July 26, 2020: Angela Lansbury was, of course, Broadway’s Mame, and she was, even of courser, Maine personified by Jessica Fletcher in TV’s Murder, She Wrote. Anyone who thought that Fletcher was entirely too personable might appreciate fellow small-town-Maine widow-sleuth Maggie Carpenter of Jessica Barry’s debut thriller, Freefall, which I review today (see here) in the Portland Press Herald. As for Mame, according to TCM’s Robert Osborne (start at 19:25), Lansbury wanted to star in the 1974 remake of the 1958 Rosalind Russell film, but Lucille Ball got the job. The 1974 version was a box office bomb and a critical laughingstock. Stop smiling, Angie!