AUNTIE MAME

Rosalind Russell as Auntie Mame

AUNTIE MAME (1958). Director: Morton DaCosta.

In 1928 little Patrick Dennis (Jan Handzlik) enters a whole new world when his father dies and he is turned over to his free-spirited Auntie Mame (Rosalind Russell), who is best friends with dipsomaniac actress Vera Charles (Coral Browne) and believes in unconventional teaching methods. Mame has a love of life and craves new experiences, which she shares with Patrick. But when an older Patrick (Roger Smith) gets engaged to a young lady from a narrow-minded family, will Mame be able to show her nephew the error of his ways? Auntie Mame is a delightful, very well-acted comedy with a message of accepting the unconventional that's delivered without hitting the audience over the head. Russell and Brown take the acting honors -- Russell is especially superb -- and there are also fine performances from little Handzlik, Smith, Forrest Tucker, Peggy Cass as Agnes Gooch, Connie Gilchrist as Mame's housekeeper (who sort of disappears when Gooch arrives), Joanna Barnes [The Parent Trap] as Patrick's weird fiancee, Lee Patrick as her mother, and Pippa Scott [As Young As We Are] as Pegeen, who comes to work for Mame. We also have the versatile Henry Brandon [Babes in Toyland] as Patrick's strange teacher. [Frankly, nowadays most sensible people would have a problem with the school Brandon runs.] In addition to some great dialogue and very funny scenes, the movie has a sub-text of exposing and denouncing prejudice. Based on a very successful stage play, this was turned into the musical, Mame, which was also filmed.

NOTE: Just found out that there may be another remake of this picture with the rather androgynous Tilda Swinton playing Mame [!?].

Verdict: Great and classic comedy. ****.

AS YOUNG AS WE ARE

AS YOUNG AS WE ARE (1958). Director: Bernard Girard.

Kim Hutchins (Pippa Scott) gets a teaching position in a small town and becomes friends and roomies with another teacher, Joyce (Majel Barrett). One afternoon a handsome trucker named Hank (Robert Harland) stops to fix their car, and Kim accepts a date with him. She believes Hank is around her own age, but to her horror Hank shows up in her classroom! Kim wants to cut if off with him before the whole town starts talking, but it may not be as simple as it seems ... As Young As We Are is an interesting picture, and its bolstered by the acting, with Scott [Mr. Lucky], Barrett and Harland all taking top bows. Ellen Corby and Ross Elliott are also in the cast -- as a landlady and Kim's old boyfriend, respectively -- and Ty Hardin [Berserk] makes his mark as another student who is as hunky as he is rude and unruly. This was Robert Harland's first picture, and it's a surprise that this good-looking, sensitive and sexy actor didn't have a much bigger career, although he did much television work in the years after this picture's release; he gives an excellent performance in this as well. The pleasant theme song is sung well by Andy Russell [Copacabana].

Verdict: A nice, well-acted movie from Paramount. ***.