Lucille Ball's MAME

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Jerry Herman didn't like Lucy. Said she was "too common".

It's performance art.

You realize the GIF you posted is not from Lucille Ball's MAME, right

It's fine. If Ball had allowed for dubbiing it would be better. Great sets, costumes and Lucy, Bea and Preston were funny.

Complete disaster. LB was all wrong for the role and it wasn't the right time to bring that particular musical to the big screen.

Is it time to start an new Mame thread?

this is the new Mame thread isn't it?

Cue the Theater Queens who are still outraged, outraged I tell you, that Angela Lansbury was ignored. But of course Lansbury's own big screen musical flop "Bedknobs And Broomsticks" proved she was no movie star.

Saw Mame. It was Lucy playing Mame playing Lucy.

It's a dreadful movie. Lucy was so painfully miscast, she was simply too old & she couldn't sing! Even without Lucy, "Mame" was stillborn on delivery, it's so stilted, the actors don't seem to connect with each other. The movie only comes alive in Bea Arthur's scenes (she was hilarious).

Hasn't there been at least a dozen threads on this dismal subject?

Could somebody link to all the previous threads?

Paul Zindel is to blame for the utter failure of this film. He wrote the script and it SUCKS.

Ball was a very experienced actress and producer by this point in her career. She should have spotted this problem and come down hard on getting it fixed. Everyone did as well as they could with a shitty, unfunny, unplayable script.

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The Moon Woman is a cunt!

Where can one see this film?

She was experienced R15, but only in producing the Lucy character, which now looks retarded and by the 70s was coasting on goodwill from it's 50's heyday when pantomime and mugging on a small flickering screen were hilarious to a undemanding audience. By the time she did this she was no madcap bohemian but a hardboiled reactionary bitching about hippies.

The songs were retuned to spund like they were produced for a funeral to suit Ball's voice. A disaster doesn't even begin to describe this monstrosity.

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Vivian Vance bump

[quote] Cue the Theater Queens who are still outraged, outraged I tell you, that Angela Lansbury was ignored. But of course Lansbury's own big screen musical flop "Bedknobs And Broomsticks" proved she was no movie star.

Why shouldn't we be outraged that they used every excuse in the book not to cast her when she was more than qualified? She'd had plenty of musical theater and movie musical experience. Check both the reviews, the box office stats, and number of awards won for both films, and [italic]Bedknobs[/italic] comes out ahead in every respect. It came in 10th place, won an Oscar for Special Effects and got four more nominations and, along with [italic]Pete's Dragon[/italic], Onna White's next film musical, was a best seller on the Billboard kids' video charts in the early 1990s (Entertainment Weekly used to cover this), while LucyMAME got zilcharooney from the Academy, barely grossed half its budget, and was lucky the Razzies weren't invented until 1980. [italic]Bedknobs[/italic] proved Angela Lansbury can carry a musical and that not smoking away your voice and boozing away your reflexes has its perks, and that filmmakers know how to edit films better than executives do. And the year they restored it to what it should have been all along, Angela carried a TV musical in [italic]Mrs. Santa Claus[/italic], which she did because she thought too much time had passed for her Mame to be captured for screen (although weren't there plans to tape the 1983 revival for HBO that just fell through).

[italic]The Wizard of Oz[/italic] took 10 years to make any profit. By your logic, that should have killed Judy Garland's career. And forget about that flabby hack Orson Welles ever working again after [italic]Citizen Kane[/italic] lost money for RKO. And maybe Walt Disney should have packed it in after losing money on three of his first five animated features.

And don't forget that Lucy's kids weren't being targeted by the Manson Cult.

