If "The Lizard of Roz" reputation for Frederick Brisson ever needed any more evidence, then look no further than a scene where Rosalind Russell visits a music store in this film version of the hit Broadway play by Peter Shaffer. In the background, clearly visible, is the movie soundtrack for "Auntie Mame", Roz's drawing and name obvious. The fact that she's in a grayish blonde wig makes no difference. She's still the tall, statuesque matron, even if her character is closer to the Upsons than Mame Dennis. In a sense, she's also closer to the Joan Crawford variation of Harriet Craig, the cold society matron who only wanted a perfect house and home, dominating her husband, and in her case here, her two children.
Louise Harrington (a soap opera name if I've ever heard one) is charming on the outside, but inside where it counts is absolutely miserable. She's desperately lonely, calculating, grasping and controlling, living a loveless marriage with furniture company owner husband Jack Hawkins. Her son (Richard Beymer) is visiting from Harvard, and her teenaged daughter (Annette Gorman) is undergoing adolescent issues even though she seems to be the most normal in the family. Roz is consumed with everything European and old style charm, and has employed a tutor (an excellent Maximillian Schell) for Gorman. Beymer is instantly suspicious of Schell, and as he observes the relationship between his parents, he realizes that the family is undergoing a psychological hell that mom seems to be clearly responsible for.
Husband and wife seem to really have nothing in common. He's a typical guy, interested not in the cultural aspirations of his totally pretentious wife, and determined to have a typical father/son relationship with Beymer who is clearly undergoing problems from this latest visit home. The problem with Beymer's performance is that he is trying too hard to be an actor here rather than the character, and at times, his performance is totally forced. Someone like either Warren Beatty or Beymer's "West Side Story" co-star Russ Tamblyn would have been a more ideal choice for that part. Beymer consistently received bad reviews for his performances, and while he's certainly the right age, handsome and distinguished, he is totally lost amongst the professional looking Russell, Hawkins and Schell. When Hawkins accuses Russell of turning their son into a mama's boy, the opening is there to make it appear that Beymer's character might be gay, and indeed, there is never any reference to any women in his life other than his mother and sister.
At times, too, there are looks between Beymer and Schell which appear that there might be some sexual energy between them. Schell's character is obviously obsessed with the family, confiding the truth about his own clan from Germany to Beymer. When he makes his feelings towards Russell known, the indication is there that he too has his own psychological issues and that he is reaching out to find love wherever he can. When Schell tries to console an obviously intoxicated Beymer, it is clear that the magnetism between them is more than Russell's belief that her son is simply jealous of him. Another scene between Beymer and Hawkins gives a dynamic to the family's decay, with Hawkins unable to get Beymer to open up to him about anything other than his having found his mother and the handsome professor in a compromising position. When Russell indicates that her son is jealous, it's not because of the attention that Schell gives her, it is more the fact that he wants the attention. Of course, this is never verbally brought out into the open, so any hints of a gay subtext can only be called speculation.
Mixed moods and black and white photography (clearly calling for color) are other issues with this film, although the black and white photography can be construed as a metaphor for the character's colorless lives. Russell is certainly commanding, but her character's sudden changes from happy to harpy to harried make her difficult to accept and believe in. Annette Gorman does her best with a rather underdeveloped character, but a scene where she has a breakdown after a beach scene adds only more confusion to character details not expressed other than to give this character something more to do than comment on the fact that she realizes that her parents really hate each other. The final sequences never really give a satisfactory conclusion to the strange situation which takes place here, and strange direction by Daniel Mann makes it clear that maybe this play belonged more on the stage and could never work as a film. Over all, it is a fascinating failure.
Louise Harrington (a soap opera name if I've ever heard one) is charming on the outside, but inside where it counts is absolutely miserable. She's desperately lonely, calculating, grasping and controlling, living a loveless marriage with furniture company owner husband Jack Hawkins. Her son (Richard Beymer) is visiting from Harvard, and her teenaged daughter (Annette Gorman) is undergoing adolescent issues even though she seems to be the most normal in the family. Roz is consumed with everything European and old style charm, and has employed a tutor (an excellent Maximillian Schell) for Gorman. Beymer is instantly suspicious of Schell, and as he observes the relationship between his parents, he realizes that the family is undergoing a psychological hell that mom seems to be clearly responsible for.
Husband and wife seem to really have nothing in common. He's a typical guy, interested not in the cultural aspirations of his totally pretentious wife, and determined to have a typical father/son relationship with Beymer who is clearly undergoing problems from this latest visit home. The problem with Beymer's performance is that he is trying too hard to be an actor here rather than the character, and at times, his performance is totally forced. Someone like either Warren Beatty or Beymer's "West Side Story" co-star Russ Tamblyn would have been a more ideal choice for that part. Beymer consistently received bad reviews for his performances, and while he's certainly the right age, handsome and distinguished, he is totally lost amongst the professional looking Russell, Hawkins and Schell. When Hawkins accuses Russell of turning their son into a mama's boy, the opening is there to make it appear that Beymer's character might be gay, and indeed, there is never any reference to any women in his life other than his mother and sister.
At times, too, there are looks between Beymer and Schell which appear that there might be some sexual energy between them. Schell's character is obviously obsessed with the family, confiding the truth about his own clan from Germany to Beymer. When he makes his feelings towards Russell known, the indication is there that he too has his own psychological issues and that he is reaching out to find love wherever he can. When Schell tries to console an obviously intoxicated Beymer, it is clear that the magnetism between them is more than Russell's belief that her son is simply jealous of him. Another scene between Beymer and Hawkins gives a dynamic to the family's decay, with Hawkins unable to get Beymer to open up to him about anything other than his having found his mother and the handsome professor in a compromising position. When Russell indicates that her son is jealous, it's not because of the attention that Schell gives her, it is more the fact that he wants the attention. Of course, this is never verbally brought out into the open, so any hints of a gay subtext can only be called speculation.
Mixed moods and black and white photography (clearly calling for color) are other issues with this film, although the black and white photography can be construed as a metaphor for the character's colorless lives. Russell is certainly commanding, but her character's sudden changes from happy to harpy to harried make her difficult to accept and believe in. Annette Gorman does her best with a rather underdeveloped character, but a scene where she has a breakdown after a beach scene adds only more confusion to character details not expressed other than to give this character something more to do than comment on the fact that she realizes that her parents really hate each other. The final sequences never really give a satisfactory conclusion to the strange situation which takes place here, and strange direction by Daniel Mann makes it clear that maybe this play belonged more on the stage and could never work as a film. Over all, it is a fascinating failure.