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The Matchmaker (1958)
Fans of the Broadway musical and movie Hello Dolly! might be interested in checking out 1958's The Matchmaker, which is the primary source of the musical.
Based on a play by Thornton Wilder, this is the story of an eccentric widow named Dolly Gallagher Levi, who works a professional matchmaker in turn of the century New York. She has been hired by a wealthy Yonkers businessman named Horace Vandergelder to find him a bride, but Dolly has been secretly leading the man in circles because she wants the man for herself. Unfortunately, Vandergelder is planning to propose to a pretty milliner named Irene Malloy, but she is distracted by Vandergelder's clerk, Cornelius Hackl, who sneaks to New York with his co-worker Barnaby Tucker, who fall hard for Irene and her assistant, Minnie Fay.
John Michael Hayes, who wrote the screenplay for Rear Window and The Man Who Knew Too Much, has done an admirable job of adapting this play for the screen, which premiered on Broadway in 1955 with Ruth Gordon playing Dolly. As someone whose initial exposure to this piece was the 1969 movie starring Barbra Streisand, it was nice to see the role of Dolly played by an actress of appropriate age, but I've learned over the years that most productions of this play and of Hello Dolly!, the role of Dolly is cast with a more mature actress.
Director Joseph Anthony, who also directed the film version of The Rainmaker, has done an effective job of opening the play up a little but remaining true to the piece. He also made the story more accessible to audiences by breaking the 4th wall and having characters speak directly to the camera, which comes off forced in other films, but really works here. I loved when Cornelius asks if someone in the movie theater has left their seat to get popcorn. Also loved the finale where Dolly asks each character what they believe the moral of the story was.
Six years after winning an Oscar for Come Back Little Sheba, Shirley Booth is completely enchanting as Dolly, a character light years away from her character in the William Inge drama and Paul Ford is at his blustery best as Horace Vandergelder. Shirley MacLaine made a lovely Irene Malloy and Robert Morse is a total scene stealer, reprising his Broadway role as Barnaby Tucker. I did find Anthony Perkins a little one-note as Cornelius, but I was able to forgive. The film is beautifully photographed in black and white and the ladies are draped in gorgeous Edith Head costumes. A delightful piece of classic theater vividly brought to the screen.
Fans of the Broadway musical and movie Hello Dolly! might be interested in checking out 1958's The Matchmaker, which is the primary source of the musical.
Based on a play by Thornton Wilder, this is the story of an eccentric widow named Dolly Gallagher Levi, who works a professional matchmaker in turn of the century New York. She has been hired by a wealthy Yonkers businessman named Horace Vandergelder to find him a bride, but Dolly has been secretly leading the man in circles because she wants the man for herself. Unfortunately, Vandergelder is planning to propose to a pretty milliner named Irene Malloy, but she is distracted by Vandergelder's clerk, Cornelius Hackl, who sneaks to New York with his co-worker Barnaby Tucker, who fall hard for Irene and her assistant, Minnie Fay.
John Michael Hayes, who wrote the screenplay for Rear Window and The Man Who Knew Too Much, has done an admirable job of adapting this play for the screen, which premiered on Broadway in 1955 with Ruth Gordon playing Dolly. As someone whose initial exposure to this piece was the 1969 movie starring Barbra Streisand, it was nice to see the role of Dolly played by an actress of appropriate age, but I've learned over the years that most productions of this play and of Hello Dolly!, the role of Dolly is cast with a more mature actress.
Director Joseph Anthony, who also directed the film version of The Rainmaker, has done an effective job of opening the play up a little but remaining true to the piece. He also made the story more accessible to audiences by breaking the 4th wall and having characters speak directly to the camera, which comes off forced in other films, but really works here. I loved when Cornelius asks if someone in the movie theater has left their seat to get popcorn. Also loved the finale where Dolly asks each character what they believe the moral of the story was.
Six years after winning an Oscar for Come Back Little Sheba, Shirley Booth is completely enchanting as Dolly, a character light years away from her character in the William Inge drama and Paul Ford is at his blustery best as Horace Vandergelder. Shirley MacLaine made a lovely Irene Malloy and Robert Morse is a total scene stealer, reprising his Broadway role as Barnaby Tucker. I did find Anthony Perkins a little one-note as Cornelius, but I was able to forgive. The film is beautifully photographed in black and white and the ladies are draped in gorgeous Edith Head costumes. A delightful piece of classic theater vividly brought to the screen.