Romancefest 3: Sadiefest - Hello, Dolly!

One of the perks of the first Romancefest was learning to love Barbra Streisand after watching 3 of her flicks in one month. Sadly, last year's Romancefest suffered from a distinct lack of Babs. Now, Babs makes her triumphant return to Romancefest in HELLO, DOLLY!

Taking place in 1890s New York, HELLO, DOLLY! follows the title character, a widowed matchmaker played by Streisand, as she decides it's time for her to come out of mourning and get back into life, specifically by snagging herself a husband. She has her heart set on a rich grocer (Walter Matthau) from small-town Yonkers, but he's on his way to New York City in the hopes of securing a dutiful wife in the form of a hat shop proprietress (Marianne McAndrew).

This is a farce of epic proportions, so the amount of romantic entanglements and ancilliary characters gets a little ridiculous, but in an effort to keep it short I'll just say that Streisand and Matthau's other worries include Matthau's niece (Joyce Ames) who wants to marry an artist (Tommy Tune) and the two clerks from Matthau's store (Michael Crawford and Danny Lockin) who decide to take advantage of their boss's absence to have a little fun of their own in the big city.

As the movie unfolded I was reminded of the Tom Stoppard play I was in back in high school, ON THE RAZZLE, in which I played a horny coachman. Turns out that play is an adaptation of a Viennese play by Johann Noestroy which was previously adapted by Thornton Wilder, and eventually transformed into its most popular version, the Broadway musical HELLO, DOLLY! Go figure, you learn something new every day. Sadly the horny coachman did not make it into this version. I assume it's because if he had he would have stolen the entire show from Dolly herself, but I'm just making a wild guess based on my own exquisite performance.

It is interesting to note that DOLLY! was directed by Gene Kelly, who starred in the good but claustrophobic-feeling BRIGADOON. DOLLY! is the opposite of BRIGADOON, filmed in many wide open outdoor locations and giant sets where the song and dance sequences can be staged without worrying about the extras spinning right into the soundstage walls.

As usual, Streisand is great, belting out the songs with equal parts authority and vulnerability one second and delivering rapid fire jokes the next. In fact, it's this combination of authority and vulnerability that lends the movie any authentic poignancy at all amid the chaos, and this is a similar trait to many of Streisand's most memorable characters. She's able to rule the stage and screen while also engaging an audience's sympathy, which is no easy trick.

Matthau is also awesome, though after the first few scenes he unfortunately fades to the background. More time is spent on the side characters than really needs to be, though they're charming at first, particularly Crawford who went on to fame (or infamy?) as Broadway's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Still, DOLLY! does not suffer from its bloated running time as much as GUYS AND DOLLS does, perhaps due to the variety of wacky stuff that's constantly going on.

Oh, and Louis Armstrong pops up for a few seconds, so that's enough to bump any movie up a couple notches.

Sadie Says:

Over the last couple Romancefests, Paul got super into Streisand. He kinda loves her secretly and not so secretly, can get down with Yentyl, and can comment on the evolution of her acting when asked. He also loves him some Matthau. With that in mind, HELLO DOLLY seemed like an appropriate suggestion for all intents and purposes.

The role on Broadway was originally meant for Ethel Merman who turned it down and was immediately made famous by Carol Channing. Many a famous actress (including Ginger Rogers, Betty Grable, and Pearl Bailey) had a stab at Dolly Levi on Broadway, but Streisand's performance for the screen is her own.

Paul's review is a great one and captures Streisand being Streisand. She kinda has playing Streisand down, no? Matthau gets to play cranky, a role he's perfected as well, and Louis gets to play Louis. Gene Kelly does a great job in his directorial debut and it's no surprise he was excellent at capturing musical theater given his background.

In the remake of HELLO DOLLY adapted by Paul and Sadie,
the horny coachman makes it in, has a near perfect singing performance with Outkast, and keeps the champagne flowing while doing the hora. Oy.