ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER [1970 / 2020] [50th Anniversary Collection] [Blu-ray] [USA Release] Daisy Isn’t The Girl She Used To Be 150 years ago!
Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of a classic, and for the first time on Blu-ray. The talents of acclaimed director Vincente Minnelli (‘Meet Me in St. Louis’ and ‘An American In Paris’) and legend Barbra Streisand combine to bring this Broadway production to the screen in grand fashion. Barbra Streisand is Daisy Gamble, a kooky chain-smoker desperate to kick the habit. She finds the perfect cure in the form of Dr. Marc Chabot [Yves Montand], a psychiatrist who uses hypnosis. However, when Daisy Gamble goes into a trance, she can regress into past lives and different personalities — including "Melinda," a 19th-century English coquette. And before you can say amour, Dr. Marc Chabot has fallen in love with the enthralling, elusive Melinda... while Daisy Gamble, in turn, finds herself falling head-over-heels for the handsome hypnotist! Bob Newhart and Jack Nicholson add to the tune-filled fun in this romantic romp.
FILM FACT: Alan Jay Lerner made a number of changes in adapting his stage play for the screen. The character of Frenchman Dr. Marc Chabot originally was Austrian Mark Bruckner. The period of Melinda's life was shifted ahead by a decade or two, her family background is different, and the cause of her death was changed from drowning at sea to unjust execution. In the stage play, the question of whether Daisy Gamble really was a reincarnation of Melinda went unresolved, but the film script made it clear she was. The character of Daisy Gamble's stepbrother Tad Pringle was added, although most of his scenes and his song "Who Is There Among Us Who Knows?" ended up on the cutting room floor. Additionally, the future of Daisy Gamble and Dr. Marc Chabot's relationship was altered, and several ensemble musical numbers were excluded from the film. New York City locations include Central Park, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Pan Am Building, the Upper West Side, and Lexington and Park Avenues. Scenes set in the UK were filmed at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, Kemp Town, and East Sussex. Nelson Riddle served as the film's music supervisor, arranger, and conductor. Paramount Pictures originally intended the film to be a nearly three-hour-long roadshow theatrical release, but executives ultimately had Vincente Minnelli cut nearly an hour from the running time.
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Yves Montand, Bob Newhart, Larry Blyden, Simon Oakland, Jack Nicholson, John Richardson, Pamela Brown, Irene Handl, Roy Kinnear, Peter Crowcroft, Byron Webster, Mabel Albertson, Laurie Main, Kermit Murdock, Elaine Giftos, John Le Mesurier, Angela Pringle, Leon Ames, Paul Camen, George N. Neise, Tony Colti, John Bawden (uncredited), Jeannie Berlin (uncredited), Fiona Curzon (uncredited), Richard Kiel (uncredited) and Judith Lowry (uncredited)
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Producer: Howard W. Koch
Screenplay: Alan Jay Lerner (play/ screenplay)
Composers: Burton Lane and Nelson Riddle
Cinematography: Harry Stradling Sr., A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 129 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER’ [1970] is based on the moderate success and probable flop 1965 musical by Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner which starred the incandescent Barbara Harris and ran for 280 performances on Broadway. It’s a breezy romantic comedy with a glorious music score by Burton Lane and Nelson Riddle and is charmingly original, if problematic, with a plot that centres on ESP [Extrasensory Perception] and reincarnation. It’s also the film that contains my all-time favourite Barbra Streisand musical comedy performance.
Vincente Minnelli’s 1970 adaptation of the Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane Broadway musical “On A Clear Day You Can See Forever” has widely been dismissed as a failure, although the film has generated a Barbra Streisand cult following that I personally feel it to be an overlooked gem. And of course the film is centred on Barbra Streisand’s kinetic and energetic starring performance with great gusto.
Barbra Streisand combined the kooky and the classic side of her personality perfectly when playing the parts of Daisy Gamble and Melinda Tentrees and the film was designed as a sumptuous musical in the tradition of such films as ‘Gigi’ or ‘The Sound of Music’ and ‘ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER’ was originally released as a Paramount Pictures “Road Show” release, which was a much longer version to give the film a special presentation, and especially shown with an Overture, as well as an Intermission [aka Entr'acte] as well as the “Walk Out” music score.
‘ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER’ title sequence was created by the prolific film and television title designer Wayne Fitzgerald and the team at Universal Title, and is very basic in its design but is equally spectacular in execution and with a stunning coordination of music and imagery that must have been completely overwhelming for cinemagoers at the time of the film’s release and even on the small screen the sequence still remains spellbinding to this day. The credits typeface is anchored to the event horizon, travels with the camera through a seemingly infinite spectrum of concentric rectangles. Then, as the voices of a dreamy choir surge, the film’s title is ushered into being one word at a time, “FOREVER” fading into itself.
The title sequence was designed to give viewers the “illusion of moving through space,” according to Wayne Fitzgerald. The impressive effect was achieved by filming a series of brightly coloured rectangular screens in succession. Wayne Fitzgerald would later use a similar technique for another sequence, with the eerie opening of Rod Serling’s cult anthology TV series ‘Night Gallery.’
