Auntie Mame – You Have to LIVE, LIVE LIVE!

One of my favorite fun movies, and definitely my favorite Rosalind Russell film, is Auntie Mame. Hilarious from start to finish, it takes me back to the adventures I used to have with my fiercely single yet sought after, staunchly independent and lovable grandmother Jean, who was as stylish and adventurous as Rosalind’s Mame. That’s why I identify so much with the mantra Mame proclaimed through the whole film, “Yes! Live! Life's a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!”.

Rosalind plays the beyond vivacious eccentric Mame Dennis, aunt to the recently orphaned Patrick (younger played by Jan Handzlik, older played by Roger Smith) and takes him in as his guardian. Patrick is immediately exposed to Mame’s bohemian and exciting world of parties, world travel, unconventional education and love of art, style, and interior design.  Proctoring this relationship however is the conservative and judgmental executor, Mr. Dwight Babcock, played with great aplomb by Fred Clark.

With every new experience, Patrick is an open-minded and curious sponge to his thrilling auntie, while Babcock is equally as mortified as he is threatening to separate Mame from Patrick. Although viewers somehow understand these may be empty threats, it’s abundantly clear that Mame and Patrick developed a resilient and sweet love bond that they both cherish and will not let anyone ruin.

As we watch Patrick grow up under the fabulous influence of his Auntie Mame, we see this small family unit and their nonconformist oddball friends go through adverse times, all to comedic effect. When Mame's investments are lost in the stock market crash of 1929, she takes a series of jobs: stage acting, telephone operator, and finally a sales girl at Macy's, all of which end miserably. However it is at her job at Macy’s during the Christmas holidays that she meets her future husband, a rich Southern oil man named Beauregard Burnside. They fall in love and get married just at the point when Mame is about to lose everything.

One of the funniest scenes is when Beauregard takes Mame home to meet the family and she goes on a fox hunt to both fit in with the family and compete with an old flame of her fiancé’s, Sally Cato. Mame who has never ridden a horse in her life is set up by Sally to ride a wild horse; Mame manages to stay on the horse purely because she’s stuck in the saddle, and catches the fox at the end! This scene shows what a consummate pro Rosalind always was at high-brow slapstick comedy, long after her role in 1940’s His Girl Friday (with another pro, Cary Grant).

Another classic scene is when a college-aged Patrick brings home his vapid, bigoted and conceited snob of a fiancée, Gloria Upson, but out of pure love for him, she agrees to his request to mute and hide all her eccentricities. But the fire that is in Mame and exquisitely revealed by Rosalind’s expressive face is when she sets a plan in place to thwart the marriage of her beloved Patrick to the brash and elitist Upsons by simply being herself and including her entourage.

The party scene includes some of the best quotes, one that was repurposed in the 1983 film Trading Places but originated in Auntie Mame when Gloria tried to tell an amusing story:

“Bunny Bixler and I were in the semi-finals - the very semi-finals, mind you - of the ping-pong tournament at the club and this ghastly thing happened. We were both playing way over our heads and the score was 29-28. And we had this really terrific volley and I stepped back to get this really terrific shot. And I stepped on the ping-pong ball! I just squashed it to bits. And then Bunny and I ran to the closet of the game room to get another ping-pong ball and the closet was locked! Imagine? We had to call the whole thing off. Well, it was ghastly. Well, it was just ghastly.”

Not only does no one laugh, but Mame’s best friend Vera takes her drink and puts it in Mame’s hand, since she clearly needs it! Another great Vera moment, played by Coral Browne, is when Gloria makes a faux-pas:

Gloria Upson: Miss Charles, I've just got to tell you how I adored you in "Mary of Scotland."
Vera Charles: Did you dear? That was Helen Hayes.

The comical role of Mame’s secretary Agnes Gooch is played by character actress Peggy Cass, who undergoes quite a transformation from mousy hausfrau to a glamour girl make-over at the hands of Mame, to assumed unwed mother before the realization that she is in fact married after a drunken night with Brian O’Bannion, Mame’s editor. Agnes herself can barely keep up with the transformation, “I lived. I gotta find out what to do now!”

