Auntie Mame (1958)

When Patrick Dennis’ (Jan Handzlik) father passes away, he is sent to live with his liberated and free-spirited aunt Mame Dennis (Rosalind Russell). However, the executor of Patrick’s father’s estate has been given the responsibility of keeping Patrick on the path of the straight and narrow. Ordered to keep Mame’s wild ideas about education and social life from tainting Patrick’s ultimately successful future, Dwight Babcock (Fred Clark) puts him in a boarding school right before the Depression hits.

With no money to sneak him away, Mame goes to work to make money, first as an actress, then a telephone operator, and finally a clerk at Macy’s. Each venture turns out to be a disaster culminating with her getting fired from Macy’s right before Christmas. However, she has caught the eye of Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside (Forrest Tucker) a rich oilman who’s totally smitten with Mame. With a change of hair color and an affected southern accent, she sets off to win over the family. Which she does, hilariously.

The next few years are spent traveling the world with Beauregard and sending exotic gifts to the fast growing Patrick back at the boarding school. Beauregard, fond of taking pictures of Mame, eventually meets his end on a Swiss Mountain having lost his footing. Mame then returns to her apartment in New York and is encouraged by her friends Lindsay (Patric Knowles) and Vera (Cora Browne) to write her own memoirs. With the apt attention of the socially awkward secretary Agnes Gooch (Peggy Cass) and the occasional help of freeloading poet Brian O’Bannion (Robin Hughes), Mame manages to buy a best seller.

With those funds she plans on opening an art school for Jewish children, namely to spite the Upsons (Lee Patrick and Willard Waterman), the parents of Gloria (Joanna Barnes), Patrick’s fiancée. Boarding school has turned Patrick into what Mame always feared, a stick in the mud. Deciding to investigate Gloria’s parents, she realizes they are really after Patrick’s trust fund. Basically Babcock pimped Patrick out to Gloria. Hoping to have Patrick avoid marrying Gloria, Mame throws an intimate party inviting particular guests she is sure that Babcock and the Upsons will disapprove of. Hopefully Patrick will see Gloria for what she truly is.

Auntie Mame is a great film, full of cocktail party bonhomie, wise cracks and a relationsship between Russell and Browne any pair of BFF's would envy, it's definitely a must see!

Tonight on TCM! Good movie!

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) Illicit lovers plot to kill the woman's older husband.
Cast: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, Hume Cronyn Dir: Tay Garnett

The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)

Covering the span of ten years, The Private Life of Henry VIII begins with the execution of Anne Boleyn (Merle Oberon in her first substantial part) and Henry’s marriage to Jane Seymour (Wendy Barrie). When Jane dies after baring Henry a son, Henry is encouraged to marry again. He does so…very reluctantly to Anne of Cleves (Elsa Lanchester real life wife of Charles Laughton) who cleverly arranges for a divorce so that she may be with her true love. When it is suggested that Henry marry again, this time he does so for love. However, Katherine Howard (Binnie Barnes) is more in love with the crown than Henry, and soon finds that little happiness lay inside that wretched circle. She begins an affair with Thomas Culpepper (Robert Donat) which ends disastrously with them both being executed once caught. Henry’s final marriage is to Catherine Parr (Everly Gregg) who is best summed up in the last line of the film, “Six wives, and the best of them is the worst”.

The film itself, though not historically accurate or even a great masterpiece, offers us a view into Henry’s private life, behind closed doors, away from his subjects. Laughton, whose acting is the treat of the film, literally “rounds” out the king to which he very much resembles, running the gamut of emotions from hearty statesman to childish tyrant. We watch how his marriages mellow him from an impatient bridegroom to the most reluctant. Most of Laughton’s genius in this film is physical. The way he shapes his face when he agrees or disagrees with something, his gaping duck walk made to look powerful but knowingly ridiculous. I think it was Maureen O’Hara that once said that Laughton could convey so much simply by physical action.

The best scene in the film for me is the interaction between him and Elsa Lanchester, Laughton’s actual wife.  Ironically Anne of Cleves is the wife he considers most undesirable. For her part, Anne does all she can to look undesirable. When she outwits him at cards and convinces him she would find a divorce most amicable, their wordplay is most humorous.

Oscar Trivia:

Henry VIII is the only character played by three separate actors that garnered each and Academy nomination with Charles Laughton winning Best Actor for his portrayal. The other two actors were Robert Shaw (of Jaws fame) in A Man for All Seasons and Richard Burton in Anne of the Thousand Days.

The Private Life of Henry VIII also holds another distinction for being the first film shot outside of Hollywood to be nominated for an Academy Award.

Elsa Lanchester was nominated twice in her career for Best Supporting Actress, first in Come to the Stable and again in Witness for the Prosecution which also garnered Laughton with his second Academy nomination. This film also marked the last of the twelve the couple made together.

Robert Donat was also nominated twice for the Academy Award. He lost out for Best Actor in The Citadel but was victorious the next year with the Best Actor award for Goodbye Mr. Chips.