7.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Ten-year-old orphan Patrick Dennis has come to live with his nearest relative, Auntie Mame, a marvelous madcap who lives life to the hilt. Mame and her cronies create mayhem, while the sober banker in charge of Patrick's inheritance steers him toward a "respectable" future. Whose influence will prevail? The sedate banker or the irrepressible aunt whose motto is "Life is a banquet -- and most poor suckers are starving to death" ?
Starring: Rosalind Russell, Forrest Tucker, Coral Browne, Fred Clark (I), Patric KnowlesComing of age | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Auntie Mame began as a 1955 novel by American author Patrick Dennis, who insisted that the
story wasn't autobiographical even though the protagonist shares his name. (The claim is made
more credible by the fact that "Patrick Dennis" was a pseudonym; the author's real name was
Edward Everett Tanner III.) The book was adapted into a successful play that premiered on
Broadway just one year after publication of the novel. A movie version appeared two years later,
helmed by the play's director, Morton DaCosta, in his first foray into feature films. Warner
Brothers released Auntie Mame to theaters in the final days of 1958, and it went on to become
one of the most profitable box office performers of the following year. The key to the success of
both the play and the film was actress Rosalind Russell, whose towering performance still lights
up the screen today, almost sixty years after Auntie Mame first delighted audiences.
Auntie Mame has been somewhat overshadowed by the 1966 Broadway musical adaptation that
became one of Angela Lansbury's signature roles. In what was widely decried as a travesty,
Lansbury was passed over for the filmed version in favor of Lucille Ball, who lacked the
musical
chops for the part. The 1974 film tanked at the box office, even as several of composer Jerry
Herman's songs have become standards (notably, "We Need a Little Christmas"). On film,
Rosalind Russell's incarnation of Patrick Dennis' irrepressible aunt remains the definitive
portrayal.
The Warner Archive Collection is releasing the original 1958 film on Blu-ray, and even if Auntie
Mame isn't entirely to your taste (as it isn't to mine), the disc is an impressive technical
achievement proving that you don't need computers to create eye candy. The film was one of the
handful shot in a now-abandoned widescreen process known as Technirama, which could
produce an image of superb sharpness and clarity when projected from a native element, which it
almost never was. But WAC has sourced its Blu-ray from just such a native Technirama element,
and the results are a visual delight.
Auntie Mame was photographed by venerable cinematographer Harry Stradling, Sr. (My Fair
Lady) in the widescreen format known as Technirama. Like Paramount's VistaVision,
Technirama ran the film horizontally instead of vertically, and it doubled the size of each frame
from 4-perf to 8-perf, enhancing sharpness and reducing visible grain. Unlike VistaVision,
however, Technirama used an anamorphic stretch of 1.5:1 to fill the expanded negative with an
image that could be projected at the CinemaScope ratio of 2.35:1. For release prints, this image
would then be downconverted with a horizontal CinemaScope squeeze to reshape each frame into
a standard 4-perf format that commercial theaters were equipped to project. These interim
conversions often had the unfortunate effect of lessening sharpness and accentuating grain,
thereby negating some of the advantages for which Technirama was developed. (It's not hard to
grasp why the format didn't survive.)
For this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, the Warner Archive Collection has returned to a rare
Technirama-format interpositive, which was struck from the camera negative by YCM Laboratories several decades ago, before the negative suffered
significant fading. The scan was performed at 2K by Warner's Motion Picture Imaging facility, and color correction was undertaken by the
senior colorist at MPI who has been entrusted with restoring many of Warner's most valuable
properties. An original dye transfer print was used as a color reference, and MPI's work was
followed by WAC's customary thorough cleaning to remove dirt, scratches and other age-related
deterioration.
The end result is a Blu-ray image of stunning sharpness and clarity, with deep and rich primary
colors and a rainbow of shadings in between. (Appropriately enough, the film's introductory
titles open with a kaleidoscope.) Auntie Mame's apparently inexhaustible wardrobe is as much a
character in the film as she is, and the Blu-ray presentation makes it pop off the screen. Grain is
almost imperceptible, and the image is so finely resolved that, when Mame is presiding over a
party on her terrace overlooking the 59th Street Bridge, the scrim at the back of the stage looks
just like the painting it is (and a beautifully detailed one at that). The eccentric and ever-changing
decor of Mame's apartment is vividly rendered, while the detail of Beauregard Burnside's South
Carolina plantation is white-and-pastel eye candy accentuated by the bright red riding coats of the
fox hunt. The counters at Macy's, where Mame meets her future husband, are a study in stylized
stage decor, and the exotic locales where Mame and Beauregard travel are striking in all of their
soundstage artificiality. Blacks are solid and deep, and there isn't a hint of untoward electronic
tinkering. Auntie Mame was shot on film some sixty years ago, but its presentation on Blu-ray
favorably stands comparison to contemporary productions that have been digitally acquired. The
Blu-ray is a tribute to the continuing vitality of celluloid.
As per its usual practice, WAC has mastered Auntie Mame at a high average bitrate, here 34.99
Mbps.
Rumors have persisted for years that Auntie Mame received a stereo mix, but WAC has scoured the Warner archives and found none. The Blu-ray contains a mono track taken from the original magnetic masters, cleaned of any age-related interference or distortion and encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. It's an effective track that faithfully reproduces Rosalind Russell's famous ability to deliver dialogue at lightning speed—she talks even faster here than in His Girl Friday—and the distinctive tones of supporting characters, including Forest Tucker's ripe Southern accent and Peggy Cass's broadly comic tones as the put-upon Miss Gooch. Effects sound faintly artificial, which is consistent with the staginess of the overall production. The lovely orchestral score by Bronislau Kaper (an Oscar winner for Lili) has ample room to breathe, even in mono.
The extras have been ported over from Warner's 2002 DVD of Auntie Mame. The trailers have
been remastered in 1080p, and the music-only track has been given a lossless encode.
It's not surprising that Auntie Mame became a musical, because it already feels like one in
Rosalind Russell's performance. The gestures are extravagant, the emotions are operatic, and the
dialogue, especially Mame's, has its own rhythm and melody. Russell was reportedly offered
the musical role on stage but declined due to ill health—or maybe she felt that she'd already done
it. WAC's Blu-ray brings her performance home with stunning intensity. Even if the film doesn't
grab you as it did audiences in the Fifties, the disc is highly recommended. It's the best MGM
musical that MGM never made (and isn't even a musical).
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