A NEW "Mame"

[Neil]

The "Mame" number is certainly the highlight of the movie and for the most part it's excitingly staged.  Viewed all by itself, one would never suspect the movie got a bad rap.  However I've always felt the orchestration and vocal arrangements were sort of drab and dull ("you know: sort of 'teh'"). Actually they're terrible.  The pace is too slow and their choice of instruments: oh veh!  saxophones where we needed brass, etc.   So I substituted the Broadway cast recording, retaining Robert Preston and a few other bits, plus I put in the "crash the cymbols" accent to the high kicks from Ginger Roger's version on youtube.

This, in my continuing effort to make "Mame" the hit it should have been.

 

[C L A U D E]

The "Mame" number is certainly the highlight of the movie and for the most part it's excitingly staged.  Viewed all by itself, one would never suspect the movie got a bad rap.  However I've always felt the orchestration and vocal arrangements were sort of drab and dull ("you know: sort of 'teh'"). Actually they're terrible.  The pace is too slow and their choice of instruments: oh veh!  saxophones where we needed brass, etc.   So I substituted the Broadway cast recording, retaining Robert Preston and a few other bits, plus I put in the "crash the cymbols" accent to the high kicks from Ginger Roger's version on youtube.

This, in my continuing effort to make "Mame" the hit it should have been.

 

Sorry, it says Warner's has blocked it on copyright grounds.

[Luvsbway]

Well those bastards.  The word is spelled B A S T A R D and it means Warner Brothers..

[Neil]

Curses!!  Well, so much for my next idea: a musical version of "Critics Choice" with songs in which "Sisters Three" with book, music and lyrics by Angela opens out of town.

 

"I Feel it in My Bones"--Angela

"It'll  Close in New Haven"--Parker

"There's Dion Kapakos!"-Girls at the Garden Party

"I Get a Yock Once in a While"--John

"Angie's Pelvis--John and Geoffrey Van Hogedorn

""Ivy's Back in Town"- Marilyn Maxwell's solo

"Second Act Trouble"--Dion and Parker duet

"I'm the Mother of Sisters Three"--Charlotte with Angela, Sally and Marge

"The Most Delightful Conception of the Season"--Angela and Parker

[C L A U D E]

Curses!!  Well, so much for my next idea: a musical version of "Critics Choice" with songs in which "Sisters Three" with book, music and lyrics by Angela opens out of town.

 

"I Feel it in My Bones"--Angela

"It'll  Close in New Haven"--Parker

"There's Dion Kapakos!"-Girls at the Garden Party

"I Get a Yock Once in a While"--John

"Angie's Pelvis--John and Geoffrey Van Hogedorn

""Ivy's Back in Town"- Marilyn Maxwell's solo

"Second Act Trouble"--Dion and Parker duet

"I'm the Mother of Sisters Three"--Charlotte with Angela, Sally and Marge

"The Most Delightful Conception of the Season"--Angela and Parker

Those are great, but i'm floored that i never thought about her name here, i mean Angela for corn sakes!  I mean, maybe her name should have been Audra.  As Audra MacDonald has S I X Tonys to angela's measly five, LOL!  And shouldn't you have a song about Parker's back back?

[Brock]

There should also be a dream sequence of Broadway critics marching menacingly upon Angela and Dion's monster lair.

[Neil]

The possibilities are endless!

I'm surprised a musical Critics Choice hasn't been considered.  If Angela is writing a musical, they could have a bad musical within a musical like "Producers".

(to the tune of "I am the Good Prince Lancelot")

"We girls are loving sisters three,

we hike and we get blisters three..."

[Neil]

I'll try this via dropbox.  Let me know if it works.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ikwgeu9tz6y6t4g/MameNewConversion2.mp4?dl=0

[C L A U D E]

I'll try this via dropbox.  Let me know if it works.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ikwgeu9tz6y6t4g/MameNewConversion2.mp4?dl=0

Well, ya didn't DROP the BOX this time . . . LOVE IT Neil, that was great, now lessee what you can do with the rest of the film.

