bkoganbing Although you would never know it by the scope of the cinematography with its breathtaking shots of New York, topped by Yves Montand singing on top of the World Trade Center, the film version of On A Clear Day You Can See Forever is actually quite an edited version of what was on stage. Having been one of those fortunate enough to see one of the 280 performances during its run in 1965-1966, I can tell you this for a fact. Quite a bit of the Regency England flashbacks is cut out and even some of the modern era numbers.Still On A Clear Day You Can See Forever retains both the title song and Come Back To Me which are the two numbers that have lingered on. Robert Goulet had a big hit record of the latter song, elbowing its way into the charts dominated by the British Rock invasion. The original show starred Barbara Harris and John Cullom and had such worthy folks as Hamilton Camp, William Daniels and Titos Vandis in the cast.As my father's profession was psychology this show was a must item to see in our house. With the powerhouse name of Barbra Streisand now in the lead playing Daisy Gamble, Streisand seeks out noted psychologist Yves Montand to cure her of an incredible five pack a day smoking habit with hypnosis. But under hypnosis Streisand proves to be a remarkable subject, revealing a past life as an Englishwoman of means who didn't always have those means and was quite the the figure during the Regency. She was also hanged as a traitor when her psychic ability to predict disasters at sea made authorities think she was collaborating with the French.Montand's pretty excited about his subject, giving her quite a buildup with colleagues like Simon Oakland and Bob Newhart. In the meantime Montand is falling for some aspect of Streisand, but is it who she is or who she was? As for Streisand she's engaged, kind of, to Larry Blyden who is chasing the everyman suburban dream in America. Blyden's got an interesting character, it's a combination of his own creation Sammy Glick from What Makes Sammy Run and the worst aspects of some of Jack Lemmon's everyman characters from several films. William Daniels played his part on stage.Jack Nicholson plays Streisand's former step brother and I'm surprised because even then Nicholson was a rising star, that he would do such a small part. His scenes are mostly with Streisand, but he's got one devastating scene with Blyden in which in his own droll way, he punctures a lot of his pretensions.This was the next to last film directed by Vincente Minnelli who did a few good musicals in his time and this certainly belongs among them. Though I would have liked to have heard more of the Burton Lane-Alan Jay Lerner score, what was left was sung well indeed by Streisand and Montand. In an age when musical budgets were catastrophic because of the studio system breakdown, all the good ones, in fact just about every one seemed to star the only bankable singers around, Barbra Streisand and Julie Andrews. I'm glad this one got preserved.

Isaac5855 The final musical directed by the legendary Vicnente Minnelli, ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER, is the expensive and lumbering 1970 film version of the 1965 Broadway musical, revamped to fit the talents of Barbra Streisand. In her third feature film, Barbra plays Daisy Gamble, a college student who we learn has ESP and the ability to make plants grow VERY quickly, who seeks the help of a college professor, Dr. Marc Chabot (Yves Montand) in helping her to quit smoking via hypnosis. While under hypnosis, Chabot discovers Daisy had a previous life as a 17th century temptress named Melinda Tentrees, who he falls in love with, but has to deal with the dull and annoying Daisy to get to the ever fascinating Melinda. This inventive Broadway musical has been dramatically re-tooled into a Barbra vehicle and despite Minnelli's still evident eye for color and cinema landscape, this long lumbering film fails to sustain interest until the end, despite some lovely scenery and breathtaking period costuming by the legendary Cecil Beaton. Streisand and Montand have no chemistry whatsoever and Bob Newhart, Simon Oakland, Larry Blyden, Elain Giftos, and Jack Nicholson (!?!)are wasted in pointless supporting roles. The severely tampered with Burton Lane-EY Harbug score includes "Hurry, It's Lovely Up Here", "What did I have that I Don't Have?", "Melinda", "Go to Sleep", and "Come Back to Me." For hard-core Streisand addicts only.

rzajac Just saw it, and I loved it! What struck me was the beauty of the writing; truly intelligent and exciting dialog, solidly worldly and then suddenly transcendent. There was this one moment near the end where Montand is giving Daisy his impassioned pep talk, leading to a capstone pronouncement. He pauses.... And I knew exactly what he was going to say before he said it; and not because it was melodramatically predictable, but rather because it was magnificently true.My only qualification is a "drat it" regret that not all the songs were great. Half were well crafted, and the other half are poor-to-middling, with one having truly cringe-inducing lyrics. That's too bad; dropped the ball there. But the blockbuster songs are excellent. I'd always wanted to hear more Montand, and there he was giving the songs the timing and smooth delivery one expects from a great entertainer.I can see why some folks think of this as a lesser period piece. But, like I said, I feel the writing lifts this out of the period and invites us to listen and watch with everything we have. And isn't that what art is supposed to do? Watch it.

mrsastor In a lot of ways this film points out exactly what is wrong with the musical genre in my opinion.Here we have a very entertaining story, the Daisy Gamble character is fascinating (although it is absolutely implausible that Daisy would have ever been engaged to a yutz like Warren), but the entire production would have been immensely better with all of the songs removed. Ms. Streisand's opening and closing songs are fine, but the majority of the songs within the movie are terrible and only disrupt and distract from what is otherwise a cute story. Yves Montand's songs are particularly dreadful, even his swear-word strewn finale' "Come Back To Me" is regrettable. Whoever told him he could sing?! If you can overlook the terribly annoying songs (just fast forward, when people stop flailing their arms about, they're usually through singing), it's really fun movie.