As the studio system collapsed post-WWII, Jack Warner caught B’way fever, personally producing a slew of slavishly faithful adaptations of hit stage properties. It worked financially for a while, leaving a few indelible perfs on celluloid, but the films themselves are odd hybrids. AUNTIE MAME, directed by Morton Da Costa in a stiff, intentionally theatrical style, is played to the rafters by much of the original cast. The tale of the little orphan boy who learns to 'live, Live, LIVE" from his eccentric, sole surviving relative has always been played as a half-acknowledged Drag Queen fest (Roz Russell, Peggy Cass, Coral Browne, Joanna Barnes . . . and don't forget Fred Clark!). But who at the time caught the gay jail-bait angle of the painfully pubescent Jan Handzlik as young Patrick. (It was his one & only acting role, but he’s three crucial years older than he was on the B’way stage.*) And what about Forrest Tucker’s wimpy Momma’s boy southern gent? The production weighs a ton, but the oodles of art/set decoration and the dated outré social ideas fascinate. Plus, it was the top grossing pic of the year! Ah, the '50s.
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