[Neil]

Well, ya didn't DROP the BOX this time . . . LOVE IT Neil, that was great, now lessee what you can do with the rest of the film.

Unfortunately the movie, as shot, is unsalvagable.  Which always made me truly sad for Lucy.  Such a missed opportunity to put out the definitive Lucille Ball movie, because there really isn't one.  If so, which? 

"Mame" has some great scenes but WAY too many just lay there like lead, such as the whole "YOU? In a convent??" scene.  Mame has just lost Patrick and 5 minutes later she bursting with glee. It seems like the quality of the movie and Lucy's performance alternates scene to scene between wonderful and awful.

I just listened to a recording of Angela's Mame done in LA.  The 2nd act is hilarious, if audience reaction is any indication.  The same scene plays like dramedy is the movie. I love Lucy in this scene (which should lay to rest the oft-repeated argument that "Lucille Ball is a clown and doesn't have the regal-ness necessary for the role")   However, she  seems too subdued during her trip to Upson Downs.  Sort of like Carol Burnett's attempts at serious pieces.  Carol tries so hard to hold down any Burnett-ism comedy that she comes off as flat.  I admire Lucy's performance here, but this is a COMEDY, after all,  and this scene is laugh-filled if staged right.

The elimination of Babcock was a bad move.  And not that the one-note performance by usually adept John McGiver needed more screen time.  In the movie and stage musical, he's on hand for mame's party and once the Upsons FLOUNCE out, he and Mame have an exchange which really sums up the whole movie: what Mame wants for Patrick, who  forgives Mame and thanks her for showing him the Upsons for what they really are---even sings a little "My Best Girl" reprise.  In Lucy's version, they part with Patrick still mad before dissolving to 10 years later with him married to Pegeen. With no speech,  considerable stuffing is knocked out of Lucy's Mame.   The movie Upsons are plenty obnoxious but not nearly as boorish as they should be, which makes Mame's double-cross seem more mean-sprited than justified.    And I don't know why they made Pegeen SO Irish.  Unnecessary and distracting.

 

[C L A U D E]

 

Unfortunately the movie, as shot, is unsalvagable.  Which always made me truly sad for Lucy.  Such a missed opportunity to put out the definitive Lucille Ball movie, because there really isn't one.  If so, which? 

"Mame" has some great scenes but WAY too many just lay there like lead, such as the whole "YOU? In a convent??" scene.  Mame has just lost Patrick and 5 minutes later she bursting with glee. It seems like the quality of the movie and Lucy's performance alternates scene to scene between wonderful and awful.

I just listened to a recording of Angela's Mame done in LA.  The 2nd act is hilarious, if audience reaction is any indication.  The same scene plays like dramedy is the movie. I love Lucy in this scene (which should lay to rest the oft-repeated argument that "Lucille Ball is a clown and doesn't have the regal-ness necessary for the role")   However, she  seems too subdued during her trip to Upson Downs.  Sort of like Carol Burnett's attempts at serious pieces.  Carol tries so hard to hold down any Burnett-ism comedy that she comes off as flat.  I admire Lucy's performance here, but this is a COMEDY, after all,  and this scene is laugh-filled if staged right.

The elimination of Babcock was a bad move.  And not that the one-note performance by usually adept John McGiver needed more screen time.  In the movie and stage musical, he's on hand for mame's party and once the Upsons FLOUNCE out, he and Mame have an exchange which really sums up the whole movie: what Mame wants for Patrick, who  forgives Mame and thanks her for showing him the Upsons for what they really are---even sings a little "My Best Girl" reprise.  In Lucy's version, they part with Patrick still mad before dissolving to 10 years later with him married to Pegeen. With no speech,  considerable stuffing is knocked out of Lucy's Mame.   The movie Upsons are plenty obnoxious but not nearly as boorish as they should be, which makes Mame's double-cross seem more mean-sprited than justified.    And I don't know why they made Pegeen SO Irish.  Unnecessary and distracting.

