Auntie Mame (1958) review

After his father passes away unexpectedly, little Patrick Dennis (Jan Handzlik) goes and lives with his hard-partying and eccentric aunt Mame (Rosalind Russell) who then she clashes with the banker (Fred Clark) in charge of Patrick's inheritance, struggles to maintain steady employment (she botches up a play she's in and gets canned from Macy's) but lucks out and marries wealthy Southern gentleman Burnside (Forrest Tucker) until his accidental death - many years later, when college-aged Patrick (Roger Smith) is planning on marrying Gloria Upson (Joanna Barnes), Mame disapproves of her and her family and sabotages their plans.  This is literally a one-woman show for Russell, so if you find her snarky, life-embracing, never-say-quit character intriguing that might be enough to get you through, even though the film is somewhat frivolous, most of its moves are telegraphed well in advance and it rarely bothers to seem like anything but a stage production converted to the big screen (which makes sense since DaCosta also directed the theatrical version).  Some of the side characters are mildly funny, including Peggy Cass playing Mame's mousy secretary and Coral Browne as the frequently tanked Broadway star Vera Charles ... and I couldn't help but wonder if the boozy antics of Mame and Vera helped inspire the great British comedy series Absolutely Fabulous.