Product Details

• Actors: Barbra Streisand, Walter Matthau, Michael Crawford, Marianne McAndrew, Danny Lockin
• Directors: Gene Kelly
• Writers: Ernest Lehman, Johann Nestroy, Michael Stewart, Thornton Wilder
• Producers: Ernest Lehman, Roger Edens
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Surround), French (Mono), Spanish (Mono)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Dubbed: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: G (General Audience)
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: August 19, 2003
• Run Time: 146 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (313 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005JL1P
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,853 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • #95 in Movies & TV > DVD > Musicals
• Learn more about "Hello, Dolly! Widescreen Edition" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

They just don't make musicals like this any more. There are some who would be grateful for that--the plot is but a flimsy excuse to string together song and dance numbers. Some of us, however, love big, splashy, overdone musical scenes, of which there are many. Glittering stage numbers showcase a commanding Barbra Streisand as Dolly Levy, a New York matchmaker who can find a mate for anyone. Anyone but herself, that is. Determined to marry wealthy Walter Matthau, she lures him out of Yonkers and sets about wooing him.

Don't worry about the lack of a solid story or Gene Kelly's pedestrian direction. Watch instead for the musical numbers and the lavish costumes. Listen to Jerry Herman's score, and dance around the living room when a sequined Streisand arrives in a club as Louis Armstrong strikes up the title tune for her benefit. (Just pull the shades first.) Based on Thornton Wilder's play The Matchmaker, Hello, Dolly! won Academy Awards for best sound, art direction, and musical score. --Rochelle O'Gorman

Product Description

Barbara Streisand is a knockout as Dolly Levi, the woman "who arranges things like furniture and daffodils and lives." And Hello Dolly, is the blockbuster musical you'll want to see her in again and again. The famed plot concerns Dolly, a young widow and professional matchmaker who sets her sights, and whatever else she can muster, on conquering tight-fisted Yonkers merchant, Horace Vandergeider, beautifully played by Walter Matthau. How she does it has to be the grandest, singingest, dancingest, marchingest flag-wavingest musical there ever was.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

208 of 214 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Last Great Hollywood Musical September 3, 2003

By "zapasnik"

Format:DVD

The debates over this film have been raging for years, and now that HELLO, DOLLY! has been released on DVD, they're likely to continue for years to come. Opinions are certain to vary, but let's clear up a few misconceptions right from the start -

After 20th Century-Fox purchased the screen rights to HELLO, DOLLY!, producer/screenwriter Ernest Lehman was fairly certain he'd be asking Carol Channing to recreate her stage performance for the film - that is, until he saw her in the 1967 movie THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE; to put it as delicately as possible, her features didn't translate well to the big screen. Fox executives were equally doubtful about Channing, so the search began for a new Dolly. After flirting with (and subsequently dropping) the idea of Elizabeth Taylor, the leading candidate became Barbra Streisand. The powers-that-be suspected (correctly) she was headed for major film stardom, and they hoped a fresh, younger Dolly would give the multi-million dollar project greater appeal. Lehman immediately revised his script, eliminating all references to Dolly losing her husband fourteen years earlier, and - after concluding that audiences wouldn't accept Streisand as an Irishwoman - changing the character's name from Dolly Gallagher Levi to simply Dolly Levi. The studio made the offer, Streisand signed on the dotted line, and Lehman surrounded her with the creme de la creme of the MGM/Arthur Freed movie musical unit - Gene Kelly (director), Roger Edens (associate producer), Michael Kidd (choreographer), Lennie Hayton (musical scoring), and Irene Sharaff (costumes).

Skeptics, however, dug in their heels, and a period of bad press followed; there was outrage a film novice like Streisand had taken a role they considered her ill-suited for.... A wave of sympathy engulfed Channing, who received a consolation Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE (even though Beatrice Lillie received the film's best reviews when it was released).