 

 

Maybe they made Pegeen obvious to us so we'd recognize her more easily at the end when Mame is starting again with her little boy.  Geez, you're really making me hate the movie with this nit picking, however true, and i don't think it's a comedy, it's a MUSICAL comedy and seems to me every argument you make would hold for Herman's other masterpiece, Hello Dolly.  This time it's the reverse, Streisand, though the world's greatest singer, is just too young for the role.  Now Lucy, who wanted that role, might have been better.  Your arguments about Burnett, and Lucy, are right on the mark.  Problem is audiences went to see their Lucy and expected her to be riotously funny and the jokes just weren't there.  And when you do that pause for laughs that they do on film, well, the crickets are easier to hear then.  If this new MAME thread is your Christmas gift for us, next time, get something else.  LOL!  I am getting a mite old for these wishes we have to change a film that will never change and maybe we should accept as it is.  AND ANGELA WOULD HAVE BEEN WORSE, NOT BETTER, LOL!  The only reason i saw it was because my Lucy was in there.  If you want to see Lucy in this, check her out singing we need a little Christmas and she gets to the "older" line, and skips over it so fast, she's liable to get a  ticket for speeding.

[Irene Kampen Tripp]

Well... MAME does need help ..the quentesential Lucille Ball movie?? Fuller Brush and Yours Mine and Ours

[C L A U D E]

Well... MAME does need help ..the quentesential Lucille Ball movie?? Fuller Brush and Yours Mine and Ours

Now isn't that funny, the first one that came to mind for me also was Fuller Brush Girl, where Lucille Ball showed her comedic talents and her flair for slapstick way before she ever did any of her five T V series.

[leenorman]

Well... MAME does need help ..the quentesential Lucille Ball movie?? Fuller Brush and Yours Mine and Ours

 

Wonder if we will EVER find out the 'work' that Lucille thought she would really want to play in her past-TV life?  Wonder if Lucie (or anyone of our experts here, of course) would know?

[Luvsbway]

She seemed to state over and over that she wasn't interested in doing drama.

[C L A U D E]

Watched Mame again today, and examined every frame, every shot and thought Lucy was incredible.  I think we sometimes watch it thinking about some of those horrible reviews that focus on her age or singing and forget just how great she is here.  The only thing that bothered me were the pauses for laughs that are placed there so nobody in the audience misses a line.  I especially liked the roller blade scene as i saw a fearless Lucy doing stunts when she had just broken her leg, talk about fearless.

[Luvsbway]

Finally seeing a stage version of Mame I like the department store scene better. The nail salon played so flat to me.

[C L A U D E]

Finally seeing a stage version of Mame I like the department store scene better. The nail salon played so flat to me.

You're saying the stage version has a nail salon instead of a department store because of the size of the stage?  How the heck did they handle the fox hunt with the horses dogs and everything?

[Luvsbway]

The Fox hunt was done with the people left back at the homestead watching the race as if it was off in the distance and making comments.  There is a whole musical section for the race.

[C L A U D E]

The Fox hunt was done with the people left back at the homestead watching the race as if it was off in the distance and making comments.  There is a whole musical section for the race.

Always nice when film versions of Broadway shows can expand on what people saw.

[Neil]

.  If this new MAME thread is your Christmas gift for us, next time, get something else.

Well, you're awfully hard to buy for....one never knows if this is a day when you've gotten up on the wrong side of the sling....

 

I find the movie fascinating to discuss, warts and wonderfulness, but I honestly cannot be objective about the movie anymore.

However, I see how this can be tiring, because.....