Throughout the entire film, both Rosalind and the amazing film set that is her apartment undergo several fantastic design changes, reflecting the style of the time and the mood of Mame. Rosalind won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Mame Dennis, which added to the five Golden Globes she received in her career, a record she kept until Meryl Streep won her sixth in 2007. Rosalind was as outspoken and lovable off screen as she was on, married to her producer husband, Freddie Brisson, for 35 years until she succumbed to breast cancer in 1978.

The film Auntie Mame is a feast for the eyes and pure laugh therapy. The image of a grown Patrick, now married and a father, handing his son over to his eternally young at heart Auntie Mame so they can go off and find new adventures, has stayed with me always. I can still see Mame walking the young boy up her grand stairs describing the next foreign land they will explore, which is the image I’ll always keep of both Rosalind and my grandmother Jean, climbing new heights, giving love and a joi-de-vivre every step of the way.

The African Queen – The Role That Won Bogie the Oscar

When we consider some of the major male movie stars today (George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington), a bevy of talented pretty boys, it’s hard to imagine that Humphrey Bogart could have ever been deemed the most successful and sought after movie star of his time. Given his short stature, hardened face, and speech impediment, one could imagine that at best, he’d simply be categorized as a character actor, much like Peter Lorre of his day or Philip Seymour Hoffman of today. All scarily talented, but not the type to make the girls swoon.

But the reality is, Bogie was as big in life as any matinee idol, preceding the Paul Newmans, Marlon Brandos and Robert Redfords, and out-manning the Clark Gables, Montgomery Cliffs and Cary Grants of his day by sheer masculinity and raw power. Not to put down these other actors, they offered very specific styles and vision. But Bogie was an improbable star and a master of his craft, with the ability to show cold-blooded malice yet raw vulnerability at the same time.

I have many favorite Bogart movies, starting with Dead End and Angels With Dirty Faces, both of which he expertly displayed the gangster psyche so well, it not only pigeon-holed him into that role for years, but also turned those gangster roles into quintessential Bogie personas, such that other actors like James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and especially George Raft would try to buck playing what they called “Humphrey Bogart-type criminals”.

Other favorite Bogie films of mine of course include Treasure of Sierra Madre, The Maltese Falcon, To Have and Have Not, and Casablanca, which even if you are not a film lover, odds are you can recite most of that script (“You played it for her, now play it for me…” is a line sampled in many hip hop tracks!).

But by far my most favorite Bogart film is The African Queen, in which he plays a lazy, crass boat captain who drinks too much, Charlie Allnut, opposite the ever upright, dignified and uptight missionary, Rose Sayer, played exquisitely by Katherine Hepburn. What is appealing about this movie is its unlikeliness – the star power of two aging actors, the setting in the Congo in the days were large Technicolor film productions were only just beginning to catch on, the dynamic of a film where the majority of the action happens in a boat with only two people to watch…

The film is about Charlie and Rosie who are thrown together after the Nazis burn down the missionary that Rosie and her brother Samuel have built in the village of Kunghdu in German East Africa. Samuel is beaten and eventually dies from fever, leaving Rosie to flee with Charlie down the river in Charlie’s small rickety steam boat, the African Queen. Charlie mentions to Rose that the Germans have a gunboat, the Louisa, which patrols a large lake downriver, blocking any British attacks. Rose comes up with a plan to convert the Queen into a torpedo boat, and sink the Louisa. Despite Charlie’s repeated attempts to sway Rosie, since navigating the river may be suicidal (hippos, alligators, swarms of mosquitos, as well as deadly rapids), Rose is insistent.

One can’t help but be drawn in by both Charlie and Rosie ole’ girl (as he affectionately calls her) from the initial hilariously awkward scene at the beginning of the film when Charlie delivers the mail to Rosie and Samuel, then sits uncomfortably during tea while his stomach loudly growls. “Ain’t a thing I can do about it!” he smiles while Rosie and her brother try to ignore it. The abrasive crassness of Charlie and Rosie’s embarrassed reactions creates funny banter, but also reveals two personalities that eventually fit like puzzle pieces.

