Maggie Smith has not always played crabby old Dowager Countesses, though she seems to be taking parts of that ilk these days. Although Maggie Smith and her best pal Judi Dench are often grouped in the same camp, having made so many films together over the years, Smith took many more parts in film comedy in the first decades of her career while Dench focused on Shakespearean theatre.
"My career is chequered. Then I think I got pigeon-holed in humour; Shakespeare is not my thing."
While younger audiences might only recognize her as the stern Professor McGonagal, I will forever think of her as the eccentric Aunt Augusta from TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT (1972) or as the incompetent secretary in HOT MILLIONS (1968). If you didn't know it, Dame Maggie Smith is probably the funniest woman on the planet. She was even on "The Carol Burnett Show"! (Dig those pant suits)
Sunday night at 8:00pm EST, Turner Classic Movies will be showing a Maggie Smith classic, George Cukor's TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT (1972). When I first saw this movie, I thought it was one of the funniest things I had ever seen, but I am thinking now that I was possibly too young to understand what was going on. It is still a good film, primarily due to the fantastic performance given by Dame Maggie, but it's themes are definitely PG13. It won the Academy Award for best costume design, and it was also nominated for best leading actress, best art direction, and best cinematography.
