Barbra Streisand was already a star, burning white-hot as a recording artist, when she took the role of Fanny Brice on Broadway. From there, she became a super-massive black hole, and began to consume the planet when she reprised the role in the Hollywood adaptation of Funny Girl. There was an Academy Award involved, Babs having apparently been born to play the famous comedienne, but how could anyone have expected to be revisiting Brice six years later? While I watched 1974’s Funny Lady, I was trying to think of another biopic that had received a sequel. Terminator, obviously, but beyond that, this event seems fairly unique. Although this film begins with just as much energy, wit, and charm as its predecessor, it couldn’t quite engage me to the end.
I was happy I made the effort to finally see Funny Girl before I watched Twilight Time’s new release. Having known very little about Fanny Brice prior to my viewing (I had once heard the name Baby Snooks… that’s about all), I would have felt a little lost landing in the second half of her career. Recovering from the great depression, everyone, including the nearly omnipotent Florenz Ziegfeld is running too low on cash to produce another hit production. Brice, now just as much a bossy-pants-institution as Ziegfeld was when they met early in her career, is quickly enchanted by a brash, streetwise young musician: Billy Rose (James Caan). She seems to see something of her old self in him, and though their first production begins with a bang (lots of bangs…the set catches fire, collapses, and explodes), they soon scrape together another success, and the sparks begin to fly in all the right places.
At first I was missing the all-wide-angle Old Hollywood Panavision exuberance of the first picture. It seemed that every moment in Fanny’s life, from the mundane to the extraordinary, was so grandiose. That’s because, as a movie musical, it was. She had a tremendous early career. It’s smart then, in telling the story of her later exploits, to allow the film to age with her. Just as Funny Girl looked like musicals did in the 60s (just before the fall of the studio system), Funny Lady looks like a film in the disillusioned 70s should. Here, only the stage performances are larger than life. The mundane is mundane.
Even her romance was ordinary. She never could get over Nicky Arnstein (Omar Sharif). After agreeing to marry Billy Rose (in what must be the least romantic way any con artist dreamt of proposing) her “love story” is immediately triangle’d. Rose, whom she never truly loved, begins to feel alienated, their schedules fail to line-up, and the now-remarried Arnstein seems to be trying to work his way back into Fanny’s life. Somehow, watching all of this fall apart just isn’t very interesting.
You can almost feel the movie running out of steam…and material. It’s a challenge to stay invested in a movie so front-loaded with entertainment. Just like in Funny Girl, this film has a distinct second act that falls as quickly as its first act rises, but unlike the previous installment, nothing about the latter half is nearly as interesting. Where are the wits? Where is the energy? Even the songs fail to make as much of an impression. Regardless, the Fanny Brice saga is a story worth watching. Both films look great. The performances are exquisite, and when it’s time to be funny, Barbra Streisand is truly hilarious. At times, she brings to mind the unfathomably brilliant Madeline Kahn. Streisand just might be one of the funniest women who ever lived: Fanny Brice (re)incarnate. For the sake of watching her do her thing, I can’t imagine saying this second film wasn’t worth making, even if it can’t quite fill its running time with intrigue.
THE PACKAGE
In Search of a Star: Weird old featurette covering the star power of the film’s leads. Really cool.
The New Look of Barbra in “Funny Lady”: Interesting look at make-up and costume design
Dancing on the Water: Great little doc about the synchronized swimmers featured in the film.
Original Theatrical Trailers