It’s a bumpy ride to that realization though, including a fantastic scene where Charlie gets sloshed and insults Rosie, calling her an old maid – Bogie’s delivery of those drunken lines was the best drunken performance to date (far better than Gable or Grant who often clearly looked like they were acting drunk – perhaps the fact that Bogie was a huge drinker helped). Katherine’s pained expression at the insult was pitch perfect, with her chin trembling as she proudly fought back hurt tears. But the best part of the scene was when Charlie woke from his inebriated sleep to find Rosie pouring out every bottle of his whiskey. His head throbbing and he unable to get up and do anything about it leads to the classic line: “Oh Missus, have a heart.”

 Through every brush with death, both characters find themselves drawn to each other and surprise themselves in such a sweet and honest way. But equally as intriguing was the filming process itself: John Huston who had already directed Bogie in Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Maltese Falcon, were two peas in a pod – both very direct, hard drinking men’s men, they were the only two on the African set who did not become terribly ill. They credited that to only drinking whiskey the entire time they were in Africa. Poor Katherine and Lauren Bacall, Bogie’s young wife, and most of the crew all got sick as dogs throughout the entire shoot.

Although Huston and Bogie were great friends who worked very well together, they did clash over the infamous leech scene, where Charlie has to get out and drag the boat through the quagmire. Huston brought a leech breeder on the set, but Bogie was having none of it. He refused to have a single live leech on his body (who could blame him), and instead Huston had to put adhesive on Bogie and place rubber leeches on him. All the close ups of body shots were actually the leech breeder with real leeches sucking on him!

Although Bogie worked constantly and was extremely well respected by Hollywood, the Oscar remained elusive to him. With his portrayal of Charlie Allnut in The African Queen, he was rightly confident that he would finally get the recognition he was due. He had only been nominated once before and that was for his role in Casablanca 12 years earlier. The 1953 Oscars had some serious contenders: the biggest of them was A Streetcar Named Desire, which would take home the Best Actress award for Vivien Leigh, Best Supporting Actor for Karl Malden, Best Supporting Actress for Kim Hunter, Best Art Direction (Black & White). But when Bogie’s name was called, Lauren (who was pregnant with their daughter Leslie at the time) jumped up and screamed! Bogie was quite humbled, but a few weeks later in his typical keeping it real style, he was quoted, “The best way to survive an Oscar is to never try to win another one.”

Although Bogie tended to bristle at any comparisons between his acting style and newcomers like Brando and Newman who were flexing their Method-based approaches, honestly The African Queen showed how Bogie was evolving into a similar realism-based dynamic. You can see in scenes where Bogie and Katherine talk over each other in overlapping dialogue, giving the feel of a normal everyday conversation. It was clear that Bogie was keeping pace with more contemporary performance styles.

The African Queen is a treasure not to be missed. A particularly touching scene at the end of the film is when Charlie asks the Nazi captain of the Louisa who has captured both him and Rosie and is preparing to hang them to marry them before the hanging. Rosie’s response and the sensitivity on Charlie’s face is pure Hollywood gold and truly unforgettable. And when their plan to bomb the Louisa accidentally comes to fruition, we all celebrate as they swim off to safety in the Belgian Congo.

All About Eve - One of the Most Perfect Films of All Time

What can I say about All About Eve that admirers don’t already know and that those who haven’t seen it will want to rush out and join our inner circle? Could it be the fact that one of the most perfect scripts and starring an impeccably cast troupe of stars was only outshined by the juicy gossip that happened off camera? The irreplaceable Bette Davis as the uber star, stage actress Margo Channing, the cunning conniving Ann Baxter as the Machiavellian Eve Harrington, the rock solid convincing Celeste Holm as Margo’s best friend Karen Richards… but it’s more than just the cat-fighting on and off screen, even to call this an epic cat fight is to belittle the poetic script by Joe Mankiewitz and the human emotion so thoughtfully played by all.

