... would it have succeeded? 'tis certainly easy to imagine Ball as a comedic match to Russell; as a singer and dancer, on the other hand, even a younger LB would not have been equal to the demands of the musical.
God is subtle, but He is not malicious. (Albert Einstein)
I'm not 100% sure Lucille Ball could have quite carried AUNTIE MAME either, though there were actually some moments in the movie where to me she seemed more the Mame Dennis of Patrick Dennis's novel than the Mame Dennis of Jerry Herman's musical. There are rumors that even in the 1950s Lucy felt that Mame Dennis owed a bit to Lucy Ricardo, but that was really stretching it. Russell's brand of screen comedy had always been a bit more sophisticated than Lucy's, though Russell could do physical comedy well when called upon to do so (the fight with Paulette Goddard in THE WOMEN comes to mind). There's a story that Lucy showed up at the wrap party for AUNTIE MAME at Warners and told Russell she'd giver her soul for a part such as Mame (she was photographed with Russell and Hedda Hopper, each of them pointing a long cigarette holder towards the camera).
I don't think we're going to see a movie remake of MAME anytime soon - the proposed TV remake, to have starred Cher, was shelved a decade or so for a number of reasons (at one point Barbra Streisand was interested in at least co-producing). Warners actually purchased the screen rights to the original novel again back in the 1990s, planning to develop it for Goldie Hawn, who would have been interesting but ultimately withdrew. Recently there have been rumors that Tilda Swinton is enamored of the role and hopes to do AUNTIE MAME updated to the 1960s - let's hope dear dead Mr. Dennis's heirs will put the kabosh on that little gem of an idea!
"'Nature,' Mr. Allnut, is what we are put here to rrrrrriiiiise above!"
I think there were other problems with Lucy's performance as Mame besides her lack of vocal ability. Mame Dennis is brash and bold and larger than life. For some reason, Lucille Ball held her performance in check, and didn't really let herself go with the role. That actually was a big problem with the film in general. It tried to be too realistic and down to earth with a story that should have been big and splashy and over the top. One can only imagine the possibilities if this film had been made as it should have been made.
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I don't think she could have at this point, partly because she just didn't have the required physical energy, and partly because she was so locked into her "Lucy" persona by then that she was afraid to veer away from it too much. It's interesting that in the trailer she's called "the world's most versatile actress" when at that point she'd been playing the same character ("Lucy") for over 20 years with little variation.
"In my case, self-absorption is completely justified."
Which is unfortunate. She should have been wise enough to step aside for someone who could really do the role justice, but I suppose her ego wouldn't let her do that.
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