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I'll always remember a personal tour I was given of the Fox lot not too far from my office in Century City in 1969. The daughter of the fellow I worked with was married to someone who ran the carpentry shop, so we roamed around pretty freely, and it was nice to see the outdoor sets for some of the big production numbers, and I peeked into the Harmonia Gardens set and watched as young Danny Lockin and E.J. Peaker camped it up on the dance floor. (Lockin would tragically die at a very young age.) There was a lot of hostility directed towards that movie, but I've always enjoyed it and didn't hesitate to buy in on VHS and DVD and Blu-ray. I think it's a very underrated film, and I too would like to have some of the extra music, especially the overture, on record, although I'll probably transfer it to CD one of these days.
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There is an alternate music for Dolly. Almost the entire score was recorded twice.
Streisand thought the first orchestrations were too big, too much and wanted it more simple, like the broadway show.
It was all redone, which is why the film credits list so many orchestrators and two conductors, actually listing all the orchestrators for version one and two. Which conductor is actually doing the track for the film, I so no know.
Oh, wow! The orchestrations are already so grand, I'd love to be able to hear what the 'bigger' version sounds like.
...but is that actually the "smaller" version in the final film? As you say, they sound pretty big as it is, I could certainly imagine that any more would start to be too much. I would certainly welcome an expanded and remastered version, it's by far my favourite version of Put On Your Sunday Clothes but the sound doesn't sound as good as I'm sure it could.
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Score Whore: Re: Definitely MILLIE, and please throw in THE COURT JESTER.
I've mentioned elsewhere that Glynis Johns, who is in "The Court Jester," is staying at a care facility in Hollywood where my friend Tom Bratter is also staying. She's 90 and looks quite frail. They've gone out of their way to show some of her movies in their public room with the biggest widescreen, and have so far shown her in "The Sundowners" as well as "The Court Jester." My friend Tom, who is living there, was joking with her about the famous tongue-twister about the vessel with the pestle:
http://youtu.be/TJ9f2rnjB84
How lovely Glynis looks here -- you'd cry if you saw how she looks now.
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I would love both of these, as well. DOLLY! is such a great film. It completely succeeds, despite being horribly cast. What they did, was completely gear the piece to the Dolly they had, rather than the one they should have had, and it works. For me, it's the only Barbra Streisand film worth watching. Although DOLLY! was considered a flop, it really did very good business, during its release. It just cost more than it was capable of making. MILLIE, on the other hand, was a giant his for Universal (their biggest in history, at the time). Of course, these releases will never be, so if anyone has these bootlegged, let me know!
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PS: Re: I would love both of these, as well. DOLLY! is such a great film. It completely succeeds, despite being horribly cast. What they did, was completely gear the piece to the Dolly they had, rather than the one they should have had, and it works. For me, it's the only Barbra Streisand film worth watching. Although DOLLY! was considered a flop, it really did very good business, during its release. It just cost more than it was capable of making. MILLIE, on the other hand, was a giant his for Universal (their biggest in history, at the time). Of course, these releases will never be, so if anyone has these bootlegged, let me know!
I hope you weren't one of those clamoring for Carol Channing to repeat her role as Dolly Levi. By the time Gene Kelly made the film in 1969, Channing could barely sing -- heck, I still find it hard to get through her singing on the original Broadway cast recording! Yes, in terms of age, she may have been more appropriate for the role of the busybody matchmaking widow, but, for many of us, it would have been an ordeal to sit through on the big screen, whereas the finished film was an absolute delight and Streisand was hilarious! How well I remember the full houses the times I saw it at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, with cheers after many of the production numbers and a standing ovation at the end. It is truly one of the most underrated movies I have ever seen. I did feel that Michael Crawford was horribly mis-cast, and even Marianne McAndrew made little effort to lip-sync to the songs someone else did for her. Yes, Walter Matthau looked in constant agony throughout, but it strangely worked, especially near the end when Streisand sings the droll "So Long Dearie" to him outside Harmonia Gardens. It probably didn't help that Matthau and Streisand weren't exactly buxom buddies during the making of the film. But people will still be enjoying it long after we're all gone.
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By the time the film version of HELLO, DOLLY! was being made, I had seen the show so many time, that I don't think I had any intentions of even seeing the movie. To this day, of all the Dollys I've ever seen (and that's a lot), nobody even comes close to being as superb as Carol Channing in the role. Not a single line or moment is lost. Everthing has meaning. Other than Danny Lockin, who went on to play Barnaby on Broadway, with Ethel Merman (which I saw 3 times), the film is miscast, imo, and completely lacks warmth. Still, the movie is my favorite musical from a production values/choreography standpoint, and the only Barbra Streisand film where I can stand her. Mostly, because she doesn't just play herself. She actually tries to be a character that isn't just Barbra Streisand, which she seems to do in every other film. If I were casting the film back then, my cast would have been:
Dolly - Anne Bancroft
Horace - Eddie Albert
Cornelius - Grover Dale
Irene - Patty Duke
Barnaby - Danny Lockin
Minnie - Goldie Hawn
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Posted: |
May 15, 2014 - 10:55 AM
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By: |
Score Whore
(Member)
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I hope you weren't one of those clamoring for Carol Channing to repeat her role as Dolly Levi. By the time Gene Kelly made the film in 1969, Channing could barely sing -- heck, I still find it hard to get through her singing on the original Broadway cast recording! Yes, in terms of age, she may have been more appropriate for the role of the busybody matchmaking widow, but, for many of us, it would have been an ordeal to sit through on the big screen, whereas the finished film was an absolute delight and Streisand was hilarious! How well I remember the full houses the times I saw it at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, with cheers after many of the production numbers and a standing ovation at the end. It is truly one of the most underrated movies I have ever seen. I did feel that Michael Crawford was horribly mis-cast, and even Marianne McAndrew made little effort to lip-sync to the songs someone else did for her. Yes, Walter Matthau looked in constant agony throughout, but it strangely worked, especially near the end when Streisand sings the droll "So Long Dearie" to him outside Harmonia Gardens. It probably didn't help that Matthau and Streisand weren't exactly buxom buddies during the making of the film. But people will still be enjoying it long after we're all gone.
Are you serious? Carol Channing was 48 when DOLLY was made. She would have been a perfect age for the role, and she sang just fine two years earlier in MILLIE. I find DOLLY hard to sit through with Babs doing her usual schtick. The ego!
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Score Whore: We'll just have to agree to disagree. Again, I don't care for Channing's singing on the OBC recording and wasn't thinking of her actual age but how she would have looked and sounded on screen. I had seen her many times on TV between her stint in the show and the making of the movie, and don't think it would have worked (she seemed more like a cartoon character, which, I don't think, would have worked on the big screen). I assume you play your OBC recording a lot, so keep playing and enjoying it, just as I play my recording of Julie Andrews in "My Fair Lady" and can't help but wonder what kind of film THAT show would have made with her. Or, for that matter, a movie version of "Man of La Mancha" with originals Richard Kiley and Joan Diener instead of Peter O'Toole and Sophia Loren!
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Not that Julie Andrews wouldn't have, infinitely, helped MY FAIR LADY, but what it really needed, was a much better director. Someone who knew they were directing a widescreen musical motion picture in the 1960s, not a staid drawing room comedy, from the 1930s.
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