You’ll just have to watch the film (seriously, go get it now and don’t miss a single scene!) to see how deliciously such hilarious lines like “That I should want you at all suddenly strikes me as the height of improbability…” uttered by Mr. Sophistication himself George Sanders as Addison DeWitt, an actor who mastered the art of delivering his lines with an air of condescension wrapped in a nonchalant style. It proved heart breakingly ironic that he was a) once married to Zsa Zsa Gabor (who desperately begged him to get her a bit part in the picture), and b) eventually committed suicide at the age of 65 by downing 5 bottles of Nembutal and leaving a suicide note which read: “Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck.” Just imagine if a note like that was found with Heath Ledger – although whether it was suicide or an accidental drug overdose that cut short his talented life remains unclear, George made sure the world knew his intentions.

But both his line to Eve Harrington and his eventual suicide (after he divorced Zsa Zsa and later married her older sister Magda  - DRAMA!) came much much later.

See how easy it is to get sidetracked with All About Eve? There are so many side stories, the mind races!

Let’s start with Bette herself, again to quote Addison DeWitt, “an improbable person” (although he was speaking to Eve in that scene) – Bette was an improbable movie star, but a star none-the-less. Although not a traditional beauty by any stretch of the imagination, she had an unquestionable stranglehold on the ability to deliver raw human emotion (just see her in Of Human Bondage, Jezebel, or The Little Foxes). Watching her in Eve, one can see how our generation’s Merrill Streep, Annette Benning, and Melissa Leo emulate her in so many ways. A strong woman unafraid to play strong women on screen, Bette was 42 when she was cast as the highly respected but aging stage actress, Margo Channing. It was a role that struck very close to home, and in fact, Bette and her younger love interest co-star, Gary Merrill, began dating on set almost immediately (both quickly divorced their then spouses and began playing their roles in reality, outside of the bright lights and Edith Head costumes).

As perfect as Bette was to play Margo, she was not the first choice in casting. Joe Mankiewitz (writer and director) had his heart set on Susan Hayward. And Darryl Zanuck, the producer, had already pretty much locked in Claudette Colbert, who had great comedic timing (see It Happened One Night). But Claudette ruptured a disc on another film just as Eve was set to shoot. When that happened, Zanuck also thought to cast Marlene Dietrich, but Mankiewitz adamantly opposed that choice (my guess is because of the accent – to this day, who could imagine Margo played by anyone other than Bette with her New England affected accent!).

Although they played best friends on camera very convincingly, Celeste and Bette did not get along: “There was one bitch in the cast: Celeste Holm”, Bette once said. And Celeste had choice words for Bette too, “Bette Davis was so rude, so constantly rude. I think it had to do with sex.” Perez Hilton would have a field day with that kind of great off screen fodder today!

It was undoubtedly sensitive for Bette to play an aging actress when in fact, she was an aging actress. How relatable is Bette when as Margo she confides to her producer Max Fabian, “Three months ago I turned 40. 4-0. Now all of a sudden I feel like I’ve taken all my clothes off.” Many had theorized that her best roles were behind her, so when she jumped at the chance to play Margo, she had good reason. To quote Eve later in the film, “I’d do much more for a part like that.” But all the acclaim and success had to be bittersweet, since after All About Eve, although it garnered Bette (and Ann) a Best Actress Oscar nomination, it was truly her final best role – although she made many movies after Eve, none compared. Plus, to put it literally in her own words, Bette once said, “People get the idea that actresses my age are dying to play younger women. The fact is, we die every time we play one.” Clearly she was keeping it real with the roles she chose; but she was very aware that she was in the autumn of her career.

But glorious she was as Margo, poetically delivering iconic lines like

Margo: “Remind me to tell you about the time I looked into the heart of an artichoke.”

Eve: “I’d like to hear it.”

Margo: “Some snowy night in front of the fire…”

And even those who haven’t seen the classic, recognize: “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.” Her careful delivery of that line after downing a martini will live forever.