I seem to recall that at the time, people wanted Mame to fail, to finally see Lucy have a come down after so many years at the top. I don't normally suscribe to conspiracy theories, but I do think there was something fishy to all the negative reviews when the opening box office was so good. It took a lot of time, but it seems that now that all the major players are long gone, people can look objectively at Mame and see it for what it is, a delightful holiday musical. Does Lucy have the best voice? No, but then neither does Ms. Lansbury. Is Lucy the best dancer? No, but neither was Aileen Quinn. But what Lucy did have was the love of the world on her side thanks to her lovable persona and that you can't put a price on. I really do expect to see 'Mame' begin to come in to regular rotation around the holidays, similar to Miracle on Thirty-Fourth Street and White Christmas.

Here, this might help with the discussion.

That doesn't help at all, R27. That little twit who starred himself in his stupid little video is annoying in the extreme and utterly lacking in expertise.

I first saw this movie as a kid on TV and have always enjoyed it. I thought Lucy was great and was surprised to read all the criticism online about her being too old and her overall performance.

The film is a mostly delightful confection but sometimes leaden direction and editing hobble sit. And yes Lucy is no Julie Andrews but it was Warners that decided not to dub her singing voice and even she was surprised by their decision. The real shame is that the originally slated director, George Cukor, ultimately did not when Lucy's broken leg delayed production. If he had, we would most likely be referring to Academy Award-winner, Lucille Ball.

Lucy/Mame is a masterpiece...of rubbish.

Uninspired best describes most of this film's attributes. Only the title number and a few moments here and there rise above. With a better script and a good director, lucy would have done a good job had the film been made 5-10 years earlier.

[quote]And yes Lucy is no Julie Andrews

Julie Andrews today sounds a lot like Lucy did here.

[quote]Paul Zindel is to blame for the utter failure of this film. He wrote the script and it SUCKS. Ball was a very experienced actress and producer by this point in her career. She should have spotted this problem and come down hard on getting it fixed. Everyone did as well as they could with a shitty, unfunny, unplayable script.

Paul Zindel also wrote the 1985 TV version of [italic]Alice in Wonderland[/italic] the same year Lucy did [italic]Stone Pillow[/italic]. None of the singers were nearly as bad as Lucy, and the casting of Scott Baio as the Pig was accurate, and while it stays closer to the book than the Disney animated version, it's not nearly as fun or colorful, the 1980s utilitarian cinematography lets it down, and the songs by Steve Allen won't make you forget "This Could Be The Start of Something Big" or even "A Very Merry Unbirthday to You". Carol Sobieski, who adapted [italic]Annie[/italic] and [italic]Fried Green Tomatoes[/italic] for the screen, should have written the script for it. The irony is that LucyMAME doesn't stray that far from the original stage musical, except for making "St. Bridget" part of the overture, adding "Loving You" instead of a reprise of "My Best Girl," and eliminating "That's How Young I Feel" as they didn't seem to even try to see if Lucy could do anything with it.

Lucy let the writing quality of her sitcoms degenerate to the point where [italic]Life With Lucy[/italic] was the inevitable end result.

The weird thing is that "Mame" looks better today than it did when it premiered because it looked so damned dated at the time. Now, you can sort of see it as a period piece. Even with a young hip actress in the lead, like Ann-Margret or Cher, the movie still would have still seemed old at the time. The best part of the movie is the credits and it goes downhill from there. Lucy isn't bad in the second half of the movie where she's called upon to be closer to her real age but yes, her singing is completely unforgivable. But you see how closely Lucy identified with the role since it has a fox hunt (same from ILL), a scene where she wrecks a theatrical production with a huge headdress (from ILL) and even has a hair color joke. There was no way to create a character Mame since it was all Lucy. Still she has some nice scenes, like where she meets Beau's family or the scene at the Upsons. She actually has one great reaction at the end of the title number where she sees Beau and rushes to his arms. But everywhere else, you're just aware of how good she might have been in the role 15 years earlier.

As a poster mentioned upthread there are absolutely some highlights. The title number shot on location on a plantation is positively goosebump-inducing and is every bit the equal of Hello Dolly at the Harmonia Gadens. Bosom Buddies is hilarious and Lucy's vocal in My Best Girl is quite intimate and touching. It's heartening to kow that the film is now being re-evaluated and appreciated through the lens of time..

