Hello, Dolly!

A musical set in New York at the beginning of the twentieth century. Dolly is a matchmaker. Since her husband died she arranges everyone's business and takes a commission. There is a wealthy grain merchant in Yonkers. Horace wants to marry and asks Dolly to find him a wife. Dolly arranges him for herself. She eliminates every candidate she finds, methodically. From there the film takes place over one day. Horace's two clerks run off to New York, a hat shop, a train, a restaurant and a courtroom. What the narrative is interested in is not love but circulation: the sentence at its centre is that money is like manure and is no use unless it is spread; Dolly repeats it several times. The restaurant section is its most spectacular. The title song is performed on the stairs with the waiters and the sequence runs for minutes. Louis Armstrong appears as himself in that scene and sings it with Dolly. The casting was argued over on release. Barbra Streisand played the part at twenty-seven; the character was known on stage as a much older woman and the choice was criticised. The production was very expensive. The budget was among the highest of the period, the box office did not meet expectations, and it became a heavy burden for the studio. The film won three Academy Awards: production design, score adaptation and sound. There is also a fame that came later. Footage from the film was used inside an animated feature years afterwards and a new generation met it there. Barbra Streisand, Walter Matthau, Michael Crawford and Louis Armstrong are in the cast. Gene Kelly directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes classical Hollywood musicals and large dance numbers. Who it is not for: anyone looking for pace; the film runs close to two and a half hours and the plot is very thin.