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Dolly Says Hello

Carol Channing has always been a caricature of herself. In fact, she has been caricatured many times by Al Hirschfeld, the acknowledged king of the genre. In Dori Bernstein's gushingly adoring biopic , "Carol Channing: Larger Than Life", one walks away with a grudging admiration for Ms. Channing's professional accomplishments and an amazing feeling that everyone who has met her loves her.

However, at the same time, I couldn't shake the notion that her private life was a total mess and it made me wonder if she was nice and wonderful in public but less lovely in private. It's hard to come to a meaningful conclusion from "Carol Channing: Larger Than Life" because Bernstein and the entire cast steamroll us into adoring her as much as they do. Lost in a 30-second moment is the fact that her son is nowhere to be seen, other than as a passing mention. Carol does admit that she should have been a better mother, but the other 99% on screen is a tribute piece.

Now in her nineties, Carol is just as you remember her, if you remember her at all. She talks in what is either total affect, her normal voice, or an affect that has long since become her norm. Right from the beginning we see her walking around the Broadway area where she gained her fame and alternate persona of Dolly from "Hello Dolly". People in the street stop and smile and ask for autographs and coo about how wonderful she is. This tone carries through the entire event. Famous and not-so-famous people parade across the screen, some in tears of joy, explaining that Carol is the nicest person to have ever walked among us. I bought into it most of the time, but sometimes I couldn't help but wonder if this was propaganda of the highest order.

Carol was raised as a Christian Scientist and remains one to this day, even if this is barely mentioned. When she was in junior high school she had a boyfriend named Harry. They lost touch and much of the point here is that the two of them were meant to be together and after many decades they finally found each other again (because a friend of his told him that Harry had been mentioned in Carol's book). Harry's wife had died and Carol was single after her long, seemingly horrific marriage was over. They were soon married and together they recount their past. Harry passed away shortly after filming had ended.

Carol Channing is a legitimately larger-than-life character and you can't help but be infected by her enthusiasm and sweetness, and certainly this documentary is fun, but at the end it feels incredibly lightweight. Bernstein was not interested in making a layered look inside a celebrity. Her goal was to erect a reverent statue. To this end she has succeeded. Whether that is enough depends on how much you adore Carol Channing. I like her more now, but not enough to justify the whole overblown affair.