It's utter crap, and I thought so at age 16, when I drove half an hour with other Gatling friends to see it when it was released. And we all loved the non musical film with Russell and the OBC with Lansbury.

I thought the reason Lansbury wasn't cast was because they weren't even going to make the movie until Lucy offered up half the cash.

I would've been better in it

12 days and only 39 replies. Is it possible this subject is finally tapped out?

We're a little distracted by our nation blowing up, too many young model shills posting skinny boy pics, and the fact Lee dumped Richard for a cunt.

We'll catch up in a while.

It's so obviously a "be careful she's untalented and she'll break and she's a bitch" production that the entire thing is rotten to the core. Ball is NOT Mame. Ball should have done a one-woman sitting-on-stage mega-rip session and filmed it. People would have poured into the theaters. This faux and phony crap just made her seem pathetic as well as unlikable and untalented. She was talented. She just had gotten too old to hide what she really was by that time.

And Preston was insufferable.

Stop bumping Mame threads so we can't read Trump threads.

Stop posting Drumpf threads, numbnuts R43. All LucyMAME did was make it difficult for studios to greenlight another traditional book-style musical—for about three years. Drumpf is threatening to roll back decades of civil rights progress.

It had nothing to do with LucyMAME. Traditional book-style musicals were dead anyways. If you want to blame a movie, you could also go to "A Little Night Music" which was even worse than Mame.

Is the movie available on any streaming site? I can't find it.

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R27 that musical theater nerd is cuuute. I have to admit though I didn't see half of the things he was saying (other than how Lucy's singing was offbeat). Then again I am not a big musical theater guy.

Re: bumping person - bumps work much better if you add something new to the thread. Saying bump usually indicates the thread isn't that active and doesn't necessarily make people want to post in it more. Adding new content, links, commentary, etc. will work a lot better.

Yes, the genre was dead, but so was Ball's froglike singing voice. And Cukor was making old fashioned drek at that point.

I still remember watching this for the first time one rainy Sunday afternoon in utter disbelief from the extreme soft focus cinematography to the leaden timing and singing, this was a Lucy no one could love.

R49 "A LUCY NO ONE COULD LOVE"

Brilliant.

[quote]t's heartening to kow that the film is now being re-evaluated and appreciated through the lens of time..

though that lens is still slathered with Vaseline.

OP, you are worse than Hitler and Pol Pot together.

This topic has been done TO FUCKING DEATH.

[quote] It had nothing to do with LucyMAME. Traditional book-style musicals were dead anyways.

The roadshow release pattern ended with [italic]Man of La Mancha[/italic] as it failed for that film even though it had succeeded for [italic]Fiddler on the Roof[/italic] just a year earlier. The "musicals are dead" trope was a self-fulfilling prophesy promulgated by homophobes in order to subjugate any new musicals to whatever schlocky new genre lowered the curve for popular music to the point where if it was a new release today it would get the same kind of worshipful treatment as [italic]La La Land[/italic].

Liza could have pulled it off, and it would have been a better follow-up to [italic]Cabaret[/italic] than [italic]Lucky Lady[/italic].

[quote] I really do expect to see 'Mame' begin to come in to regular rotation around the holidays

Which holiday, April Fool's Day?

Actually, Liza as Mame would've been very good.

It is reassuring to see that even in time of national crisis, my people can still rally to throw shade at this awful movie.

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Angela Lansbury

R27, meet R59. I'm sure you two have a lot in common.

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It could have been one of the all-time great movie musicals with Angela Lansbury starring and George Cukor directing, and perhaps someone with a sense of humor adapting the libretto for the screen. Even Onna White might have done a better job in the director's chair; I refuse to imagine [italic]Oliver, The Music Man, Pete's Dragon or 1776[/italic] without her choreographing them. But instead, it turned into a poorly paced mishmash of a few flashes of brilliance holding up some L7 dullness in between. Mame is supposed to be a well-traveled bohemian socialite, but Lucy plays her like an over-the hill flapper who smoked too much tobacco when she should have been smoking weed instead.

