan) for a
moment before the Upsons arrive. After arriving, Mr. and Mrs. Upson announce to Mame that the property they'd wanted had been
bought, complaining about being outbid by "some Jew lawyer." Suddenly, Vera and several men barge into Mame's house, singing.
(It's Today reprise) Vera toasts to the new couple, mistaking Pegeen for Gloria. At that moment, Agnes comes downstairs
because her calcium pills are in the kitchen. Mame invites her to sit with everyone. When Mrs. Upson asks Agnes what Mr. Gooch
does, she says "My father's passed away." When Mrs. Upson states that she meant her husband, Agnes declares that she's unwed and
that her baby's going to be a little bastard. (Although in the film, she's cut off after "ba.") Suddenly, a large group of unwed
pregnant women barge in, singing. (Open A New Window reprise) Mame reveals to the Upsons that she bought the property next
door so she could build the Beauregarde Burnside Memorial Home For Single Mothers. This is the final straw, and the Upsons leave,
angry that Mame isn't "one of them." Patrick, visibly upset, leaves the house.
Years later, Patrick and Pegeen are married and have a child, Peter. Mame, who is going on a trip to Siberia, requests that
Peter be allowed to go with her. Although Patrick and Pegeen resist at first, once Peter quotes Mame's "life is a banquet" line,
they relent. The two get onto a plane, and Patrick states that Mame has not changed and that she's "the Pied Piper." Mame and
Peter wave goodbye and go into the plane. The plane takes off, followed by clips of Mame embracing Vera, Agnes, Beau, adult
Patrick, and young Patrick. (Finale: Open A New Window/Mame)
Cast
Paul Zindel's screenplay was directed by Gene Saks.
The cast included Lucille Ball, Beatrice Arthur,
Robert Preston, Bruce Davison,
Jane Connell, Joyce Van Patten, Don Porter, and John McGiver.
Warner Bros. studio heads were concerned that Angela
Lansbury, who had originated the title role on Broadway, had not yet captured
the attention of the general public since she was mainly a Broadway star at this point. Her popular television series
Murder, She Wrote, which would make Angela
Lansbury a household name, would not debut for another ten years.
Production
Filming, scheduled to begin in early 1972, was postponed when Ball broke her leg in a skiing accident. Due to the delay,
original director George Cukor was forced to withdraw from the project. The assignment went
to Gene Saks, who had helmed the Broadway production, and his influence resulted in his
then-wife Beatrice Arthur reprising the role of Vera Charles she had created on stage, a
role that had been actively sought by Bette Davis.
Production began in January 1973. Ball, who had casting approval, was dissatisfied with Madeline Kahn's interpretation of Gooch and had her replaced by Connell, another member of the original
Broadway cast. Cinematographer Philip H.
Lathrop made a valiant effort to draw attention from Ball's age by filming her with special lens filters, but the contrast
between her soft-focus close-ups and the clarity of everyone and everything else was noticeable and jarring. Furthermore, despite
extensive rehearsal sessions with Jerry Herman, who had composed the score, there was
nothing that could be done to diminish her lack of singing ability. Finally, Ball at age 62 was slowing down and still ailing
from the previous year's mishap, and her movements, especially in the dance routines choreographed by Onna White, were tentative at best.
Reception
Radio City Music Hall selected the film to be its Easter attraction. The film broke box-office records in its run at Radio City, but many reviews, particularly
those for Ball, were brutal. Time Magazine said, "The movie spans about 20 years,
and seems that long in running time . . . Miss Ball has been molded over the years into some sort of national monument, and she
performs like one too. Her grace, her timing, her vigor have all vanished." [1] Time Out London declared she "simply hasn't the drive and steel of a
Rosalind Russell, an Angela Lansbury or a Ginger Rogers, all of whom played the part before her," and said of Saks, "When he's
not ogling his star in perpetual soft focus and a $300,000 fashion parade, [he] fails to get enough retakes, match his shots, or
inject the essential vim." [2]
Pauline Kael in The New Yorker wondered, "After forty years in movies and TV, did she
discover in herself an unfulfilled ambition to be a flaming drag queen?" The New
Republic's Stanley Kauffman, though he pointed out that Ball would have made a perfect Mame had she played the role
"fifteen years earlier," described her as "too old, too stringy in the legs, too basso in the voice, and too creaky in the
joints."
