HELLO DOLLY! (1 Viewer)

[BBbrowd]

Originally Posted by Joe Caps


For the SG release of dolly, Fox produced a very long Doc on themaking of the film, that was supposed to be a second disc in the set - then didn't reolease it. I know quite a few people who were interviewed for the set. It would be nice if they release it.

I went to all of these big budget musicals when they were first released in New York city. It got to be embarassing -I would goand there would be just a small scattering of people throughout the 70mm showing!!

Particularly badly atteneded were Star, Half aSixpence, finians rainbow, Funny Lady, 1776, darling Lili, Ona Clear day, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Happiest Millionaire.

I never knew that a documentary was produced, Joe. Would love to see that.

Dolly is one of my favorites. It's one of the most visually sumptuous films ever and Barbra is great in it. I hope we see a blu-ray release of it in the future.


I put together a tribute montage a couple of years ago:

 

[Everett S.]

Millie was not a hit. In fact It played across the st. from my high school. I saw it. It bombed so bad the owner had a heart attack, & he lost the theatre.

It went to a chain of dollar theatres. The new patrons managed to destroy it in about 2 months. It was one of the first CinamaScope theatres in Balto.


I should have said built for Scope.

 

[Everett S.]

I also saw 1776 @ The Music Hall & it was packed. I wish they would reopen as a movie theatre. The reason given for closing @ the time was lack of family films. Not a problem in the lease today.

 

[Everett S.]

One of the things I saw with the DVD vs: the laser disc is the image is cut on the sides, you can see this when the train pulls into Yonkers, the sign reads

--nkers on DVD! The HD showing is worst on HBO. Durning Hello Dolly # you lose 2 waiters @ a time! Plus it,s blurry.

Sad & what,s the point? My tv has a great picture on it. As long as I put in great material.


How about bright & large logos on cable? Lets start a pertion!

 

[MatthewA]

Originally Posted by Everett Stallings


Millie was not a hit. In fact It played across the st. from my high school. I saw it. It bombed so bad the owner had a heart attack, & he lost the theatre.

It went to a chain of dollar theatres. The new patrons managed to destroy it in about 2 months. It was one of the first CinamaScope theatres in Balto.

I had always heard that "Thoroughly Modern Millie" was Universal's highest grossing film until "Jaws" came out.

 

[ahollis]

Originally Posted by MatthewA


Millie was not a hit. In fact It played across the st. from my high school. I saw it. It bombed so bad the owner had a heart attack, & he lost the theatre.

It went to a chain of dollar theatres. The new patrons managed to destroy it in about 2 months. It was one of the first CinamaScope theatres in Balto.

I had always heard that "Thoroughly Modern Millie" was Universals highest grossing film until "Jaws" came out.

[/QUOTE]

Millie was one of the top grossing films for 1967 and the last movie to make money that Julie Andrews appeared in for almost a decade. Would the poster be thinking about Darling Lili which was such a flop in 1970 that it almost ruined Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews marriage and certainly put Mr. Edwards into a depression that he only worked out of it by doing SOB. Which is truly a very funny inside film.

 

[Erik_H]

Originally Posted by Everett Stallings

I also saw 1776 @ The Music Hall & it was packed. I wish they would reopen as a movie theatre. The reason given for closing @ the time was lack of family films. Not a problem in the lease today.

Radio City Music Hall ended its movie and stage show policy in the late 1970s for a variety of reasons, the lack of family films being one of them. While the availability of family films may no longer be an issue, those other reasons still exist, first and foremost of which is the requirement that the Music Hall have exclusive exhibition rights in the NYC area. In an era when nearly all major releases open on thousands of screens, the studios won't agree to give the Music Hall that kind of exclusivity. Disney tried that with short exclusive runs at the Music Hall of "The Black Cauldron" and "Return to Oz" in the 1980s and "The Lion King" in the 1990s, but hasn't done so since---I assume the bean counters at the Mouse House concluded that more money could be made via a wide release. I agree that it would be great if the Music Hall returned to its old policy---but barring a major change in distribution economics/marketing strategies, it won't happen.

 

[John Skoda]

I'll buy the blu-rays of ANY of these 70mm films.

Yes, many of them were not successful originally. In the late 1960s, this was due to "too much of a good thing." A 70mm roadshow film was meant to be a special event, and at this time there were so many of them coming out it diluted the effect.

But the time and care that went into the creation of these films mean that most of them play much better now than they did then. If a studio went to the extra expense and trouble to film on 70mm negative, they did their best to make the films a visual and audio extravaganza. I saw HELLO, DOLLY! lately in a new 70mm print and it was certainly a dazzler.

I'd really like to see STAR! and THE LAST VALLEY in something approaching a 70mm presentation. In STAR!, the jumps between scratchy newsreel footage and 70mm stereo would be cool. VALLEY is a really good and interesting film even in pan and scan mono. 70mm would make it even better.

