Pre-Order Mame (1974) (Blu-ray) Available for Preorder (1 Viewer)

[stevenHa]

I look forward to this for Albert Whitlock's matte paintings.

 

[phillyrobt]

I'm sure I remembered that Baskin-Robbins had a tie-in with this movie. But can't remember the flavor!

 

[Matt Hough]

Ditto for PAJAMA GAME. Question: Did this ever have stereo tracks? I thought it was always mono. Set me straight if I am wrong on this.

I think it was always mono. The soundtrack LP was certainly mono.

 

[Rob W]

I'm sure I remembered that Baskin-Robbins had a tie-in with this movie. But can't remember the flavor!

Cheese ?

 

[Will Krupp]

I'm sure I remembered that Baskin-Robbins had a tie-in with this movie. But can't remember the flavor!

It was called "Peachy Mame" and was their flavor of the month for April 1974!

 

[JPCinema]

Bea called it "Maimed"

 

[MatthewA]

1974 was not a good year for Jerry Herman professionally in general.* Mack and Mabel flopped on Broadway; despite some great songs, they never seemed to solve the dissonance between the score and the subject matter. That and the failure of his 1979 WWII musical The Grand Tour seemed to suggest that his day was done; La Cage Aux Folles erased that perception altogether in 1983.

*It was also the year the Sherman Brothers went to Broadway with Over Here! while Lerner and Loewe went to Hollywood to collaborate one last time on Paramount's The Little Prince, Richard Kiley's make-up role for not getting to do Man of La Mancha on film. It also had Donna McKechnie's last pre-Chorus Line role and the only film Gene Wilder made in 1974 that wasn't directed by Mel Brooks. Lerner struck out before that on Broadway in 1971 with Lolita, My Love in which Denise Nickerson, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory's Violet Beauregarde, played the title role at one point while Dorothy Loudon, later Annie's original Miss Hannigan, played the role of the mother that Shelley Winters played in the 1962 Stanley Kubrick film. Leonard Stone, who played Mr. Beauregarde in Wonka, is the stage manager in Mame.

 

[Jim*Tod]

Can anyone confirm or deny the story I heard that Ball essentially bought her way into the role with a cool million bucks to
Warners? It seems unlikely but I have seen that story repeated more than once, not that this adds any credence to it.

 

[rsmithjr]

I have heard similar stories.

Here is an article that said she contributed $5M.

http://filmstarfacts.com/2017/04/05/mame-1974-end-lucy-era/

I have ordered the new Blu-ray just to compare it to other productions of both the play and the musical.

 

[MatthewA]

Some of the production money came from ABC, which is why they have an "in association with" credit and why the Here's Lucy episode where Lucy Carter meets Lucille Ball, which wasn't very good even for them (Sanford and Son did a similar plot three years later and was actually better), talks about Mame but doesn't mention it by name.

Here's hoping the Saul Bass \\' is restored to the film.

 

[Matt Hough]

1974 was not a good year for Jerry Herman professionally in general.* Mack and Mabel flopped on Broadway; despite some great songs, they never seemed to solve the dissonance between the score and the subject matter. .

And to add insult to injury, despite Mack & Mabel running only a dismal 68 performances, it was nominated for eight Tony Awards, but Jerry Herman's score, almost the only thing that won unanimous praise about the production, was not nominated. He was devastated by this oversight, especially since two shows whose scores were nominated ran even fewer performances than Mack & Mabel.

 

[Will Krupp]

And to add insult to injury, despite Mack & Mabel running only a dismal 68 performances, it was nominated for eight Tony Awards, but Jerry Herman's score, almost the only thing that won unanimous praise about the production, was not nominated. He was devastated by this oversight, especially since two shows whose scores were nominated ran even fewer performances than Mack & Mabel.

By all accounts it's really a tough show. It's commonly referred to, in Broadway parlance, as a "heartbreaker" both because the score is SO ravishing that you can listen to the OBC and wonder HOW it could possibly not have been a success, and because many have tried to take a crack at since and just can't pull it off. There have been later productions that tried to tack on a happy ending (a big number fantasy sequence) to get the taste of sadness out of the audience's mouth but it just doesn't work. It's a shame because the score really is THAT good.

