Auntie Mame
Auntie Mame is a 1958 American Technirama Technicolor comedy film based on the 1955 novel of the same name by Edward Everett Tanner III (under the pseudonym Patrick Dennis) and the 1956 play of the same name by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. This film version stars Rosalind Russell and was directed by Morton DaCosta. It is not to be confused with a musical version of the same story that appeared on Broadway in 1966 and was later made into a 1974 film, Mame, starring Lucille Ball as the titular character.
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| Running time | 143 minutes
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| Country | United States
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| Language | English
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| Box office | $9.3 million (US and Canada rentals)
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Agnes Gooch: Live?
Auntie Mame: Yes! Live! Life's a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!
- Rosalind Russell broke her ankle in the first take of the scene where she comes flying down the stairs in the gown with the capri pants - shooting had to be delayed until she recovered.
- The technique Rosalind Russell uses to interrupt and insult Mr. Babcock - "Nuts?" - was previously used against her character "Sylvia Fowler" in The Women after Sylvia's line "I wouldn't dream of hurting Mary".
- Mame's line in French at Macy's is "Après moi, le déluge" ("After me, the flood"). This quote is attributed to King Louis XV of France and represents a philosophy of living for now when disaster looms in the future. In the movie, it relates to purchasing Christmas gifts on credit so that one doesn't have to worry about paying for them right away, something that a rich socialite would be very comfortable with.
- Reportedly, the character of Auntie Mame was based on Patrick Dennis's real-life aunt, Marian Tanner. A good-natured eccentric, who lived to be nearly one hundred years old, Ms. Tanner's advice to those seeking a more interesting, adventurous life was to never be afraid to try a new experience and to keep an open mind about everything and everybody.
- The line, "Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death," does not appear in the book. It is derived from the stage play, where it was originally, "Life is a banquet and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death." Though "damn" and "hell" are both heard in the film, "sons-of-bitches" was apparently thought too rough.
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