From the start, Auntie Mame flaunts its taste for excess. Costumes, performances, sets—all are unapologetically big and bright. And Rosalind Russell, a comic dynamo, holds it all together at the center.
Russell played Mame on Broadway, and the assurance shows. She knows how to shape a line, hold a pause, and turn a glance into a punchline. If the performance seems over the top, well—that’s the point. Mame has depth, though, and Russell excels at revealing the vulnerability beneath the whirl.
Buy Auntie MameThe film that surrounds her is less nimble. Director Morton DaCosta never quite gives it a genuine sense of movie-ness. The mise en scène is frequently inert, and the blocking often feels trapped onstage. Combined with the episodic structure—not a problem by itself—this can work against the picture. (Unless, of course, you don’t mind feeling as though you’re watching a filmed Broadway production.)
Still, Russell supplies most of the drive. There are other pleasures, too. Coral Browne’s Vera Charles, Peggy Cass’s Agnes Gooch, and the actors who play the horrid Upsons delight, as do the splendiferous costumes and set design. And if you have a taste for camp, Auntie Mame serves it straight. The movie floats on its own bubbly. Its sincerity keeps the extravagance from curdling into overripe kitsch.
Auntie Mame is solid fun. It’s a little too long, loosely shaped, and stage-bound for me to call it a classic, but Russell fills it with life. She is the movie—and because of that, it works.
The new Warner Archive 4K is excellent. Warner Bros. scanned the original Technirama negative at 12K for a Dolby Vision master, and the result is striking. Grain remains intact, colors pop without looking reworked, and the image has the tactile finish a movie this lavish needs. The audio side is equally strong, offering both 2.0 mono and a crisp new 5.1 remix. Extras, unfortunately, are sparse: the theatrical trailer, a restoration before-and-after, and a TCM Film Festival conversation between Jan Handzilk and Dave Karger.