 

[MatthewA]

"Tap Your Troubles Away"* had enough recognition for Gilda Radner to sing it on The Muppet Show:



*That was also the name of the Punky Brewster episode where Broadway veteran Gretchen Wyler played tap dance instructor Jersey Janet. I only mentioned this because Soleil Moon Frye's birthday is August 6, just like Lucy's was. Except in that episode, the musical selections weren't Jerry Herman, but "De-Lovely" by Cole Porter and "Be My Little Baby Bumblebee," a 1920s song which has been recorded by several artists including but not limited to Doris Day. Interesting how that show had virtually every genre of music on it but punk rock. Maybe if they'd waited five years to release Mame they could have sold it as the first punk rock musical. Lucy in London from 1967 was one thing, but can you imagine "Lucy Meets the Sex Pistols" as a sitcom episode or special?

 

[Jim*Tod]

I have heard similar stories.

Here is an article that said she contributed $5M.

http://filmstarfacts.com/2017/04/05/mame-1974-end-lucy-era/

I have ordered the new Blu-ray just to compare it to other productions of both the play and the musical.

Thanks. Interesting info. I do remember seeing a clip from MAME on tv in 1973 and then it seemed to sit on the shelf for a really long time. I suppose Warners realized that they had a dog on their hands.

 

[Jim*Tod]

By all accounts it's really a tough show. It's commonly referred to, in Broadway parlance, as a "heartbreaker" both because the score is SO ravishing that you can listen to the OBC and wonder HOW it could possibly not have been a success, and because many have tried to take a crack at since and just can't pull it off. There have been later productions that tried to tack on a happy ending (a big number fantasy sequence) to get the taste of sadness out of the audience's mouth but it just doesn't work. It's a shame because the score is really THAT good.

Agreed... incredible score especially the heartbreaking "Time Heals Everything" but definitely a book that just can't be remedied. It says something that Bernadette Peters and Robert Preston, both superb pros, couldn't make it work.

 

[MatthewA]

Thanks. Interesting info. I do remember seeing a clip from MAME on tv in 1973 and then it seemed to sit on the shelf for a really long time. I suppose Warners realized that they had a dog on their hands.

IIRC, it was supposed to be a Christmas 1973 release, but once it was clear that it was likely not going to win any Oscars, they pushed it back to spring 1974. Even Blazing Saddles, which was not expected to be as big a hit as it was, came out before it, coming out February 7 while Mame came out on March 27.

Ironically, WB wouldn't cast Angela Lansbury despite Jerry Herman's begging because to their mind she wasn't a box office draw, and most of her pre-Mame film roles were supporting roles. Lucy was genuinely good in 1968's Yours, Mine, and Ours, which was a commercial success. Angela's follow-up role as Countess Aurelia in Dear World wasn't as successful as Mame despite earning her a second Tony. Despite the studio that made it playing musical chairs with songs and key scenes even to this day, Bedknobs and Broomsticks still got better reviews (albeit somewhat backhanded), won Disney's only Oscar for a generation or more, and outgrossed it by more than half ($17,871,174 for B&B compared to only $6,500,000 for Mame), but by the time of its late 1971 release, the wheels in motion were already in place and it was too late to turn back. The budget was almost twice the gross; by contrast, Hello, Dolly! cost twice that on screen and almost made back its money on release and might have crossed into the black had David Merrick not squeezed another million from Fox so they could release it while the Broadway show was still running, only to do battle with the already-beleagured Fox board when it finally came out.

The movie might have been ready for its release date if Lucy hadn't broken her leg. That's why George Cukor quit. Under Cukor, it might have been a fine follow-up to My Fair Lady. Gene Saks* directs the book scenes as if he was still directing Neil Simon**; maybe he would have been a better fit for a theoretical movie of Promises, Promises.*** Even as it is, there are good things in it, but they only add up to a partially satisfying whole at best. But I'll buy a copy eventually just because I want to see how it looks up in HD; Auntie Mame probably hadn't looked anywhere near as good as the Blu-ray does in years and I owned the laserdisc and DVD.

*I understand the TV production of Bye Bye Birdie is closer to the original stage show, but in that case that's not always a good thing. I couldn't finish it. I'm sorry Craig Zadan died, but I felt his work was wildly inconsistent. I'm not sorry they didn't go through with the remake starring that woman who married Sonny Bono and Gregg Allman that might have been like a realization of the nightmare Buzz had in Love! Valour! Compassion! about her and Robert Goulet headlining in West Side Story.
**Whom my grandfather once called "a hack" at one of his legendarily speedy Passover seders when I was a teen.
***Unlike Warner Bros., Man of La Mancha didn't totally sour United Artists on musicals since they still made Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and Hair before they crossed through Heaven's gate into Leo the Lion's waiting paws. I wonder if there are enough United Artists musicals to build a fourth volume of That's Entertainment! around. Probably not, but it's a lovely, lonely thought.

