Hello Dolly Film Version — Page 4

Well said, Mr. Hunter!

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As a matter of fact, it was one of the top grossing films the year it came out. It's true that it was not a flop. It took years to make back the money spent on it because, at the time, $20 million was a very large budget for a film. It turned a profit with the advent of home video. I hope some day to see it again in 70 mm. It was promised at a 70 mm festival last year in San Francisco, but had to be pulled because the "new" print was damaged. At first, they were going to show it anyway using a 35 mm print, but they couldn't find a good one. Sad that this kind of thing can happen.

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I haven't posted but I have to add...I didn't know Carol Channing had a mustache.

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And maybe again they won't.

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He secretly has them stashed away as he really loves it & plays it every night

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I saw it again, last year in its 70MM Todd-AO print, along with THE SOUND OF MUSIC, also in 70MM Todd-AO. They're even more impressive than they were in their original releases, when many other films had similar showings. They make today's releases look like television! Nothing today, compares.

There was a great book all about Fox, at the time of Dolly and Star and Lost In Space, etc. It may have been called THE STUDIO; but I'm not sure. It was a great read, whatever it was called!

"Wow. There's just no accounting for people's tastes. I find it hard to believe that he had no issue with all the lost laughs (uncountable), with her performance. But then, they were really written by Thorton Wilder, not Michael Stewart. And, didn't you pass away in 1974?"

I haven't seen the film in a while, but my memory is that relatively little of Wilder and Stewart survives in Lehman's script. And that's one of the problems with the movie.

"Ann-Margret and Joanne Worley were among those who screen tested for the role of Irene Molloy."

Worley tested for Irene Molloy? I would have thought that she might have tested for Ernestina, since that Judy Knaiz does seem like the road company Joanne Worley.

Also, Worley (who was the original Dolly understudy) might have seemed a little old for the direction the film was going in.

"Though I never was able to see the original production, I hate Charles Nelson Reiley's singing on the cast album. He sounds fifty."

That's one of the things I like about him. I don't think he necessarily sounds 50 but he does sound older and like a character actor. In both The Matchmaker and the stage version of Dolly! Cornelius is supposed to be 33.

I love that real comic actors like Reilly and Brennan played the roles in the original production (though Brennan also could do serious stuff). I wish I could have seen them. I think that's exactly what those roles need.

Of course, Crawford was a character actor, too. But a younger and more boyish one, which does kind of change things. And I guess you wouldn't want a Cornelius who looks older than Dolly.

"If BS did not star in the film, who would have been Dolly? Can you imagine a studio bankrolling a musical film in the late 1960s starring a woman over 50? [the same could be said for today.] "

Well, a few years later Lucille Ball did star in Mame. So I think that they might have been able to get the money for Dolly! with her. And it certainly would have been a better role for her than Mame. And if what was said here earlier is correct, the studio execs were ready to bankroll it with Channing.

And if the budget had been a little less, I think it would have been a better movie. Personally, I find some of the sets so overdone that they look phony, convincing neither on a realistic level nor on a stylized level.

Updated On: 10/5/06 at 02:08 AM

Well, she couldh't have been worse in it than she was in Mame.

I agree that if she had done it, she probably wouldn't have been good. She was hardly ever funny after I Love Lucy. It all starts going wrong with The Lucy and Desi Comedy Hour.

But when they were putting together the movie, she was nonetheless still tremendously popular.

Lucy got the "Mame" film because, according to IMDB, she " put up $5,000,000 on the agreement that she would be considered for the lead." She would not have been a good "Dolly" based on what she did in "Mame".

Elizabeth Taylor was considered for the role of "Dolly" at one point until they found out she could not sing.

Correction to one of my earlier posts: Jo Anne Worley tested for the role of Gussie Grainger/Ernestina Simple. I don't know why they picked an unknown over her. I think she would have been great in that role.

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I was lucky to see the original HELLO DOLLY! and both Channing revivals. The show onstage was a highly styled cartoon, very funny, even the scenery flowed from one locale to another. My biggest problem with the film, beyond Streisand's uncertain performance, was the film's lack of style and tone. It's not only too large and too inflated, it's not graceful.

Also, a lot of the big laughs in the show are Michael Stewart's not Wilder's. After working on a production of THE MATCHMAKER and the ditsy old lady in the last act, I appreciated more the alterations Stewart made.

"If it was before Funny Girl was released, then she hadn't proved ANYTHING as far as film box office grosses. Funny Girl was her first film. She was only bankable as a recording artist and TV personality, but she'd had a "zero" track record on the silver screen at that point."

True point as to whether she was a proven film quantity -- but Streisand was a HUGE phenmenon before FUNNY GIRL opened, and once FOX was convinced (through early rushes of FUNNY GIRL) that her unquestioned star quality came through on the screen, she was offered the role.

Streisand originally did not want to do it -- she was aware she was too young for it among other reasons.

Thanks for the tip on THE STUDIO by John Gregory Dunne. It's still in print so I am going to order a copy. Sounds like a great read.

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