However, contrary to popular perception, not all the reviews were bad. Vincent Canby in the New York Times, for example, expressed "great reservations" about the film and Ball's close-ups, but
noted that the film is "as determined to please in its way as Mame is in hers" and that the opening credits, "which look like a
Cubist collage in motion, are so good they could be a separate subject." Canby went on to praise Ball as well: "When the
character of Lucy, an inspired slapstick performer, coincides with that of Auntie Mame, the Big-Town sophisticate, 'Mame' is
marvelous. I think of Lucy's turning a Georgia fox hunt into a gigantic shambles, or of her bringing the curtain down on a New
Haven first-night when, as a budding actress, she falls off a huge cardboard moon. I even treasure her prying loose the fingers
of a sloshed Beatrice Arthur who won't give up her martini glass." [3] The show-business bible Variety
reported that the film is "why movies were invented" and added that "Lucille never looked lovelier." Molly Haskell in the
Village Voice was "pro-Ball but anti-'Mame'" and felt that Lucy made the character of
Mame--someone "you'd walk a mile to avoid" in real life--palatable. Milton Krims, the film critic for The Saturday Evening Post, wrote (in the magazine's March 1974 issue) a breathless paean to
Lucille Ball and the film, concluding that "Mame is Lucille Ball and Lucille Ball is Mame."
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association awarded Ball a
Golden Globe nomination (Arthur received one as well) but, disheartened by its
reception, she swore she never would appear on the big screen again, and the film proved to be her last.
Soundtrack Releases
Mame's original soundtrack album was unavailable for many years after the film's original theatrical release until
Rhino released a limited edition Handmade CD edition in 2004. This edition was
limited to 2,500 individually numbered copies, which quickly sold out. In 2005, Collector's Choice Music, a label devoted to
reissues of more obscure titles, released their CD, which is presumably taken from the same digital master of the Rhino Handmade
edition. Both contain the same tracklisting and same versions as the original 1974 vinyl release. Due to Warner Bros. inability
to create an acceptable stereo soundtrack for the film's DVD release, this soundtrack album remains the only source for stereo
versions of most of the songs. The soundtrack album is missing instrumental portions of "Open A New Window" and the title track,
as well as reprises of "It's Today," "We Need A Little Christmas," "Open A New Window," and "Bosom Buddies." "The Man In The
Moon" also contains a longer ending and a reprise within the scene that don't appear on the soundtrack album. However, the
soundtrack album version of "Bosom Buddies" is longer than the version that appears in the film. The lines "We'll always be dear
companions/My cronie/My mate/We'll always be harmonizing/Orphan Annie and Sandy/Like Amos and Andy" were cut from the number in
the film.
Soundtrack Tracklist
1. Main Title Including St. Bridget - Jane Cornell & Orchestra
2. It's Today - Lucille Ball & Orchestra
3. Open A New Window - Lucille Ball & Kirby Furlong
4. The Man In The Moon - Beatrice Arthur & Chorus
5. My Best Girl - Lucille Ball & Kirby Furlong
6. We Need A Little Christmas - Lucille Ball, Jane Cornell, Sab Shimono & Kirby Furlong
7. Mame - Robert Preston & Chorus
8. Loving You - Robert Preston
9. The Letter - Kirby Furlong & Bruce Davison
10. Bosom Buddies - Lucille Ball & Beatrice Arthur
11. Gooch's Song - Jane Cornell
12. If He Walked Into My Life - Lucille Ball
13. Finale (Open A New Window/Mame) - Lucille Ball & Chorus
Video and DVD Releases
Mame was released on pan-and-scan VHS and pan-and-scan and letterbox laserdisc editions in the 80's and 90's. These
editions have since been long out-of-print, although bootleg DVDs taken from the widescreen laserdisc or widescreen TV broadcasts
on American Movie Classics and Turner Classic
Movies have been known to exist. On June 19th, 2007, Mame was finally officially released on DVD both separately
and in a special DVD collection of Lucille Ball's films. [1] The DVD includes a remastered version of the film in anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Digital 1.0
mono sound, the original theatrical trailer, and the featurette Lucky Mame.
Although Warner Bros. had intended to give the film a 5.1 stereo remastering, they were unable to do so due to several
factors. The main factor was the fact that Lucille Ball's vocals in her songs often had to be pieced together line by line in
order to get a more pitch-perfect performance. (This method is a lot more obvious on the soundtrack CD, where you can often hear
a difference in fidelity in each individual line as well as the occasional line that sounds like two Lucys singing.) This and the
varying conditions of the original masters caused Warner Bros. to simply restore the original release's mono soundtrack and
remaster it in Dolby Digital 1.0 mono and use it for the DVD's audio track.
References
- ^ http://www.amazon.com/Mame-Lucille-Ball/dp/B000O76ZR6/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-4846351-4392404?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1182685223&sr=1-1
- Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz by Coyne Steven Sanders and Tom Gilbert, published by William Morrow
& Company, 1993, pages 336-340
- Showtune, A Memoir by Jerry Herman with Marilyn Stasio, published by Donald I. Fine Books, 1996, pages 209-211
External links
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