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The queen in the video neglects to mention that Lucy's putting up some of the money for this turkey made a difference in the casting and that the director was something of a lox.

Other than salmon, what's a lox?

I threw a hot cup of coffee at the choreographer.

There are so many problems with the cast besides LB. Excepting Bea of course, most of the cast was free of charm, charisma or talent. It seems like they hired cheap bit players from TV movies (Joyce Van Patton, WTF?). Robert Preston seemed like his character wanted to take that plunge.

Lucy really was past it by this time. Her schtick was very old hat and she even had to rein that in for the character. It's a fun watch for queens who like hagsploitation flicks and Bea Arthur stands out but can't imagine much crossover audience. Lucy really stunk it up but I doubt Lansbury would have made much difference as the material is pretty weak especially when you consider what else was being made at this time...Chinatown, The Godfather, Blazing Saddles...it really does seem like a stiff relic.

The material was old fashioned and Lucy was all wrong for the part which required more heart and more sophistication than her usual mugging for the camera. She'd essentially played the same character for over 20 years (counting radio) and really couldn't do anything else.

Just watched Bab's Hello Dolly for the first time, and thought how much better Lucy's big title number in Mame was—she gave it heart. Babs was sort of laughing her way through Dolly, not taking it seriously. Lucy would have been a better Dolly. As far as Mame goes, people love the first Mame that they know, and for me that was Lucy. Rosalind and Angela seem like brittle impostors.

^^ Babs' and imposters.

Lucy as Dolly. Never imagined that casting.

Lucy as Rose. Now THAT was a missed opportunity. Maybe Lucie could have exorcised some demons if she played Louise.

Nah. Should have been Judy Garland as Rose. Perfection.

Lucy as Dolly would have been endless mugging for the camera, shot through vaseline.

[quote]The queen in the video neglects to mention that Lucy's putting up some of the money for this turkey made a difference in the casting and that the director was something of a lox.

Where is it written she put up money. That is a rumor that has never been confirmed or verified.

Lucy interview in People magazine for Mame opening.

[quote] Just watched Bab's Hello Dolly for the first time, and thought how much better Lucy's big title number in Mame was—she gave it heart. Babs was sort of laughing her way through Dolly, not taking it seriously. Lucy would have been a better Dolly. As far as Mame goes, people love the first Mame that they know, and for me that was Lucy. Rosalind and Angela seem like brittle impostors.

The only thing [italic]Mame[/italic] did better than [italic]Dolly[/italic] as a film was keep tabs of where the money was going.

Of course, they didn't have to cover up any of Darryl F. Zanuck's dalliances with female extras and dancers.

Doris Day should have been cast as Dolly.

Lucy as Mame would have made a lot more sense. She had enough singing range for that. Dolly is kinda ageless and you're supposed to believe she's old enough to have lost a husband. Babs should have done Gypsy when she was at her Dolly age. Rose needs to be young enough to have small kids at the start of the show. Why they always cast senior citizens as Rose is beyond me.

That you used a GIF of Roz in the header makes me cringe. How dare you even mention Lucy in the same sentence... She was horrible.

I think R80 the menopausal Rose's link to the original 50-ish Merman who set that pattern. Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest has a similar issue in the indelible mark made by the elderly Edith Evans . As for Lucy any gifts she may have possessed seem to have evaporated by the mid '60s. Her college lecture on comedy from the late '70s was on youtube at one time and was a grim spectacle. Bad tempered and hoarsely barking her comedy philosophy she was the epitome of the sad ( angry ) face behind the clown mask. As for the movie I don't think the times or material were right, but it definitely needed a different star if there was any hope for it at all. Will the upcoming Dolly stage revival lead to any interest in a similar production for Mame?

