VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

mark.waltz When Broadway and Hollywood's "Funny Girl" takes on a character who seems to have more lives than Disney's "Thomasina", you know she's going to not only sing out a storm but wear some delightfully lavish costumes, both period and modern. Ms. Streisand didn't just get another big vehicle to show off her enormous talents, but a legendary director who knew a thing or two about movie detail: Vincent Minnelli. Having just completed work with Minnelli's old MGM pal Gene Kelly on "Hello, Dolly!", Barbra added, for her third movie, another movie version of a Broadway musical to her film credit, and if "On a Clear Day" wasn't the smash of the first two on stage, it was certainly a vehicle worthy of her talents."Climb up, geraniums!", she sings gregariously as she dances her way through a flower garden. Is this a music video, movie musical or nature show?, you may wonder as the film begins, but after hearing her voice initially, you wait for the big star entrance, and boy, is she given one. She's on her way to Columbia University to see psychiatrist Yves Montand in an effort to stop smoking, and with their meeting, more is revealed than meets the Marlbrough. Take us back to Charles Dickens era England where we discover one of Streisand's previous lives: She's a female Oliver Twist, brought up in an work house (even seen eating gruel) yet ends up the wife of a wealthy aristocrat clad in a gorgeous beaded and hooded gown which looks like something out of "Metropolis". "Love With All the Trimmings!", she sings over the action as her manicured goddess makes her lust towards a handsome visitor obvious to everybody but the cuckolded husband.Back in 1970 Manhattan, Streisand and psychiatrist Montand have instant rapport, even though Montand is more interested in Streisand's past lives than helping her quit smoking. This leads to the amusing revelation of his true intentions, and Montand is faced with possibly losing his greatest psychiatric discovery once Streisand learns the truth. "Come Back to Me!", he sings from his office window, and this, combined with the fact that she has gained E.S.P. from her meetings with him, makes her unable to sleep. One of the people she encounters during this song is the adorable Judith Lowry ("Phyllis's" Mother Dexter) who must mouth Montand's words to her while Streisand desperately tries to get Montand's voice out of her head.There's plenty of comedy here, but the romantic chemistry between Streisand and Montand is nill. For the most part, he's a handsome but dull partner, giving the impression that perhaps somebody like Louis Jourdan would have been better in this role. Other cast members are wasted, and they include a young Jack Nicholson and a pre-TV Bob Newhart. Amusing with her few scenes is "Bewitched's" Mabel Albertson as Montand's secretary, quite ironic considering her larger part in Streisand's comic masterpiece "What's Up, Doc?".While not perfect, and certainly nowhere near faithful to the original Broadway play (it is certainly a lot better than a recent Broadway revisal), this is at its best when Streisand is either singing, clowning, or clad in outrageous outfits. Minnelli shows he still has a flair for great detail, and even with this not being the smash he had hoped it would be (or the unfortunate misfire of his badly edited "A Matter of Time"), he shows that the magic of his triumphant MGM years had not wained.