 

[GMpasqua]

John, the last DVD of "The Last Valley" is letterboxed

 

[John Skoda]

Yes, but not anamorphic, so it's a pretty small image!

 

[Joe Caps]

Did you know that in spite of many films available in 70 mm, Radio City never showed a film in 70mm ( they did not have the equipment) until they retooled the house for Airport in 1970 !!!!

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Somehow that doesn't surprise me, Joe. I can't put my finger on why, though.

 

[Will Krupp]

Well, isn't it because 70mm was considered a hard-ticket roadshow format? Radio City Music Hall was just too big to handle reserved seat attractions (can you imagine the sheer bedlam as 5,000 ppl all went to the bathroom at intermission?) so they probably never saw the need or wisdom in installing the equipment prior to the engagement of a non-reserved seat attraction like AIRPORT.

 

[Paul Rossen]

THE LAST VALLEY was filmed in 70mm TODD-AO. The DVD is not up to standards as it is in mono sound - a far cry from the elaborate ToddAO sound scheme. It's quite a good film with a great John Barry score. I hope one day it gets the 'proper' treatment.

 

[MatthewA]

About the documentary, why was it pulled? I wonder if Barbra Streisand had any influence where that was concerned, even though she never seemed to be particularly proud of the film, although she called What's Up, Doc? "infantile" despite providing a DVD commentary. I understand the atmosphere on the set of Dolly! was not exactly harmonious, and Fox's DVD supplements never exactly glossed over production troubles where they occurred. I wonder what kind of revelations there were.

 

[GMpasqua]

"I understand the atmosphere on the set of Dolly! was not exactly harmonious"


I've read a lot of that was made up by the press - yes there were troubles, the weather, going over budgets, The Robert Kennedy shooting.


Walter and Barbra got a long at first but than Walter grew impatient and just wanted to wrap things up while Barbra was more interested in the camera and learning about film making. Walter also seemed to be cool to Michael Crawford and Gene Kelly never wanted to direct the film in the first place. I believe screenwriter Ernest Lehman had more say then people realize


should be an interested doc - may be FOX couldn't clear all the screen tests etc (Ann-Margret) I don't believe Streisand has any say on this film (as she did on later ones)

 

[ahollis]

Originally Posted by MatthewA

About the documentary, why was it pulled? I wonder if Barbra Streisand had any influence where that was concerned, even though she never seemed to be particularly proud of the film, although she called What's Up, Doc? "infantile" despite providing a DVD commentary. I understand the atmosphere on the set of Dolly! was not exactly harmonious, and Fox's DVD supplements never exactly glossed over production troubles where they occurred. I wonder what kind of revelations there were.

The wars and dislike between Miss Streisand and Mr. Matthau are legendary. The book by John Gregory Dunne called The Studio which detailed the day to day life at Fox talks about this and the problems between Michael Kidd (Choreographer) and Irene Sharaff (Costumes). He accused her of designing costumes that interfered with his dances on purpose. With Gene Kelly directing, Mr. Kidd won every disagreement. On another note the book also details the post-production, sneak screenings and cutting of Dr. Doolittle. There is a great story about Rex Harrison riding a giraffe and they had to cut the scene despite all the print advertising using his riding as the main focus.

 

[GMpasqua]

there was some press when the film first started how Walter and Barbra got along and liked wokring with each other. By the time they got to Garrison Streisand was more interested in the camera and filming and spent a lot of time making Walter wait around - Walter on the other hand was known to not get along with his fellow actors - Streisand and Walter seemed friendly again once the film shoot was over (He even appears in her concert video - so I would guess the feud didn't last long.)


There are some nice photos of them where they seem to be enjoying each others company - but then only Barbra knows for sure



The biggest problem was Gene Kelly - he didn't want to do the film, he wasn't an actors director (Which Streisand desperatly needed) Michael Kidd and Kelly were at odds and the budget was just too big for Kelly to handle.Fox screen tested everything for the Todd-AO cameras. And then FOX couldn't release the finished film until they went to court with David Merrick. It's amazing the film turned out as well as it did.

 

[MatthewA]

I have heard rumors of a Broadway revival in the near future; Patti LuPone is supposedly in talks to play the title role. Could Fox be saving the movie to tie in with this, as they did for South Pacific?

 

[GMpasqua]

I read somewhere FOX was originally releasing "The Sound of Music" on Blu-ray but then "South Pacific" was released instead - this was probably because FOX realized "Sound of Music" had an anniversary and a knew doc was being made - so FOX released South PAcific instead - which had just had a Digital restoration.


Hello Dolly was included in the FOX 75th anniversary set so I wouldn't be surprised if it came out in 2011 (All About Eve and An Affair to Remember have already been announced) I would guess "The King and I" would be the next R&H title to be released by Fox since it too was in the 75th set