Travels With My Aunt [VHS]

The steady hand of George Cukor and the grand manner of Maggie Smith bring Graham Greene's lovely novel to spiffy life. Smith, fresh off her 1970 Oscar? win for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, plays the larger-than-life Aunt Augusta, free spirit and committed eccentric (a role originally considered for Katharine Hepburn). She drags her starchy nephew (Alec McCowen), whose biggest adventure in life thus far has been tending his fine English garden, into a series of globe-trotting escapades. Cukor, one of Hollywood's most accomplished veterans at this point, keeps the episodic action moving while incorporating flashbacks to Augusta's flamboyant career as a bon vivant. He also creates a stage for Maggie Smith, who swells into the largeness and age of the role--she's actually almost a decade younger than Alec McCowen. Equally good is McCowen, who did delicious work as the dogged inspector in Hitchcock's Frenzy the same year. --Robert Horton

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