Movie · 1958 · Comedy, Drama · 2h 23m · NR · English
Curator score: 7.7/10 (22.9K ratings)
Tops the Best-Seller! Tops the Play! The One and Only!
Overview
Mame Dennis, a progressive and independent woman of the 1920s, is left to care for her nephew Patrick after his wealthy father dies. Conflict ensues when the executor of the father's estate objects to the aunt's lifestyle and tries to force her to send Patrick to prep school.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.7/10
IMDb: 7.9/10
Letterboxd: 3.87/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
TMDB: 7.0/10
Director
Morton DaCosta
Production
Warner Bros. Pictures
Cast
Rosalind Russell, Forrest Tucker, Coral Browne, Peggy Cass, Jan Handzlik, Roger Smith, Fred Clark, Connie Gilchrist, Yuki Shimoda, Patric Knowles, Joanna Barnes, Pippa Scott, Lee Patrick, Willard Waterman, Henry Brandon, Robin Hughes, Brook Byron, Carol Veazie, Dub Taylor, Margaret Dumont
Curator Review
Verdict
A sparkling, high-energy comedy-drama with a big personality and a distinctly progressive streak for its era. Rosalind Russell’s performance and the film’s maximalist style make it a lively showcase for wit, glamour, and sentiment with bite.
Best for
fans of classic Hollywood comedies
viewers who enjoy flamboyant lead performances
people interested in queer-coded or camp-adjacent cinema
audiences who like old-school theatrical adaptations
fans of stylish, dialogue-driven character comedies
Skip if
you want understated realism
you dislike broad, stagey performances
you prefer modern pacing and naturalistic humor
you’re allergic to sentimental Golden Age polish
Overview
Auntie Mame is one of those classic studio comedies that feels like it’s running on charisma, costume changes, and sheer force of personality. Rosalind Russell gives a performance so commanding that the movie often seems to orbit her rather than the other way around, and that’s exactly the point. She plays Mame as a whirlwind of taste, mischief, generosity, and defiance, turning what could have been a simple rich-aunt farce into a celebration of nonconformity.
Worth noting
What keeps it from becoming pure froth is the film’s underlying social edge. Beneath the champagne fizz is a real hostility toward snobbery, prejudice, and moral policing, and the movie repeatedly lands on the side of openness, curiosity, and chosen family. Its sensibility is very much of its time, but it also feels unusually alive in the way it delights in eccentricity and treats respectability as something to be punctured.
Bottom line
The result is a glossy, theatrical crowd-pleaser with a strong streak of camp and a surprising amount of heart. It may be broad, but it’s rarely dull, and its best moments have the kind of exuberance that makes classic Hollywood feel freshly mischievous.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Madison 🎭 (4.5★) · 572 likes
rosalind russell said no ward of mine is gonna be a heterosexual god fearing conservative
Sam (4★) · 279 likes
There’s a scene at the beginning of this movie where Auntie Mame tells Patrick, the kid, to write down words he hears but doesn’t know or understand and one of the words he writes down is “heterosexual.” Honestly huh??? What does that word mean? Never heard of it!!
theriverjordan (4★) · 211 likes
“Auntie Mame” is film dreamed up in Technicolor by the Broadway ladies who lunch.
Based on a play of the same name, and starring the same inimitable Rosalind Russell, “Mame” is an epic of style and sensibility. In an era of high cost and full saturation blowout productions, as Hollywood threw its Golden Age good bash, “Mame” is a treasured guest of honour at the party.
The movie and stage show were a career winter period revitalisation for the 51-year-old… more
julia (5★) · 197 likes
i want to be auntie mame when i grow up
Emily Furlich (4.5★) · 177 likes
WHEN MAME TURNS TGE PROPERTY NEXT TO THE BIGOTS INTO A HOME FOR JEWISH REFUGEE CHILDREN???? WIG SNATCHED