La meneuse de jeu

Well now, who are the only two people could pull it off playing Dolly Levi? There are only two: Carol Channing and Shirley Booth! "Shirley Booth??? Who's She?" Or maybe "Ah, come on!!!" Well it's true! Ms. Booth ranks up there right in the same spot with Carol Channing. What a gal! People who don't know who she was should take the time to see this film. It proves her innate talent for playing sappy frumps all the way up to lovable, hilarious, wisecracking characters. Oh, and did I forget conniving? There's a wonderful cast here supporting her as well. The costumes are superb, the timing is excellent.

One thing I must mention here though is, that although I also consider Barbra Streisand a great talent, she seemed to be more or less mis-cast in the role in "Hello Dolly." She merely played herself. Shirley Booth fit the bill as a strong, rather overbearing character. I will repeat though that she had proved previously that she could play just the opposite.

Another SB "must see." Even in black and white and with no music.

Do you like situation comedy? How about clever dialogue? Do the elements of classic farce make you laugh? Many a film has sustained itself on one of the foregoing. In "The Matchmaker," you get all three. The picture is perfectly cast, with the peerless (though by now, nearly forgotten) Shirley Booth as a sly but gentle, voracious but sweet, determined yet vulnerable Dolly. Paul Ford huffs and puffs in his characteristic manner, without overplaying. Anthony Perkins reminds us of his versatility with this twinkle-in-the-eye triumph in romantic comedy. A young Shirley MacLaine is simply adorable. Too bad the talented Robert Morse has so little to do, but with such a strong cast in more prominent roles, he had to save his elfin hijinks for another day.

After a lifetime of arranging couplings for others Dolly Levi has decided it's time that she settle down with somebody. Her target in her sights is merchant Horace Vandergelder in turn of the last century Yonkers, New York. Of course Horace the old goat is looking at young Irene Molloy. What to do, especially since his young clerk Cornelius Hackl has eyes for her also.

Shirley Booth who originated many parts on the Broadway stage, but had few screen credits up to that time takes over the role that Ruth Gordon played on stage in the 1955-1957 season for 481 performances. Another Shirley named MacLaine with few screen credits at that point to her name plays young Irene.

And the object of all this fuss is potbellied old Paul Ford giving one of his patented bellowing performances. It was interesting to read how Ford had come to the acting profession rather late in life. He certainly is ham enough that you wonder why didn't do this all of his life. Ford had just completed a four year run as the harried and harassed Colonel Hall, object of many of Sergeant Bilko's con games in the Phil Silvers Show. For most of his career Ford was a blusterer whether here or in The Music Man or Never Too Late. He looked a lot like Edgar Kennedy, but his boiling point was always quickly reached.

Anthony Perkins who really did other things besides Norman Bates in Psycho is just fine as the wistful young clerk at Ford's mercantile and he's partnered in his adventures by young Robert Morse who repeated his stage role as Barnaby Tucker.

Of course most know The Matchmaker as the basis for Hello Dolly and seeing it now is like seeing Shaw's Pygmalion which for better or worse is now known as My Fair Lady without the songs. Still The Matchmaker is fun to watch for the nostalgically inclined.

This movie is a truly funny comedy. I'm not sure why it isn't more well-known. The entire cast is great, particularly Shirley Booth and Anthony Perkins. The dialogue is hilarious, and it's interesting how the major players "break the fourth wall" throughout the film. The basic premise: Shirley Booth is a professional matchmaker who decides she wants to marry her latest client (Paul Ford) herself. Meanwhile, Anthony Perkins is interested in Shirley MacLaine, who is simply interested in getting married. The result is a lot of deception, but the characters are all so nice and likeable that you can't help but root for them all. The next time you're in the mood for a classic comedy, try this one.

"Hello, Dolly!", that marvelously overblown, elephantine 1969 movie musical starring Barbra Streisand, can trace its cinematic origins to this charming film, which, in its stage incarnation, had enjoyed a successful Broadway run a few years before.

Paramount wisely employed the inimitable Shirley Booth to head the cast and, perhaps since she was no guarantee of big box office, despite her Academy Award for "Come Back, Little Sheba" (1952), they filmed it in VistaVision but not Technicolor. Too bad, because it's nicely mounted, smartly directed and well cast, with Paul Ford deserving of particular praise. His wonderfully humorous Horace Vandergelder makes one wish he'd been allowed to play the role again opposite Streisand (though, to be sure, he would have appeared to be much too old for Barbra, who was only twenty-seven years old when Twentieth practically bankrupted itself filming that monumentally successful Broadway bonanza.)

Anyway, this version is genuinely charming and always repays a re-viewing. Its equivalent from a major American motion picture production company is almost inconceivable today, what with audiences whose tastes have been so brutally coarsened. Thank goodness there's a video version to pop into the VCR for those of us who'd occasionally like to take a bit of a holiday from all the troubles that beset us now.