And most poor suckers are starving to death. So says Auntie Mame anyway. I'm thoroughly enraptured by the movie starring the wonderful drag queenesque Rosalind Russell. The story is about an orphan, Patrick Dennis who's sent to live with his madcap Auntie Mame in New York in the 20s after his father dies, he had led a sheltered, conservative life and Auntie Mame shows him another side of life by enrolling him in a school where everyone's naked, taking him to parties and making him live live live! Mame loses all her money so Patrick goes off to boarding school and Mame marries a Southern millionaire who dies, Patrick returns grown up with a simply awful fiance whom Mame detests but puts on a brave face for Patrick. Mame however won't be beaten and Patrick realises what a mistake he's making with the horrible Gloria or Little Glory as her equally vile parents call her.
The wild technicolor sets are beyond lush with Mame's apartment changing decor in practically every scene, there's the highly camp Chinese servant, Ito who manages to giggle like a schoolgirl at every opportunity and then there's Vera Charles, Mame's best friend who is a Broadway star - she adores her booze and regularly passes out. All this and much more make it a simply glorious movie to watch. Mame's madcap ways make you wish everyone had an Auntie Mame who would show you the world to explore and indeed at the end, Mame takes her great nephew off to India for a trip promising untold gems of experiences which we all know are true - because it's Auntie Mame.
Rosalind Russell (I've always loved that name) is a tour de force as she rushes about causing more havoc than Dorothy's twister in Kansas and her experience shines through in the more touching scenes. She has jet black hair and garish outfits, then changes it with her furniture to blonde then brunette and always with a cigaretteholder and wild wardrobe making Auntie Mame utterly fabulous.
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