The bad press began to wane when Streisand's first film, FUNNY GIRL, was released to critical acclaim, box office success, and a Best Actress Oscar; suddenly there was great anticipation for HELLO, DOLLY! And when the film finally opened in December of 1969, it played to packed (and enthusiastic) houses from New York City to Hollywood. Even critics who questioned Streisand's appropriateness for the role agreed she put on a hell of a show.

After a solid start, however, the film's success was mixed; HELLO, DOLLY! received seven Oscar nominations (including one for Best Picture), but Streisand was overlooked. And though it ranked as one of the top ten box office attractions of the year, it hadn't recouped its production costs by the end of 1970; it was neither the runaway success the studio was hoping for, nor the disastrous flop its critics made it out to be. But to the dismay of naysayers who wanted the film to die an ignoble death, DOLLY kept attracting new fans - first on television, then on video, and later on laser disc. Obviously, somebody had done something right.

Watching the movie now on DVD, it's hard to believe such a good-natured, visually spectacular film could have provoked the feelings of animosity it did (and apparently still does). As for Streisand, I think Lehman was absolutely right to cast her; there may be times when she seems too hip for this wholesome slice of Americana, but her funky irreverence is what makes HELLO, DOLLY! so much fun. Not only is she in excellent voice throughout - if anything, she sounds better here than she did in FUNNY GIRL - but it's hard to imagine anyone else bringing the poignance she does to Dolly's monologue in the park ("Ephraim, let me go"), or being as raucously funny in the dinner sequence at Harmonia Gardens ("You salt your beets, and I'll salt mine"). In fact, her energy and charisma are so dynamic that the film's pace falters whenever she's not around - no disrespect to either Michael Crawford or Marianne McAndrew, but the subplots involving Cornelius Hackl and Irene Molloy, while pleasant enough, are hardly enthralling. Walter Matthau, however, makes a surprisingly effective Horace Vandergelder, and his scenes with Streisand have some genuine comic vitality. If there were offscreen tensions between the two, they weren't apparent when the cameras were rolling.

But more than anything else, DOLLY on DVD offers great opportunities for those of us who just want to concentrate on musical numbers (we know who we are). There are moments worth savoring again and again in "Just Leave Everything To Me," "Put On Your Sunday Clothes," "Dancing" (Danny Lockin and E.J. Peaker are particularly impressive here), "Before The Parade Passes By," "The Waiter's Gallop," and, of course, the title number with Louis Armstrong, but Streisand's best number is probably her simplest - "So Long, Dearie." It isn't hard to understand why her character gets a marriage proposal after that one.

As for the age issue - yeah, it's a little strange to see a woman in her late twenties being referred to as an "old girl." So why didn't Ernest Lehman ask Jerry Herman to alter the lyrics? Hard to say - maybe he didn't think anyone interested in realism would be watching HELLO, DOLLY! in the first place. And ultimately, that's what this movie is all about - pure escapism on a grand scale. The quality is apparent in every frame, so just kick back and enjoy the show. Read more ›

81 of 83 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Dolly Delights July 16, 2003

By Matt Howe VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

HELLO DOLLY has received a bum rap over the years. Its oversized budget and colossal New York-circa-1890 back lot set is said to have sunk 20th Century Fox. This is far from the truth.

Now, almost 35 years later, DOLLY can be seen in proper perspective: it's a well-done, old-fashioned movie musical. Its only sin is that is dresses up a flimsy Broadway musical in the form of a big-time movie musical. Let's face it, HELLO DOLLY's book features situation-comedy type scenes of hiding in closets and mistaken identities. It doesn't have the weight of the Nazis (i.e. SOUND OF MUSIC) or the Americana of OKLAHOMA. It is, nevertheless, frothy fun -- with a great, hummable score!