R80--Do you mean Lucy as Dolly, rather than Mame? I guess Dolly could be older--Shirley Booth played the non-musical version, so even frumpy can work. But Lucy really couldn't sing and a frog voiced Dolly could only work as camp.

[quote]Is Lucy the best dancer? No, but neither was Aileen Quinn.

She was the honky Alvin Ailey compared to Albert Finney.

I wasn't around back then, but I can understand how Mame must've looked antiquated in the mid-1970s. It was so out of sync with the times.

Lucy's People Magazine interview at r77 is nuts! She's a bitter, snarling harpie.

[quote]I wasn't around back then, but I can understand how Mame must've looked antiquated in the mid-1970s. It was so out of sync with the times.

Yet today some of the movies that seemed hip and with it then seem even more dated and antiquated now, when [italic]Mame[/italic] was a period piece designed to cash in on the 1970s nostalgia craze. It came out the same year as Paramount's futile attempt to make [italic]The "Great" Gatsby[/italic] work as a movie, and that also flopped. 1950s nostalgia proved more profitable for the studios when movies like [italic]American Graffiti[/italic] and [italic]Grease[/italic] and TV shows like [italic]Happy Days[/italic] were what people were actually watching. Was there this much nostalgia for the 1940s in the 1960s?

Lucy had a point about [italic]Last Tango[/italic], especially after the revelations about on-set rape.

It was awful...why do we keep talking about this? Lucy could have ruined her wonderful legacy with this turkey of a film. She didn't have a good singing voice and she was too old for the part. Hell, even Roz Russell was pushing it at near fifty. But Roz was nothing if not a showwoman. She brought tons of energy to the role and kept the film moving. Lucy was like molasses, playing it like it was bad dinner theater at an old folks home. Terrible.

[quote]Lucy could have ruined her wonderful legacy with this turkey of a film.

But what happened? Did they take [italic]I Love Lucy[/italic] out of reruns? No. Did they blacklist her from Hollywood? No. Did anyone mourn her any less when she died? No.

R77: That People interview is hilarious. The interviewer throws so much shade on Lucy's aging body (and voice), and Lucy herself is such a bitch. Complaining about "movies today" and screening "Last Tango in Paris". Yammering about taxes when you know she has shelters. Making "Mame" clearly was an act of delusion and desperation.

[quote] It was awful...why do we keep talking about this?

To prevent subsequent musicals from making the same mistakes.

R89 - Don't forget, Roz also had to keep that train running on stage (however many times a week)! That woman had discipline! But then....so did I!

Still, where is it written Lucy financed "Mame"?

There's been whisperings of a criterion release as well as a blu-ray, nice to hear that the film is really starting to get respect it deserves.

I'd rather have caught Bea Arthur's Mame, personally.

No. In the 60s, 20s nostalgia was the thing.

People keep saying "the director". The director was Gene Saks an 11 time Tony nominated director with three wins. He directed the original "Mame" on Broadway and was married for almost thirty years to Bea Arthur.

LUCY/MAME is like radioactivity in that it never goes away, never lessens, and poisons everything in its path.

Lucy wasn't the only critic of [italic]Last Tango[/italic], then or now.

[quote] People keep saying "the director". The director was Gene Saks an 11 time Tony nominated director with three wins. He directed the original "Mame" on Broadway and was married for almost thirty years to Bea Arthur.