 

[Mark Mayes]

I was 13 when this came out and loved it as did the other audiences i was it with. I get now the skirt-lifting haters, but it has its charms. I did meet Joyce Van Patten once, whose performance was excellent. She and I both discussed the hate and agreed the film wasn't that bad. But she told me that it's critical failure had "broken Lucy's heart."

 

[MatthewA]

I was 13 when this came out and loved it as did the other audiences i was it with. I get now the skirt-lifting haters, but it has its charms. I did meet Joyce Van Patten once, whose performance was excellent. She and I both discussed the hate and agreed the film wasn't that bad. But she told me that it's critical failure had "broken Lucy's heart."

Who else but a bosom buddy would point out the obvious flaws? That song is why it was such a delightful coincidence to see the film's other Lucy, Lucille Benson, on the TV sitcom Bosom Buddies six years later.* But I love Lucy's comment about the criticism of her vocal stylings: "She stays out all night, smokes cigarettes, and drinks. What do you expect her to sound like, Julie Andrews?"**

You have a point, though. A film can be flawed in one or more ways, but its critics can also be guilty of hyperbole or snark-for-snark's-sake. Like you, I was also 13 when I first rented it on tape along with the original Hairspray. Even in pan-and-scan, it wasn't the worst thing I'd ever seen, and this was an era when I sought out some real clunkers just to see how many were worth the effort to sit through. I even managed to find Myra Breckinridge (for which Theadora Van Runkle also did the costumes) on tape for rental when it was out of print!***

*Was I the only one who liked Peter Scolari better than Tom Hanks?
**No comment.
***I actually did a book report on that for school; trying to re-read it as an adult is easier said than done. That was never going to be good no matter who directed it or starred in it. The funniest thing about it is how many people involved with it ended up making family film musicals! The one musical of the late 1960s/early 1970s I never found for rent anywhere was Song of Norway.

 

[Will Krupp]

IIRC, it was supposed to be a Christmas 1973 release, but once it was clear that it was likely not going to win any Oscars, they pushed it back to spring 1974. Even Blazing Saddles, which was not expected to be as big a hit as it was, came out before it, coming out February 7 while Mame came out on March 27.

I tend to think it was less sinister than that. They desperately wanted MAME to be launched at Radio City Music Hall and I think that, if they decided to move the film's debut from Christmas 1973 (which I'm not entirely convinced was ever the plan) it was probably because Disney's ROBIN HOOD was holding court at the Music Hall and Easter 1974 was the next available holiday. Holiday shows and RCMH were still thought of as "events," an idea that wouldn't last much longer as the Music Hall was about to enter it's final slide. In fact, between those two engagements the Music Hall hosted an International "Ice Review," went dark for a week, and then booked Bob Crane in SUPER DAD (blech!) In any event, while the film may have opened NATIONALLY on March 27th, it actually opened at the Music Hall on Thursday, March 7th. I'm not sure how full the houses were, but it played there for about two and a half months.

Despite the studio that made it playing musical chairs with songs and key scenes even to this day, Bedknobs and Broomsticks still got better reviews (albeit somewhat backhanded), won Disney's only Oscar for a generation or more, and outgrossed it by more than half ($17,871,174 for B&B compared to only $6,500,000 for Mame), but by the time of its late 1971 release, the wheels in motion were already in place and it was too late to turn back.

Be careful there, as you're comparing apples to oranges. That $6,500,000 MAME number represents the RENTALS the film earned and returned to Warner Brothers (roughly half of the gross) while your BEDKNOBS number is taken from a site that tracks box office GROSS itself. The rentals BEDKNOBS earned and returned to the studio during its initial release were $8,500,000 according to contemporary box office charts. While that's still better than MAME did, the difference is not nearly as stark as your post would indicate.

 

[Clayking38]

I was managing a theater that ran the film when it was released. I didn't like the film at all, and we lost a bundle on the engagement. At the time someone told me that Lucy's vocals were mixed with another singer's.