I gotta tell ya, I love this one. It’s so big and bombastic, it’s practically bollywood. Gene Kelly does a wonderful job of making each and every crowd scene a dancing extravaganza. The “Hello, Dolly!” number, which reportedly took a month to film, is just glorious and complicated and hey look! It’s Louis Armstrong! “Before The Parade Passes By” with the full parade and Barbra’s never ending last note is one of the seminal big musical moments. Kids, it just doesn’t get any bigger than this.
Barbra (showing her nail fetish began at a young age) is woefully miscast if you realize that Dolly Levi is supposed to be middle-aged. But who cares? She’s Barbra. She can do anything. Her voice and control are shown to their best here. She shines in every scene she’s in, but oddly has the weakest song. The “Love Is Only Love” number is just lost in the production.
Poor Walter Matthau. Can’t sing, can’t dance, but gamely trying anyway. Obviously only here for the paycheck, he acts dyspeptic every time he sees Barbra. And, after reading about their on-set feud, I now know it wasn’t an act. And Michael Crawford chews every piece of scenery he can get his hands on. To me, “It Only Takes A Moment” is the best done. Quiet, peaceful and very moving, Michael finally stops hamming it up and just sings. Admittedly, his voice isn’t nearly at “Phantom” quality, but it is well suited to this lovely song. The rest of the cast is pleasantly bland as if they didn’t want to distract from Barbra standing firmly in the spotlight.
All together, it’s a very good musical but just not that great a movie. It’s just too big. After a while your eyes get tired and you just wish they’d stop dancing all the time.
Wish they’d stop dancing? Heresy! (Although the finale where they reprise every single freaking number was a bit much.)
The choreographer was Michael Kidd, who also choreographed Guys and Dolls – if someone picks Seven Brides for Seven Brothers next, we can complete the hat trick on him. But I love his angular, stylized thing – Tommy Tune is a perfect dancer for him, the way he can pivot those long legs around.
I have got to get a DVD player (oh shut up, I’m broke these days) – the chopping of the dance scenes was horrible. The only movie I’ve seen with worse butchery in the conversion to TV was There’s No Business Like Show Business.
My favorite song is Put on Your Sunday Clothes – a much better number than Hello Dolly, despite Louis Armstrong’s cameo in the latter.
And I loved Matthau’s dyspepsia – I thought he was fabulous.
The movie was the source of my favorite Walter Matthau line ever (spoken to Streisand during a break from filming, when evidently she was playing prima donna):
“I have more talent in my smallest fart than you do in your entire body.”
Now wait - don’t get me wrong. I lurrrrrve this movie. But there is a reason they give Oscars for editing… and there is a reason this movie didn’t win one. (Nominated, but didn’t win.) It just seems like it would really benefit by being about 10 minutes more compact.
I saw the original Carol Channing *Dolly *with a friend of mine, whose only comment afterwards was “There wasn’t one memorable tune in the entire show.” Obviously, he didn’t remain a friend for long.
I also saw the all-black cast with Pearl Bailey, who absolutely outshone both Carol and Babs.
But I still love the movie, in spite of its flaws.
I saw the all-black cast too, but Pearl Bailey was indisposed that night, so her understudy went on. I wish I could remember her name – if there’s any justice, she’s a big star now, because she was wonderful.
I’ll take the dissenting opinion. I have to admit that Dolly isn’t one of my favorite musicals (for that matter Jerry Herman isn’t one of my favorite writers- he seems to have graduated with honors from the Roger De Bris “Keep it gay! Keep it gay! Keep it gay!” school of writing, not that there’s anything wrong with that), but I think the miscasting kills it. Dolly is an accomplished matchmaker as well as a widow who very much loved her husband who’s been dead for years… and she’s all of 26. (Perhaps she married at 13 and started her matchmaking business soon after, which I guess would have made her the little match girl). Plus, she and Walter Matthau had less chemistry than Burl Ives & Sophia Loren in Desire Under the Elms. The musical numbers, particularly the title number, were just choreographed to death, then subjected to necrophilia, then cremated and choreographed again, and the casting of Michael Crawford was one of those total misfires (though perhaps he was an improvement over Charles Nelson Reilly who initiated the role). Ugh… just ugh… (but that’s solely my opinion).
Considering that previous people to take the role of Dolly included Shirley Booth, Carol Channing (see “ugh, non Streisand examples”), Phyllis Diller, Ethel Merman and Pearl Bailey I have to wonder what in hell they were thinking. Of course the role of Henry Higgins in the movie version of My Fair Lady was actually offered to Cary Grant (who supposedly responded “Not only will I not appear in it, but if you don’t cast Rex Harrison I won’t even go see it”) so, Hollywood just didn’t really “get” the whole musical thing by then I suppose.
Hmm… Hello, Dolly!… Loved the play, not too crazy about the movie. And you know, the miscasting only bothers me a little, so I can’t really say for sure why I don’t like it, but… I don’t.
I’ve always wished that they’d remake it for television, like they did with Gypsy (and like they’re going to do with Mame). They could get someone like Patti LuPone to do it and they could include the songs that were cut (then later put back in for Ethel Merman).
Rex Harrison—ugh… You’re right, Hollywood didn’t get the whole musical thing. Including, apparently, the notion that a performer ought to be able to sing to be cast in one. Although, I guess that’s really the fault of the Broadway production, where he originated the role. And it seems that everyone casting productions of the play since has come to think of Henry Higgins as a non-singing role. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to hear his songs actually sung.
There has always been debate over who was really responsible for the high level of quality in the musicals co-directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly–which is surprising since I think the evidence is quite clear.
Without Kelly, Donen directed Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Funny Face and Royal Wedding.
Without Donen, the best Kelly could manage is Hello Dolly!. Could praise like that be any fainter?
HD! came about 2/3 of the way through the devolution of the film musical that occurred in the late 60s and early 70s: Misguided adaptations that were miscast, joyless, over-produced, and elephantine in their staging. There may be worse examples from the period (Paint Your Wagon, Finian’s Rainbow, Man of La Mancha), but none with a larger pedigree and talented ensemble.
But it’s still a disaster. Clumsy, overlong, unfunny, with Babs being the black hole that everything eventually gets sucked into. Satchmo is a highlight, but it’s way too late in the game to really help by that point.
Sorry I haven’t been a more regular participant in the SDMB MLS&DS, but with all the great film musicals out there, I’ve found many of the recent choices (including the next one) really uninspired. I venture to guess maybe that’s one reason why musicals aren’t more popular to new generations–quite a few of the better-known, fondly-remembered “canonized” musicals are some of the crappier ones. Dolly! is no exception.
Yeah, I’ll admit my “I can’t believe we haven’t done…” list is pretty long, too! Ah well, I’m guessing only the hard-cores will sign up for the next round of picks. If there is one.