He also directed the films of [italic]Barefoot in the Park[/italic] and [italic]The Odd Couple[/italic] which were hits, so he looked like a good choice on paper. In execution, though, parts of the film are slower than molasses in an ice storm. The timing of a lot of the jokes is just off for some reason; when the market crashes, Vera's line "thank GOD I never put my money in the stock market" should have been a guaranteed laugh-getter, but it comes in half a second too late. When Beau comes on the screen, things pick up a bit, but then when he dies, the film becomes a chore to sit through; even [italic]Auntie Mame[/italic] did Beau's death better despite the mountain he falls off of being an obvious studio construction. Visually, [italic]Auntie Mame[/italic] is just a joy to look at in Technirama and Technicolor, being one of the high watermarks of the early years of large-format widescreen cinema in Hollywood and a stellar example of the 1950s Technicolor look, making me wonder why it's still not on Blu-ray. By contrast, [italic]Mame[/italic] looks like the off-the-rack version despite them springing for Panavision lenses and dye-transfer prints the year before the process went bye-bye and the lab switched to the plain old quick-fading Eastmancolor printing process.

I think the movie actually speeds up after Beau dies because Lucy is allowed to be cranky, just as she was in real life. Weirdest change and something that had to be Lucy's doing. In the title song finale, the entire plantation kneels to Mame. Onstage, it allows Beau to also kneel in proposal to marriage. Instead, we get Lucy hugging Patrick.

They also snuck in some child nudity in the part of "Open a New Window" where they're at Patrick's school. No one pointed this out because they were too busy pointing out other things wrong with the film.

" That cunt, yes I said CUNT ruined my budding career ! I could've had a career like PHILIP McKEON but being in that movie finished my chances. When the film tanked at the box office and the critics attacked LUCY said that I had been to blame. That it was all my fault. She had me black-balled in the industry !! "

[quote]" That cunt, yes I said CUNT ruined my budding career ! I could've had a career like PHILIP McKEON but being in that movie finished my chances. When the film tanked at the box office and the critics attacked LUCY said that I had been to blame. That it was all my fault. She had me black-balled in the industry !! " —KIRBY FURLONG

Tell me about it, R104.

Truth is Lucy sang better than the kid.

Well, ALFRED did get to make THE CAY and appear on FAMILY after he was in ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE>

R95, those "whisperings" are from the voices inside your head. Please go back on your meds, stat.

[italic]Auntie Mame[/italic] I could see Criterion taking a crack at trying to get. [italic]LucyMAME[/italic], probably not.

I think Dolly is more in Lucy's range. I mean, it was originated by Carol Channing who had about as much singing range as Lucy.

R110 - Well on her show she did a sly little audition.

Here's the thread from a few years ago about the miscasting of La Streisand as Dolly Levi:

Elder Gay here. I haven't seen the film since its debut. So I'm going to rent it from iTunes this evening so that I can participate in this discussion.

I was 15 the first time and star struck gayling in a small southern town. Not the most acute critical eye.

It's amazing that over 40 years after its release the film's fans can finally come out of hiding knowing that there is a renewed appreciation for it and Lucy's fabulous performance. Now I understand what Trump supporters must have felt like to have constantly faced the opposition's sneering derision but rejoiced openly when he won.

If I take umbrage with one issue with the film it's the excessive use of filters in all of Lucy's closeups, they weren't necessary, she looked terrific and easily twenty years younger than her 63 years. Desi really did a number on her self-esteem as she was still one of the most beautiful women in the world and yet couldn't believe that about herself, hence all the filters on the lens and the bands on her face. The reality is that she was very much considered a desirable woman at the time as evidenced by the numerous film offers she was receiving and continued to receive. (Ann-Margaret's part in Carnal Knowledge was first offered to Lucy and of course the Angie Dickinson role in both 'Dressed to Kill' and 'Big Bad Mama').

I've heard whisperings that Truffaut wanted Lucy for "The Story of Adele H." but Gary Morton demanded the movie be shot in Hollywood.

Remember that the soft-focus lenses, filters and lighting for Ms. Ball were the same techniques used in the 1950s on all female film stars "of a certain age." There's no reason for her to be crucified for it, except that it adds to the hysterical naysayers' narrative that she was miscast as Mame.

So I watched it last night for the first time since 1974.

It was simply boring. Nobody can sing.