funkyfry In some ways I felt like I enjoyed this movie in spite of myself, or itself. Equally drawn to the film by my admiration of the director Vincente Minnelli and repulsed by its leading lady Barbara Streisand, I find that in the end neither artist contributed his/her best or worst work, and that the whole package itself is mostly lacking in the necessary charm. Yves Montand presents far more problems than Miss Streisand, and Minnelli trips over his own staging to try to make the modern sequences all too modern and the historical sequences all too romantic.Streisand plays Daisy Gamble (a name only a musical comedy doyenne could possibly be saddled with), a young would-be wife who comes to a college psychologist (Montand) in hopes that he can use hypnotism to cure her excessive smoking habit. Instead, the good professor uncovers a whole past life involving a seductress called Melinda, a persona whom the professor promptly and unconvincingly falls in love with.At first it seems refreshing to have Minnelli directing this movie, with his gloriously excessive bouquets conjured up to bring some portion of artificial magic to Daisy's wistful rooftop escape. His style quickly becomes overbearing, especially since he seems to have little taste or comfort with the modern settings and styles he's using. His use of the zoom lens, the only time I can remember him using it, is garish and obvious. An ascending helicopter shot of Montand warbling atop the Pan Am building only manages to distance us from any possible emotion that could be squeezed from his continental charmer. Only in the historical sequences with their incredibly elaborate costuming and real location shots of the Brighton pavilion, does Minnelli momentarily come alive, to live again in the romantic past for one more brief moment.Montand is the glaring problem with the film. His character is completely unappealing and the way he plays him makes it much worse. The more we see of him, the less we appreciate him or can understand why Gamble is becoming infatuated with him. Likewise it's hard to see why Montand is becoming fascinated with the past life Streisand. His whole scheme is very underhanded, since he hasn't told Gamble that he's been recording all her sessions or that he's investigating a past life at all. His motives are supposed to be cleared up thanks to a series of distracting conferences with a professorial colleague oddly played by tough-guy character actor Simon Oakland.When the "good professor" becomes desperate to get Gamble back on his couch and begins sending her psychic messages to "Come Back to Me", the result is less romantic than stalking. Psychic stalking -- it's something that belongs more in a Phillip Dick nightmare sci-fi story than a musical comedy. It's hard to not get a really bad taste in your mouth, especially since the film-makers have already provided a suitably obvious and suitably compatible well, uh, suitor in the person of Daisy's ex-brother-in-law played by Jack Nicholson. We first see Jacko on the roof brazenly strumming his sitar, as if he walked out of the J.C. Penney catalog of hippies. Made-to-order hippy Jack Nicholson apparently got a solo but it was cut when a decision was made not to roadshow this film. Thus even the film's relatively satisfying conclusion seems to be drawn in abstract lines, thanks to Minnelli's liberal style of shooting and the subsequent edits that cripple the film's continuity.As for Miss Streisand herself, she does her best to play the character in a rather sophisticated way but is often undone by her own energy. I didn't feel that she carried off the multiple characters particularly well, and in her solo numbers she heaves and bellows through without any hint of real human vulnerability. She has some good moments as Daisy, but in the Melinda personality she's outclassed by her own headgear.The film itself doesn't really ever rise to the level of its ambition. What should be a fun evening of musical comedy becomes a mere distraction. The story and its characters never really become anything human or convincing. A stifling aura of artfulness prevents the film from taking off -- it's as if all the performers and the director are standing a few feet away from the film they're making. Montand barely seems to know what movie he's in. Lerner and Lane's songs are ponderous and barely memorable. The story itself seems to revisit Lerner's past artistic life, with its Henry Higginsesque professor remonstrating himself and mistreating his naive leading lady in a way that strangely manages to evoke absolutely none of the charm that lifted his Fair Lady above the fray. The film is saved from outright artistic failure thanks to a few imaginative sequences staged by Minnelli, Nicholson's goofy and fun cameo, and a few moments of inspired clowning by Streisand.

petersj-2 You could be forgiven at first thinking this is a bit like My Fair Lady. The flower lady, the professor having a kind of relationship with a quirky young lady and a few lovely songs. But suddenly we get into reincarnation, psychosis and hypnosis. It is very much the thinking persons musical and it was not a great success on Broadway mainly because it was way ahead of its time. Its time for a revival and to look at this again as it is a masterpiece. It was equally brave for Hollywood to adapt a complex failure like this to the screen. Cecil Beatons costumes are pure art. Not much reality but beautiful to look at. Matching nighties with the matching pillows and sheets. Costumes even blend into the wall paper. A visual feast! Barbra of course s in fine form. At the peak of her great career she pulls out all the stops. She delivers a kookie central character that she always does better than any one and when she sings well "quiet please, there's a lady on the stage". Most pleasant surprise is Yves Montand who sings the title song very well. I must admit howver, its not nearly as good as John Callum from the Broadway recording. Montand is howver impressive and its really quite a revelation. The hight light is come back to me! Its a brilliantly staged number. This is a superior movie and very profound: each time you see it you will discover something more. The layers and depth of the work are amazing and as for the score, its magnificent.

Ed "On a Clear Day" is one of the less successful collaborations of Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane and, though I thought the film was entertaining enough, I can't say I was bowled over by it. The idea for the Broadway show must have come from the popular 50s "Search for Bridey Murphy" even though the original musical was of the 60s. Alan Jay Lerner probably had a fondness for ESP or the supernatural since he also collaborated on the shows "Brigadoon", "Finian's Rainbow", "Camelot" and even the film "The Little Prince", all of which had these elements.Miss Streisand is one of the towering egos of show business and I found it impossible to accept her as the "mousy" Daisy Gamble. To me, her singing was always rather mannered to the point of being overbearing and to suggest, as the script does, that Daisy is commonplace and lacks personality is pretty mind-boggling. Perhaps she was more acceptable as Melinda even if her British accent was a little less than perfect.I thought that Yves Montand as Dr. Marc Chabot (Dr. Mark Bruckner in the original Broadway musical) was adequate and, of course, he sang well. The rest of the supporting cast were also adequate without anyone really standing out and the title song, mostly sung by Yves, had to be reprised by Big Babs of course.Entertaining but nothing special. The DVD is in the letterboxed format and there are no extras.