Funny Lady (1975)

How sad is this?

Fantastic!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The first must-see film of the year.

The minute Funny Girl went into the black a sequel was on the cards and like most sequels it had a mountain to climb and barely made it to base camp. It's difficult to blame producer Ray Stark for wanting to squeeze extra mileage out of his mother-in-law Fanny Brice and although Brice was either unknown or had been forgotten when Funny Girl opened on Broadway both the show and the subsequent film brought her to the attention of a new audience so on paper why not a sequel. Thanks to the dubious association of the words Billy Rose and lyricist - the smart money says he 'bought' the lyrics with which he is credited from more talented writers - the film is laced with quality numbers on the order of More Than You Know, It's Only A Paper Moon, Me And My Shadow, etc and Streisand can certainly put a song across but somehow this fails to jell and weighs in at a good twenty minutes too long. Worth seeing .... once.

I'ts just a shame that Barbra Striesand didn't wait a little bit longer to make her screen debut in Funny Girl because this sequel Funny Lady is an example of what she could have really done with Funny Girl if she had waited. Funny Girl is O.K. but it's not the film it could have been. In Funny Girl, she just didn't have the right director. Don't get me wrong; William Wyler, best known as Willie Wyler, is an excellent director, but Michael Curtiz would have been better for Striesands debut as Fanny Brice and if you question my judgment on this, remember that it was Michael Curtiz that directed Doris Day's first movie Romance On The High Sea which made her a star overnight and he directed James Cagney in his Oscar Winning Performance Yankee Doodle Dandy in which Cagney played song and dance man George M. Cohan! Now, the songs such as More Than You Know, Am I Blue, and Million Dollar Baby gives the film a feel for that period of time that the songs in Funny Girl didn't even though they incorporated Second Hand Rose and at the end of the film ending up with Fanny Brices signature song My Man which were not in the original stage production. So, what makes Funny Lady a much finer movie for Streisand, even though she dreaded making this sequel. Well, for one thing, the interweaving of new and old songs. Striesands over-all appearance and her singing is superb and the surprise of the show with James Cann and his handling of the singing since he's not a singer. There has only been one other dramatic actor who has been able to sing, as well as dance in a musical; that being Marlon Brando playing Sky Masterson in the film version of Guys and Dolls. Funny Lady is far superior to the film Funny Girl, and I guess the reason for this is that Striesand looks more comfortable as a film actress and doesn't look overwhelm as to what she should be doing in from of the camera! Great show Babs!

Barbra Streisand reprised her Oscar-winning role of Fanny Brice in 1975's FUNNY LADY, a big splashy musical that centers around Fanny at the height of her stardom and her stormy relationship with second husband, Billy Rose (James Caan). Much has been written about how unnecessary this sequel was and how it wasn't very factual regarding Fanny and Billy's marriage. First of all, Hollywood has always had sequel-itis. Any movie that makes a decent profit at the box office is going to have a sequel sooner or later. Second, as far as accuracy is concerned, does anyone really think FUNNY GIRL stuck to the facts? FUNNY GIRL was about as close to a factual biography of Fanny Brice as a Harlequin romance novel, but people loved it and Barbra won an Oscar. For what it is, FUNNY LADY is a very entertaining movie with a charismatic starring performance by Streisand as an older, wiser, and more savvy Fanny who is definitely in charge of her own life now...that is, until Nick Arnstein (Omar Sharif, in a gratuitous cameo)briefly re-enters her life. The film really focuses on Fanny's relationship with Rose, antagonistic at first but it does grow into a relationship based on mutual respect and affection, but not love or passion, which Fanny had with Nick. I love the scene where Billy proposes to Fanny because it's more like a business merger than a marriage proposal. These people are clearly not in love with each other but they are both lonely and need each other so they agree to a marriage they don't really want. The musical numbers, for the most part, are well-staged if not terribly original. There's a definite "been there done that" feel to some of the numbers. Fanny on stage in an empty theater belting out "How Lucky Can You Get?" reminded me of Fanny on stage in an empty theater belting out "I'm the Greatest Star." And many comparisons have been made to "Let's Hear it from Me" to "Don't Rain on my Parade", except that Fanny takes off in a plane instead of chasing a tugboat. Barbara shines in the "Big Day" production number and her take on two lovely ballads "Isn't this Better?" and "If I Love Again" is memorable. The score effectively combines songs from Fanny's era as well as new songs by John Kander and Fred Ebb (CABARET). Cann is charming as Billy Rose and Sharif has aged surprisingly well. Kudos also to Ben Vereen for his one-show-stopping number, "Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie". Not historically accurate or terribly original, but FUNNY LADY is an entertaining musical with Barbra in top form and her fans will not be disappointed.

This musical is just brutal. After the sensational soaring of FUNNY GIRL this bludgeoning sequel is what CARRY ON CLEO is to CLEOPATRA. Honestly, I thought Barbra was channeling Phil Silvers in TOP BANANA against James Caan still in Sonny Corleone mode. Or commode perhaps. The production values and the color is good but Barbra yakketyyakking at Caan's bemused head for 140 minutes just left me punch drunk. Ben Vereen leaping about and Roddy being wistful was sort of OK and some of the dance numbers were enjoyable in a cardboard way. I would actually like the see the reportedly cut scenes, especially James Caan singing "Does your chewing gum get stale on the bedpost overnight" (true) ...apparently he is playing it on a typewriter at the time, and whatever else they decided was 'not good enough' as opposed to what was already there. This even has a imitation 'Don't Rain On My Parade' number with planes trains and automobiles instead of a tug. Something this lady might have actually needed. Brutal. Clobbering. Thank God we weren't bulldozed with FUNNY GRANNY, but I guess there is still time.