Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Absolutely brilliant

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

(*Movie quote*) - "Life's a banquet and most poor suckers out there are starving to death."Oscar-nominated actress, Rosalind Russell, as title character (Auntie) Mame Dennis, puts in an absolutely wild and wonderful tour-de-force performance (that you are sure gonna enjoy).Without a doubt, Auntie Mame, released in 1958, has got to be one of the funniest and most enjoyable comedies of that era. The cast is first-rate, the story well-crafted, the characters interesting, and, best of all, the dialogue is utterly hilarious, featuring some of the best one-liners that you're ever going to hear.Set in NYC during the height of the Roaring 20s - Mame Dennis, a wealthy, unconventional, individualistic socialite, suddenly finds herself in the rather awkward position of having to raise her 10 year-old nephew, Patrick, after her brother (whose son Patrick was) dies and requests in his will (under specific conditions) that Mame take over with the rearing of the boy.Originally Rosalind Russell had created the role of Mame on stage. This unforgettable character was a once-in-a-lifetime showcase that allowed Russell to completely perfect it to her own unique style.

Although the movie spawned a great Broadway success, "Auntie Mame" does not wholly succeed as a film. Morton DaCosta is chiefly to blame. His direction is not only inept, but dull. The screenplay is also wanting. It seems like a watered-down rather than an expanded version of the stage play. The garish photography, sets and costumes, the strident music score, and particularly Miss Russell's heavily theatrical performance also contribute. Admittedly, there are one or two laughs and maybe half-a-dozen dry smiles, but that's not enough to justify this length. At least 30 minutes could come out. The best scenes are those involving Peggy Cass, who went on to reprise her role with great success on Broadway.

It's hard for me not to be complete enamoured by a movie and a character like Auntie Mame. Two and half hours of zany histrionics with a central character who is a fee thinking, non conformist and constantly has a joyous, optimistic outlook on life; oh, and did I mention she is a total screwball. Few other fictional characters seem to led such an exciting life that I as the viewer am actually is jealous off ("Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are just starving to death!"). If I ever amass a huge fortune then perhaps I can try to emulate the lifestyle of Mame. OK even with a huge fortune that probably wouldn't be possible in this mundane realm that is reality but I can at least try. Auntie Mame is one of the most liberal movies to come out of the 1950's. Mame's carefree, flamboyant, free thinking and non conformist lifestyle clashes with a decade which is thought of as being the most conformist of the 20th century. It should come as no surprise this movie has a huge gay following as the title character is essentially a drag queen. At the beginning of the movie we see Mame throwing a party full of bohemians, intellectuals and champagne socialists ("Karl Marx, is he one of the Marx Brothers?"), essentially the predecessors to the modern day hipster. During the first 50 minutes of Auntie Mame the liberals are the one's having fun while the stuffy, puritan conservative Mr Babbock is being driven mad by Mame's antics and instance that her nephew be sent to a be sent to a progressive school over a conservative prep school, a school with ancient Greek principles, has no uniforms and as the movie's implies, teaches sex education in a very odd manner. However Auntie Mame isn't a total demonisation of conservatives. In the middle portion of the movie she does end up getting married to a southern gentleman and an oil tycoon of whom lives lives on a plantation and goes fox hunting, which does show you that love can overcome ideology. Likewise when Mame returns to her apartment after the death of her husband, the next few incarnations of her constantly redesigned apartment as well as her outfits are not as camp, possibly suggesting her husband's influence on her. Well at least until the second last incarnation of her apartment which is very avant-garde.With the movie's references to sex and homosexuality among other things, Auntie Mame falls into the category of "how did they get away with that?". Yet as liberal as the movie is for its time (and in many respects still is), the liberal of today is the conservative of tomorrow. Some of Mame's actions wouldn't rub with the modern left such as her desire to settle down with a man and her motherly instincts.The Kaleidoscope opening credits set the stage for a film which is a feast for the eyes and ears. They really put effort into these early widescreen era title sequences in one of many attempts for film to compete against television. Likewise Mame's lavish apartment is a masterpiece of set design as it evolves throughout the movie, with each incarnation being as impressive as the last. The movie doesn't lose its stage roots which each act ending with the dimming of the lights with the spotlight on Mame before completely going to dark.I am a huge Rosalind Russell fan and I know it's a cliché expression but it usage couldn't be any more adapt here: this is the role she was born to play! How is it possible of a human being to talk at such a voracious rate? I do wonder how long the script for Auntie Mame must have been. There are probably more words in this movie than the Encyclopedia Britannica. Whenever there is a moment free of any dialogue I have little think to myself, "oh yes, silence, I forgot what that feels like". When Roz's motor mouth isn't running, she's pulling at my heart strings; there are times when I wish I could just go into the screen and hug her. I can't stress enough my love for the actress, the performance and the fictional character. Auntie Mame is an encapsulation of pure unmitigated joy. When I'm feeling down, I know what movie I'll be turning to.

This tale of a young boy adopted by his artsy, eccentric aunt is terrifically entertaining but a little slack for parts of the first hour. At times it feels more like a series of amusing anecdotes than a real story, which may be while I most enjoyed the final part of the movie, which felt more cohesive, and was also notable for terrific small performances by Peggy Cass as the hapless Agnes Gooch and Pippa Scott as an odious socialite.This is not to say I didn't enjoy the rest of the movie, but I wish it had all been as good as that final party.I also wish the character of Patrick had been more developed. He is essentially a prop, an impossibly polite and untraumatized (considering his father dies at the film's start) young boy who grows into a young man who conveniently and instantly changes his mind on a major matter after one incident. But overall I enjoyed this.