“Hello Dolly!” is a romantic comedy movie musical that follows the story of matchmaker Dolly Levi as she travels to New York City to find a bride for the wealthy “half-millionaire” Horace Vandergelder. Director Gene Kelly and screenwriter Ernest Lehman did a fantastic job of bringing the 1964 Broadway production to the big screen. (The musical play was in turn adapted from the 1954 Broadway play “The Matchmaker” by Thornton Wilder.) Kelly had a large budget to make sure “Hello Dolly” was a first-class lavish production, which, of course, it was.
The cast includes Barbara Streisand as Dolly, Walter Matthau as Horace, Michael Crawford, Marianne McAndrew, E. J. Peaker, Danny Lockin, Tommy Tune, David Hurst, Fritz Field, J. Pat O’Malley, Scatman Crothers, and Louis Armstrong as the orchestra leader. Lennie Hayton and Lionel Newman were in charge of the musical adaptation of Jerry Herman’s music & lyrics from the stage play. Most of the music from Broadway was transferred to the film version, even Louis Armstrong’s recording of the title song which had been a hit single on the charts in 1964.
“Hello Dolly” did make some money at the box office, but not enough to cover the expensive budget. So the film basically broke even for producer Ernest Lehman, Chenault Productions, and 20th Century Fox. “Hello Dolly!” won three Academy Awards: Best Art Direction, Best Sound, and Best Musical Score.
Hello Dolly! (1969)
cinema
My Review
“Hello Dolly!” is a romantic comedy movie musical that follows the story of matchmaker Dolly Levi as she travels to New York City to find a bride for the wealthy “half-millionaire” Horace Vandergelder. Director Gene Kelly and screenwriter Ernest Lehman did a fantastic job of bringing the 1964 Broadway production to the big screen. (The musical play was in turn adapted from the 1954 Broadway play “The Matchmaker” by Thornton Wilder.) Kelly had a large budget to make sure “Hello Dolly” was a first-class lavish production, which, of course, it was.
The cast includes Barbara Streisand as Dolly, Walter Matthau as Horace, Michael Crawford, Marianne McAndrew, E. J. Peaker, Danny Lockin, Tommy Tune, David Hurst, Fritz Field, J. Pat O’Malley, Scatman Crothers, and Louis Armstrong as the orchestra leader. Lennie Hayton and Lionel Newman were in charge of the musical adaptation of Jerry Herman’s music & lyrics from the stage play. Most of the music from Broadway was transferred to the film version, even Louis Armstrong’s recording of the title song which had been a hit single on the charts in 1964.
“Hello Dolly” did make some money at the box office, but not enough to cover the expensive budget. So the film basically broke even for producer Ernest Lehman, Chenault Productions, and 20th Century Fox. “Hello Dolly!” won three Academy Awards: Best Art Direction, Best Sound, and Best Musical Score.