The parts about the south rising again could never be included today.

Lucy was playing Lucy. The moon schtick. The runaway horse. The Vera/Mame duet right out of the Viv/Lucy playbook.

Why does Gloria talk in that lock jawed way but her family doesn't? How could Patrick let Lucy drive away from Upson Downs after she'd got loaded on double Scotches? How did Mama survive the avalanche?

No, R112. Just no. This thread is better, proving why Streisand was not only right for the part but gave one of the best goddamn performances of her career. She should have done both [italic]Dolly[/italic] and [italic]Mame[/italic] on screen if WB was that serious about not casting Angela Lansbury for the latter. With Barbra as Mame, the Upsons' anti-semitism might have more dramatic bite.

[quote]How could Patrick let Lucy drive away from Upson Downs after she'd got loaded on double Scotches?

Driving while intoxicated was no big deal back then.

No, R119. Just no. Mame Dennis is not a Jew. The Burnsides would have killed her before she could marry Beau. Your Barbra-worshiping dementia has rendered you useless. Please check into the nearest Shady Pines Home for the Terminally Gay.

R121 I thought that same thing. The entire "plot" depends on Mame's subversion of her family's high WASP background.

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Lucy coaxed the blues right out of he horn, off key of course.

Barbara Harris could have sang those songs better, never mind Barbra Streisand.

[quote][R121] I thought that same thing. The entire "plot" depends on Mame's subversion of her family's high WASP background.

That would disqualify Liza. She's about as WASP as a slice of garlic bread.

Thank God it can now be told, R115. Lucy's television show kept her from accepting any number of prestigious film roles. 'Mrs. Robinson' was hers, but the shooting schedule conflicted with the preparation for her new series, "Here's Lucy!" If you search hard in the dark web, you can find the screen test she did with Dustin Hoffman. Judy Garland's ill-fated attempt at the immortal Helen Lawson only came after Lucy was forced out for the same reason. The two films could shoot around each other to accommodate Lucy, but the television commitment was insurmountable.

Two years earlier, she has been the first choice for HARLOW. She was in Hollywood at the same time as Jean Harlow, so she was a natural for the role. With Angela Lansbury having played Jean's mother in HARLOW, the whole Mame casting scandal would still be playing out today. Not that it isn't, anyway. (See thread, above.)

Lucy had a large silent investment in "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" and wanted to lower the overhead by doing one of the leads herself. Russ Meyer did some testing on her, but again, the TV series was just too demanding.

R127 fail.

Lucy was jealous that no one wanted to lubricate her with butter.

"Open a New Window," this movie is stinking up the place something awful.

[quote]it was originated by Carol Channing who had about as much singing range as Lucy.

Carol Channing is a much better singer than Lucille Ball. Channing's voice is freaky but it is far more musical than Lucy's dead tennis ball of a voice.

Light the stogies,

Get the cough drops,

Pass the ear plugs,

Shout "Oy Vey!"

That redhead who died on Carol's birthday,

She has a voice that is painful to hear

And she danced like an old tranny

Who fell on her fanny,

Oh dear!

All her smoking

Dried her voice out

And her choking

Prompts dismay!

Break your leg off

With no grace, dear.

Wipe the egg off

Of your face, dear

'Cause you're miscast!

Shout "Oy Vey!"

We really need a do over.

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She was a nosy bitch!

I remember when Mame was released in '74 when I was a kid. I knew Lucy was in it but didn't know what it was about. The David Bowie song "Fame" was played a lot on the radio and I remember thinking he was actually singing "Mame" instead of "Fame" and thinking the song was probably from the movie "Mame."

Watching this now for the second time, I find Robert Preston really attractive.

r136, your entire post has made me laugh very hard. Your reasoning is brilliant.

"The David Bowie song "Fame" was played a lot on the radio and I remember thinking he was actually singing "Mame" instead of "Fame" and thinking the song was probably from the movie "Mame."