This is really the last of the great Hollywood musicals. Yes, there have been musical since then, but this is the last that used such talent of the previous age including Director Gene Kelly and Barbara Streisand at her peak. This movie did not get great reviews in it's day, because it came out the year after MLK and RFK were killed and at the peak of the Vietnam war. Happy care free establishment movies were not in vague in those days. Had the movie come out just three years earlier, when work on it first started, it would have been a big hit. It would have been part of the era of Mary Poppins. But instead it came out the same year as MASH and Love Story. The era of the anti-hero. This movie stacks up well against movie musicals prior to 1970. Poducation numbers at the scale of this movie may never be seen again without CGI, but never this this many live actors and dancers. The high points of this movie are whenever Streisand or Michael Crowford are on the screen. However the supporting cast is amazing. Especially, Broadway legend Tommy Tune in his first movie. Do yourself a favor and give this movie another chance. Hopefully the short scene of this movie that cam be seen in Wall*E will ignite more interest in it.
Review of Hello, Dolly!