Barbra Streisand is also blamed for accepting the role of Dolly Levi, too. Dolly should be middle-aged; Streisand was 27. Also, Carol Channing was famous for the part (she won a Tony for it) and Streisand is considered to have "stolen" the movie from Channing. (I personally could not fathom watching Carol Channing for 2-1/2 hours.) Streisand was too young. But does it really matter? She's absolutely hilarious in DOLLY, and sings the score wonderfully. It was Streisand's second film, and one of her too few musical films.

The DVD features a wonderful featurette from 1969. The featurette contains great behind-the-scenes footage of filming the "Before the Parade Passes By" scene, as well as the "Sunday Clothes" scene. Gene Kelly, Michael Kidd, and Irene Sharaff are all included.

Fox has restored HELLO DOLLY and this DVD features the restored print. DOLLY has never looked better! From the multi-colored feathers on the back of her hat in the opening scene, to the canary-yellow "Hello Dolly" dress in the Harmonia Gardens, Streisand looks fabulous and colorful and bold.... Throughout the film you will notice various shades of purples pop out. The paint-speckled trees in the "Parade"park scene are an interesting detail! The only scene that misses is the dimly lit "Love is Only Love" song. The colors look faded and the picture quality drops a notch or two.

I must also sing the praises of this WIDESCREEN release! I've watched DOLLY for years on a pan-and-scan VHS tape. The movie looks excellent in widescreen - the way it was originally filmed - and it's great to see some of the action in the extremes of the frame. For instance, this is probably the first time I've ever seen what Streisand was doing in the right part of the frame while dueting with Louis Armstrong!

So enjoy HELLO DOLLY. Dolly'll never go away again. Read more ›

54 of 56 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS DVD IS AWESOME July 23, 2003

By R. Siegel

Format:DVD

I got my advance review copy for the region 1 release of Hello Dolly and had to write a review here. This is one of my favorite films, and I will concentrate on the tech specs for the disc. It is enhanced for widescreen 16:9 and says Dolby Surround on the packaging but is actually Dolby Digital 4.0. This is one of the best sound transfers I have yet seen for a classic film. There's no doubt that original master tapes were used for the sound transfer. The seperation is so good, the voices of the singers move from left to right with extreme clarity, and when the entire cast is singing, it reminds me of the best of the RCA VICTOR recordings, the ensemble comes at you from all around including the surround. I give the sound a 5 out of 5.

The video quality is another story and a good one. This is flawless, it is like watching a new movie. It is so clear it almost seems like 3d on my Sony front projector. The colors have been restored and I believe the transfer was from 70mm negatives because this is one of the clearest conversions of a classic Fox has done. Extras are several trailers, a featurette, which isn't alot (I was hoping to see the 20 minutes that were cut and maybe a commentary and extras like the SOUND OF MUSIC disc had).

For the price,... this is a steal, to be enjoyed over and over as it is like going to the cinema again.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful High April 10, 2000

By A Customer

Format:VHS Tape

Hello, Dolly! is one of the best musical films I've ever seen. It is filled with high exuberance and is incredibly lavish. Of course it is silly and light hearted. It is what it should be. Everyone in it seems to be having a grand time. Barbra makes a wonderful Dolly Levi and I'm so glad she did this film despite her own misgivings. It has brought so much joy to millions. I can't imagine anyone else in the movie role. Gene Kelly directed this film and did a marvelous job.

Michael Crawford and Danny Lockin are hilarious in their roles of Cornelius and Barnaby. Marianne McAndrew and E.J. Peaker as Irene and Minnie Fay are charming and delightful. To top it all off, what a finale! A location of a beautiful white chapel with green lawns stretching out for miles is the setting for the end medley and wedding. Streisand makes her way down the bridal path framed by hundreds of beautifully dressed attendants. The camera pulls back to reveal a scope of magnificence. Perfect.

I certainly can't wait for the widescreen DVD version to be released. If you've never seen it in widescreen you are in for a rare treat. This movie is gorgeous. The musical number, "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" is dream and of course the title tune with Streisand and Louis Armstrong is magnificent.