Hello Dolly Film Version- Page 4

[jimnysf]

Posted: 10/4/06 at 5:27pm

Well said, Mr. Hunter!

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 10/4/06 at 8:42pm

As someone who was around when the film was originally released, there is a misconception that it was a major box-office failure. The truth of the matter is that it was one of the biggest money-makers of the year. The showings were packed, the nine times I saw it. The problem with HD, was its cost. Like CLEOPATRA (an enormous money-maker), its budget was too big for the time period. It would have needed a box-office like THE SOUND OF MUSIC, and, well, that happens, almost never. The great thing about HD, is that you can see every penny that was spent on it, right there on the screen.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 10/4/06 at 8:48pm

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.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/4/06 at 8:50pm

Not really.

[GYPSY1527]

Posted: 10/4/06 at 8:55pm

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

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/4/06 at 8:55pm

Hopefully they will find a pristine print for Jim to see

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/4/06 at 8:59pm

And maybe again they won't.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 10/4/06 at 9:43pm

If it turns out that someone destroyed the good prints, maybe I will have to ask Dollypop where he was during the 70 mm festival last year.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/4/06 at 9:49pm

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

[Julian2]

Posted: 10/4/06 at 9:55pm

I wouldn't be suprised.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:00pm

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.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 10/4/06 at 11:00pm

Link below to article from Life Magazine from Feb 1969.

...Barbra Streisand began moving slowly down the red-carpeted staircase, mouthing the words of Hello, Dolly!, "Hello, Rudy. Well, hello, Harry." When she reached the bottom of the stairs, the tempo picked up. The dancers swirled around her, circling the ramp above the sunken dance floor. Twice Barbra Streisand tripped over the train of her dress and twice more the dancers stepped on it. The number concluded, after a complete circuit of the set had been made, with Barbra Streisand, all alone, ascending the staircase. Kidd whistled through his teeth for the music to stop.


"The train's got to go, Ern," Kidd said to Lehman. "Maybe we'd better get Irene over here," Lehman said hesitantly. "Sure, Ern, get Irene over here, but the train's still got to go," Kidd said amiably.


A call was put in to Irene Sharaff to come immediately to Stage 14. Lehman fingered the neck of his Zhivago shirt. "Michael, I don't think the number ends right," he said. "I think Barbra should be coming down toward the camera, not going away from it." "No question, Ern, it stinks," Kidd said pleasantly. "What I mean, Mike . . ." Lehman began. "No problem, Ern," Michael Kidd said. "The number's not finished. We're just here to see how the dress works and how the set works." "It doesn't stink, Mike, that's not what I meant." "Ern, the number's not finished," Kidd said firmly.


The stage door opened and Irene Sharaff walked onto the set. Winner of five Academy Awards and a number of Broadway awards for costume design, she was an intense, formidable, chain- smoking woman in late middle age. She was wearing a suede mini- skirt, a foulard blouse and ranch hat, and as Kidd explained the problem with the dress, she sat noncommittally on a stool, puffing on a cigarette.


"Perhaps I'd better see what you're talking about, Michael," she said when Kidd finished. Her tone was deliberate and slightly patronizing. Kidd motioned for the number to be done again. The music began, and as Barbra Streisand and the dancers circled the set, Irene Sharaff twisted slowly on her stool, following their movements. Again both Barbra Streisand and the dancers tripped on the train of the dress. "See what I mean?" Kidd said when the music stopped. Irene Sharaff ground out her cigarette with the toe of her shoe. "No, Michael, I don't see what the problem is."

"Barbra trips on it, the dancers step on it."

"Perhaps if you changed the movements, Michael, the dancers wouldn't step on it," Irene Sharaff said....

Read more at the link......
Life Magazine

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 10/4/06 at 11:31pm

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!

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 10/5/06 at 12:52am

It is indeed called THE STUDIO by John Gregory Dunne. It also has much to say about the fiasco that was the Rex Harrison film of DOCTOR DOOLITTLE.





Matthew Mugg
Puddleby-On-The-Marsh

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 10/5/06 at 2:08am

"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

[Julian2]

Posted: 10/5/06 at 3:24am

Oh, god, Hello Dolly with Lucille Ball . . .

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAN!!!!!!!!!

Now that movie, I would deny the existence of . . .

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 10/5/06 at 3:43am

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.

[istoleatv]

Posted: 10/5/06 at 5:21am

i grew up in the 80s in the middle of corn fields. thank god that "hello dolly" was even made, because that's how i was introduced to the score. i watched it on tv and loved it! i didn't know anything about babs being too young or over produced sets, i just knew that i loved the music. recently i caught it on tv, and it still had that magic that i remembered as a child. sure it's not the best musical film, but then again what is? i think i can find fault in every movie musical ever made from a stage version - except for cabaret which is WAY better. it's all a part of show business. as much as i would love to see a movie version of wicked starring idina, you know they'll get beyonce! same thing.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 10/5/06 at 11:33am

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.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 10/5/06 at 12:08pm

Yes, there was never any question of who would get the lead in MAME. Lucy helped finance it, and it was the only reason the project got done at all. It was her personal mission to produce a "wholesome, family picture" for her fans, and she was, by all reports, shocked by the personal drubbing she received in the press.

Streisand got the role in DOLLY even before FUNNY GIRL was released. They wanted a star in the role who they felt would create some major box-office excitement. At that time, who else was there?

[elmore3003]

Posted: 10/5/06 at 12:51pm

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.

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/5/06 at 12:55pm

"Streisand got the role in DOLLY even before FUNNY GIRL was released. They wanted a star in the role who they felt would create some major box-office excitement. At that time, who else was there?"


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.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 10/5/06 at 2:05pm

"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.

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/5/06 at 2:17pm

A similar thing happened with Julie Andrews. She was cast as Maria from the rushes Robert Wise saw of Mary Poppins before it was released.

And I'm sure you know they went through a roster of "movie names" at Fox, before they finally agreed to let Streisand reprise her role in the film of Funny Girl. A lot of jobs went on the line in support of her getting that film. So, even with her outside success, nothing in Hollywood was or is a forgone conclusion.

"You're only as good as your last film," as they say... which is really difficult if it's your FIRST one.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 10/5/06 at 2:57pm

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.