Lively and bawdy crowd pleaser comedy that features Rosalind Russell owning the screen completely as a madcap bohemian. Her whole life is a wild 1920s cocktail party peopled by actors, writers, thinkers and drinkers—and then one day her square brother whom she barely knows dies unexpectedly and she’s left in charge of his young son. Rather than bristle at her new position though, she throws herself into raising the boy—in her own unconventional way, of course.
Let’s cut to the chase: Auntie Mame, the character, has survived the years as a gay cult icon. She’s a sassy beast with an acid tongue. She’s an outsider to polite society who makes her path look like fun, who makes it look like there’s no good reason to be anything else. You can’t offend her. You can only inspire another stinging wisecrack.
If you get the chance to see this in a theater, do it. It’s a lot of fun. I’ll tell you what it’s like: Roughly half the audience are old women and the other half of the audience are gay men. If the place erupts into applause the very moment that Rosalind Russell shows up onscreen (introduced at one of her parties, of course), you’re in for a good time. Not one joke will get by that crowd. They know the movie well.
This was a big hit in its time and a beloved cult film today. It’s based on the novel by Patrick Dennis, which was turned into a stage play (starring Rosalind Russell) that provided the model for the film. Director Morton DaCosta takes care to embrace the story’s stage roots, often punctuating scenes with lowered lights that suggest the end of an act in a play.