Mame (1974)

I knew it was bad. I saw it once long ago. I don't go for musicals anyway. Lucille Ball was miscast.

Orphaned preteen Patrick (Kirby Furlong) goes to live with his colorful wealthy bohemian Auntie Mame (Lucille Ball), in 1920s New York. 

I  remember Furlong from old episodes of Adam-12, Canon, and  Emergency. I sat up last night and watched him in his last role in a 1980 made-for-TV movie, Off the Minnesota Strip, available on YouTube, about a girl who returns home after time as a runaway teenage prostitute. They left in the old commercials and local news updates. Peter Sellers had been admitted to the hospital.  

Kirby Furlong went on to become a professional musician and has worked on movie soundtracks. The poor actress who played Agnes Gooch (Jane Connell) later rented the movie at a video store. A helpful employee warned her it was terrible and suggested she get Auntie Mame (1958) instead. 

The critical reaction to the film made Lucille Ball swear off movies. She looked great in soft focus and years of heavy smoking gave her singing voice the quality Auntie Mame's might have had. 

I don't know about Mame, but if you want to watch Off the Minnesota Strip, a good second feature might be Strangers with Candy, either the TV show or the movie, a spoof of Afterschool Specials starring Amy Sedaris as a teen runaway who returns home in her 40's after years of crime, depravity and prison, to take up where she left off, going back to high school and coping with teen problems. With Steven Colbert, and the movie has Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Now that I think about it, if you want to make Mame a double feature, you might watch it with Harold and Maude.