Why did the movie Mame get such bad reviews?

Actually, MAME got some very good reviews - Variety's was an out-and-out rave, and I think the NY Times was kindly disposed to it as well. But some reviews did carp that the film seemed over-stuffed and over-produced, and many, of course, focused on Lucille Ball's unsuitability for the role and, even more painful to her, her age and the steps they took to disguise it. Some of these reviews seemed like personal attacks and she was devastated by them. MAME finished her film career.

I'm the biggest MAME/AUNTIE MAME fan in the world - one look at my living-room walls and you'd have no doubt - but even I've come to realize that the film was hopelessly old-fashioned and out-of-date by 1974, and it's also possible that the public was perhaps just a bit weary of it - by the time the film came out they'd had 19 years of the character on the page, the stage, and the screen (there were still touring productions of MAME in the mid-1970s, including several with original star Lansbury).

"In my case, self-absorption is completely justified."

I've got a soft spot in my heart for Lucy's "Mame". Although my first recollection was seeing the marquee outside the theatre saying "Lucille Ball in MAME". I didn't see it then but my 9 year-old mind only knew that "maim" meant to severly injur or cripple so I thought Lucy was in a horror film! (Honest truth!)

So it was both books for me first, then the Rosiland Russell movie and by then I'd been tainted by comments about "Mame". My friend warned me that it looked like she'd been film through cheesecloth or vaseline! (Not true is it?)

I have an aversion to film musicals that should've starred the stage stars, Hello Dolly, The Wiz, My Fair Lady, etc. Lucille Ball isn't the quintessential Mame Dennis, but there's a twinkle and a sadness in her eyes that makes me love this interpretation of Mame more than I should.



(My name is James and my eyes are blue.)

IMO, two words: Lucille Ball. If it's really true that she was chosen over Angela Lansbury for this film, no wonder it was not very well received. I admit I am very anti Lucille Ball, because I think she is talented, but in a very limited way, as kind of a slapstick comedienne. I strongly prefer Carol Burnett if I'm looking to be entertained in that way. And conversely I am a big fan of Ms. Lansbury who has shown great breadth of talent.

As others have noted, many felt that Lucille Ball was simply too old for the role. Those familiar with the show were disappointed at Angela Lansbury's absence and also at how the musical numbers were slowed down in keeping with Ball's deteriorated voice. Even many fans of the movie admit (sometimes reluctantly) that Lucy simply wasn't up to the role and that her singing and dancing were no longer up to par. It's also important to remember that at the time it came out, musicals were rapidly going out of style and fading as a genre; at the time there were some critics and audience members who felt the movie was hopelessly out-of-date and old-fashioned.

It got some mockery for the filters and gauze used in closeups to disguise Lucy's age. You'd have a shot of the crowd, in crystal-clear focus, then a closeup of Lucy that was all hazy, then another shot of the crowd in crystal-clear focus, then another hazy closeup of Lucy. Many found that strange and jolting; personally, I think it makes the film look cheap and shoddy. It's painfully obvious they were trying to disguise her age, and that jolts one out of the movie.

MAME has its fans, any film does, but from what I understand many who were actually in the film or involved in the making of it utterly despised it. Jerry Herman hated this movie so much he made a new rule that no films could be made of his musicals without his direct involvement and supervision. Bea Arthur called it a "disaster" and was embarrassed by it. I don't know what Lucy felt of the movie itself, but she did later say that making it was a miserable experience, "as much fun as watching your house burn down." Angela Lansbury detested it, although that's at least partly because she is (understandably) bitter about being passed over for the role, one of her great signature parts; even today she maintains that the movie would have been better with her in it. She never forgave Warners for slighting her that way.

MAME has become almost legendary for being a bad, misconceived, miscast movie, but as always, opinions differ.


Facts need to come before certainty.

I think it has good moments, like the "Mame" number. I remember when the movie came out in the theaters I was a kid and the title number was the clip they always showed when plugging it on TV talk shows. There are slow spots though, and it doesn't sparkle as much as the stage version. It seems like there are long pauses for audience laughter that might have worked better in a movie theater than when watching at home on TV. Of course Lucy admitted herself that she wasn't a singer.

it gets bad reviews because, as jay Sherman would say, it stinks! there is nothing good about this film. it helped drive the stake through the heart of the musical film.

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Lucille Ball--a great beauty in her youth, and plenty talented, never got quite the right break to become a major movie star--this was a bitter thing to her. She hit her stride brilliantly as a near middle-aged woman in "I Love Lucy," was desperately in love with a philandering Desi Arnaz, was NOT beloved by those who worked with her, was not, in general a warm or particularly pleasant person. Or at least, as time went on, pleasant attitudes went out the door--maybe she figured why bother, what had being nice or patient gotten her?

What killed Ball's interpretation of Mame was not her age or her lack of vocal chops, but her staggering lack of warmth. Above all else, Mame Dennis is, under all the flash, a warm and loving woman. By 1974, Lucille Ball couldn't even fake it. She came across in "Mame" as she invariably did in TV interviews--hard as nails. And distinctly unfunny. (Bea Arthur would have made a far better Mame!)

Then again, under Lucy Ricardo's "madcap" antics, always lurked, rather appealingly, the tough cookie Ball really was. But whatever softness Ball had, evaporated around the time of her divorce from Arnaz. Nor did she ever regain the brilliance she displayed on the best seasons of "I Love Lucy."