But she isn’t the only one with the juicy lines: Thelma Ritter, just as she did in Hitchock’s Rear Window, plays the no-nonsense, all knowing New Yorker/Brooklynite, Margo’s maid Birdie. Actually many of Birdie’s most hilarious lines are unspoken – Thelma could deliver a look that spoke a thousand words. Watch her eye Eve up and down, and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

But it’s not just about the women, the men in this film play an important role. Although I personally think the most enjoyable to watch was the character Addison, as deliciously evil as Eve, there was a wry likeability in Gary Merrill’s Bill Sampson. Playing the younger lover (on and off screen), he’s not at all the Ashton Kutcher just as Bette is not seen as a Demi Moore-like “cougar”. Both respect each other for who they are, regardless of the age difference, the compatibility is clear; although Margo struggles with the age difference throughout the film primarily due to the presence and quiet threat of Eve. Bill is believable because those times Margo allows herself to be girly and vulnerable around him are also believable scenes, and probably due to the chemistry between the real life lovers. It helps that Gary truly was an affable guy – born in Hartford CT, All About Eve was his biggest role. He was also very politically active, and took part in the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 to promote African American voter registration.

But although their romance ends in happy wedded bliss in the film, it was ill-fated in reality. Bette would say that Gary fell for Margo, and Gary would say that Bette fell for Bill – the marriage lasted 10 tumultuous years (an eternity in Hollywood).

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that two young ingénues make an appearance in All About Eve: Marilyn Monroe as the gorgeous, flirty, strategically ditzy aspiring actress Ms. Caswell, and Barbara Bates as the younger, equally as plotting Eve-like ambitious bobby-soxer Phoebe who appears at the end of the film to hint that Eve Harrington will get her come-uppance. As Phoebe, Barbara Bates has a young unspoiled air about her, but is clearly ready to cut her teeth on the unsuspecting Eve (although how Eve is oblivious to this, one has to wonder). It is Phoebe’s face we see reflected in so many mirrors as she holds Eve’s award and plans her next move – in fact, this was the role that Zsa Zsa begged George Sanders to convince Mankiewitz to give to her.

But Barbara’s life was far more difficult than Phoebe’s future seemed. She was best known for her role as Phoebe, despite a modest run in films. She battled chronic depression her entire life, and after the death of her first husband, she attempted suicide. She was hospitalized and seemed to recover and even eventually remarried. But depression haunted her and she eventually committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in her mother’s garage at the age of 43.

Marilyn, you’ll see, lights up the screen in her few cameos. Although she only has a few lines, her comedic timing and delivery belie the air-head demeanor she conveys. Her maneuvering to have Max Fabian, a producer she is trying to wow, fetch her a drink is a coy combination of dingbat meets Samantha Jones, and she pulls it off sexily and smartly. Again to quote Addison, “I see your career rising in the east like the sun.” and he was spot on! Virtually all the women on the set disliked Marilyn, and the rumor mill (driven by Zsa Zsa who often visited the set and stirred up trouble) as alive with gossip that Marilyn “was sleeping with everyone” including the crew. Haters haunted Marilyn her entire life…

Finally, about Eve herself, portrayed brilliantly by Anne Baxter. Surprisingly, both Anne and Bette got along on set, despite effectively conveying cool animosity between their characters on screen. That said, many have hypothesized that if Anne hadn’t lobbied for a leading actress Academy Award nomination alongside Bette (in lieu of a Best Supporting nom), Bette would have one her Oscar for playing Margo, hands down. In any case, both actresses remained friendly long after All About Eve, and Anne went on to play the role of Margo Channing in the later Broadway version, Applause. No doubt she acted as real-life understudy to Bette, observing the master on set during that filming.

All About Eve is the stuff that Hollywood film lovers could write dissertations on, and have. I’ll make a long story short (too late!): own it, watch it again and again, and revel in all its juicy snipes, including Margo’s final line to the back-stabbing bitch Eve after she has received her Sara Siddons Award, “You can always put that award where your heart ought to be.”