Review of Hello, Dolly! (1969) by Stuart K — 23 Jul 2008

WALLâ?¢E's favourite film, and it stands as one of the last, great Hollywood musicals of the old Hollywood regime. Set in New York in 1890, it has sassy matchmaker Dolly Levi (Barbara Streisand), travelling to Yonkers to find a woman for "half-a-millionnaire" Horace Vandergelder (Walter Matthau), but she also convinces his two workers Cornelius Hackl (Michael Crawford) and Barnaby Tucker (Danny Lockin) to come along to New York, the two clerks get romantically involved, whilst Dolly has ideas of her own for Vandergelder.

;) Directed by the great Gene Kelly, he brings a good visual style to this musical, and he gets the best out of his cast, and though it does look beautiful and the musical numbers are near-perfect, it does feel a bit bloated here and there, but it does make for an enjoyable 2 hours of viewing.

Now, if only musicals made these days could capture the style of old ones like this...