I've got two friends who consider themselves I Love Lucy experts (not so much, the post-ILL years).  We meet and watch various things every Friday.  Sometimes the host has DVR'd an I Love Lucy.  Though they do appreciate the timeless greatness of the show, they nitpick (including rewinding and slo-mo playback) about the most minute of minutia  (late entrances,  missed cues, false line reading, etc. in THEIR opinion, anyway).  They're usually not things I noticed (or thought much about), but after their carp-fest I notice them in subsequent viewings and it ruins the scene or show for me.  Well, ruin is too strong, but it bugs me and I've told them as politely as I can that I don't want to sit through their analysis anymore.  

Soooooooooooooo my moot-point analysis just might be doing the same thing and affecting the enjoyment of "Mame"  by people here and I apologize.  (What's good for the guard goose is good for the gander, I realize now)

 

BTW, I've fined tuned my Mame video and have re-uploaded it at the link below.  (takes the place of the previous link posted).  All I've added is a few cymbal crashes to accent high kicks....during the "Your special fascination'll....", during the beginning of the dance sequence (following the previous), and the last chorus when the dancing is done and the lyrics start in again. 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/aiy2ylkvnvtt8o2/._MAME-2%202.mp4?dl=0

[C L A U D E]

Well, you're awfully hard to buy for....one never knows if this is a day when you've gotten up on the wrong side of the sling....

 

I find the movie fascinating to discuss, warts and wonderfulness, but I honestly cannot be objective about the movie anymore.

However, I see how this can be tiring, because.....

I've got two friends who consider themselves I Love Lucy experts (not so much, the post-ILL years).  We meet and watch various things every Friday.  Sometimes the host has DVR'd an I Love Lucy.  Though they do appreciate the timeless greatness of the show, they nitpick (including rewinding and slo-mo playback) about the most minute of minutia  (late entrances,  missed cues, false line reading, etc. in THEIR opinion, anyway).  They're usually not things I noticed (or thought much about), but after their carp-fest I notice them in subsequent viewings and it ruins the scene or show for me.  Well, ruin is too strong, but it bugs me and I've told them as politely as I can that I don't want to sit through their analysis anymore.  

Soooooooooooooo my moot-point analysis just might be doing the same thing and affecting the enjoyment of "Mame"  by people here and I apologize.  (What's good for the guard goose is good for the gander, I realize now)

 

BTW, I've fined tuned my Mame video and have re-uploaded it at the link below.  (takes the place of the previous link posted).  All I've added is a few cymbal crashes to accent high kicks....during the "Your special fascination'll....", during the beginning of the dance sequence (following the previous), and the last chorus when the dancing is done and the lyrics start in again. 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/aiy2ylkvnvtt8o2/._MAME-2%202.mp4?dl=0

I am so sorry i nit picked at your post Neil, LOL!  I meant no disrespect, it's just as i get O L D E R i find it so hard to take all that Mame criticism.  But don't worry, you are always right on the mark about everything and from YOU, i don't mind it at all, because i know YOU KNOW what you're talking about.  Like i said before, i watched it yesterday, in detail, examining everything with a fine tooth comb and i still love it, love her in it and will never change my mind about anything.  I think when one watches it without all those pre conceived notions, it's actually quite great.  And Lucy is terrific in it from beginning to end, the only flaws i can see are caused by the director, the editor and the original script.  That music though, is the absolute greatest thing about the film, Jerry Herman wrote this with Hello Dolly and they will forever stand as his greatest achievement.  Now, let me check out your latest marvelous twinking of this great film.

[C L A U D E]

Naturally, it won't work for me, sorry.

[Neil]

Couldn't I make myself miserable just one more time?  I sharpened up Lucy's soft focus close-ups, again to no detriment.  It was a little hard to insert the Broadway orchestrations and retain the fidelity because it's down a half an octave.

 

 

And in case youtube shuts me out again, here's the dropbox link.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i5jmyuj6waxm00l/MyBestGirl5.mp4?dl=0

[FreddieMertz]

Great job, you made it sound so much more haunting. Is there a little echo in there?