Auntie Mame is a 1958 film based on the novel by Patrick Dennis and its theatrical adaptation by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. This film version stars Rosalind Russell and was directed by Morton DaCosta. Mame, a musical version of the story, appeared on Broadway and was later made into a 1974 film starring Lucille Ball as the title character. Patrick Dennis, orphaned in 1928 when his father unexpectedly dies, is placed in the care of Mame Dennis , his father's sister in Manhattan. Mame is a flamboyant, madcap woman, who hosts frequent parties with eclectic, bohemian guests. Patrick is... quickly introduced to his aunt's free-spirited and eccentric lifestyle, including Vera Charles, a lush of a Broadway actress, who spends many of her nights passed out in Mame's guest room. Mame's frequently repeated motto is "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!" Since Patrick's father was a wealthy man at the time of his death, Patrick's inheritance comes with a trustee, Mr. Dwight Babcock. Mr. Babcock disapproves of Mame's lifestyle and wants to interject decorum and discipline in Patrick's life.
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