I saw this once in the 1980s, and only recently saw it again when it aired on TCM. It was like seeing a new movie, since I remembered only one thing from the movie (other than he dies at the end).
TCM showed a short documentary on Valerie Perrine the same night. She’s still alive, but in pretty bad shape, and (as of 2019) no confirmed diagnosis other than possible essential tremor and/or Parkinson’s.
Did not realize that Lenny’s mother was played by “Madge” from the old Palmolive dishwashing liquid commercials.
Aunt Mema! Holy cow! How could I have forgotten that. I suspect that she wasn’t an actress by training, and that she was hired basically because she looked (and sounded!) the part they were looking for. This was her first acting job. Her second was in “Harry and Tonto,” and guess what the connection is between those two movies: Sally Marr, Lenny’s mom. Just a wild guess is that she might have known her personally, but if anyone can find anything more, feel free to offer. Info on her is thiiiiiiin!
Side note: She shrieks “Feh!” at least five times. Is that expression used by both men and women (I just have a hard time hearing a man say the way Aunt Mema could), and is/was it mostly used by immigrants from the Old Country, or do younger generations use it, too?
The only scenes that I had remembered were the ones with Gary Morton (Lucille Ball’s second husband), and I probably wouldn’t have remembered that had it not been for the Milton Berle schtick.
Bonus side note: After Lucy’s death, Morton married former golfer Susie McAllister. Three years later he died, and, having inherited all of Lucy’s personal belongings, left everything to Susie, who then wanted to auction off Lucy’s personal property. Lucie Arnaz (Luckinbill) was not happy about it, and went to court to fight it, feeling she deserved some of her mother’s personal effects. Ultimately, she did get a few items, but Susie got the rest, which she did end up auctioning.