‘ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER’ relates the story of Daisy Gamble [Barbra Streisand], a nervously introvert who seeks the services of psychiatrist and hypnotherapist Dr. Marc Chabot [Yves Montand] to help her to quit smoking. Daisy Gamble is a shrinking violet, a colourless wallflower and so put down by her button-down fiancé, Warren Pratt [Larry Blyden] that she tries to suppress the fact, both to herself and others that she is actually gifted with ESP [Extrasensory Perception] and, among her many talents, Daisy Gamble can make flowers grow simply by talking to them.
Under hypnosis, Daisy Gamble reveals herself to be the reincarnation of a 19th century British clairvoyant named Melinda Tentrees who was executed for treason. Melinda Tentrees is everything that Daisy Gamble is not: alluring, self-assured, and unreservedly sensual. For Dr. Marc Chabot, fascination with Daisy Gamble’s case soon turns into infatuation with the elusive Melinda Tentrees, while Daisy Gamble, misreading the doctor’s attentions, starts falling for Dr. Marc Chabot.
To its credit, the film presents Barbra Streisand with an extraordinary vehicle and her Daisy Gamble character is a variation on her raucous Fanny Brice and Dolly Levi persona that she nailed in her first two films, but Barbra Streisand as Melinda Tentrees provides her with a level of glamour and daring her personality that took her star power to a new level. Thanks to Harry Stradling’s cinematography and Cecil Beaton’s period costumes, Barbra Streisand epitomizes Regency-era chic. Plus, her attempts at various English accents (both royal court posh and Cockney growl) are genuinely entertaining, and few things are funnier than hearing the girl from Brooklyn shouting out, “Allo, mum!”
The overall result of this wonderful magical film ‘ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER’ is a charming musical that is nevertheless can to some seem strangely choppy and uneven in tone. The film is, at times, turns out and out to be funny, whimsical, stylish, lyrical, and sometimes breath-taking; but it frequently feels like we're watching the combined efforts of artists assigned to do their work in isolation and without an awareness of what others are doing. Structurally, the film is designed to contrast the past and the present, but this duality transfers somewhat schizophrenically in the combined efforts of the set designers, costumers, and especially the actors. Instead of creating the impression that time is cyclical, instead shows us that the past and present are spiritually interlinked.
On top of all that, ‘ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER’ opens with two extraordinary sequences. Firstly, with Babs singing the title song, where we get to see a montage of flowers growing at speed in front of our very eyes, and director Vincente Minnelli gives us a melange of beautiful colour and artifice to create a real eye-dazzlingly emotional explosion which reaches an ecstatic crescendo as Babs skips through a maze of floral abundance. This is followed by a chilling, antithetical credits sequence, a VERTIGOesque assembly-line of diminishing rectangles in cool, gorgeous colours. Also the Vincente Minnelli/ Alan Jay Lerner/Barbra Streisand 1970 film musical must have seemed amusingly quaint at the time, but not for me, but today, a new modern day audience can marvel at its audacity and flair, while many of its more acclaimed contemporaries seem tinny and shrill like. But to sum up, ‘ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER’ is truly a wonderful, feel good film musical. Barbra Streisand's portrayal of Daisy Gamble is absolutely endearing and the character of Daisy Gamble is so sweet and child-like, and at the same time kooky and hysterically clumsy. As well as it really being EXCELLENT and WONDERFUL film and is a totally visual and audio treat. So please enjoy it and is a film you can view many times and is always an enjoyable experience.
When you see at the end of the film Barbra Streisand repeats the song ON A CLEAR DAY [YOU CAN SEE FOREVER] I really got very emotional, knowing that Daisy Gamble is free of all her pent up troubled emotions and realises who the real Daisy Gamble is and if people do not get emotional at this point in the film, then they should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves, because I felt it gives you a great lift of emotions, that we can finally experience a very happy ending to a really wonderful film and a brilliant vehicle to the great talents of Ms. Barbra Streisand.
Ultimately and like most of the film’s co-stars — ‘ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER’ spectacular main titles play second fiddle to Barbra Streisand who opens the film minutes earlier with a musical number in which she serenades a garden full of tulips, geraniums, roses, and daffodils growing in time-lapse. The cold open does nothing to diminish the impact of Wayne Fitzgerald’s titles, which remain a powerful and sweeping intro to this tale of reincarnation and romance. However, it’s abundantly clear from the numerous hair and costuming credits in the sequence that the real star of the show is, as always, Miss Barbra Streisand who really brought a total panache and exuberance to this film and despite the age of the film.
ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER MUSIC TRACK LIST
HURRY! IT’S LOVELY UP HERE! (Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner) (Music by Burton Lane) [Sung by Barbra Streisand]
ON A CLEAR DAY [YOU CAN SEE FOREVER] (Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner) (Music by Burton Lane) [Orchestra and Chorus]
LOVE WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS (Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner) (Music by Burton Lane) [Sung by Barbra Streisand]
MELINDA (Lyrics by Luiz Bonfá, Alan Jay Lerner and Maria Toledo) (Music by Burton Lane) [Sung by Yves Montand]
GO TO SLEEP (Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner) (Music by Burton Lane) [Sung by Barbra Streisand]
HE ISN’T YOU (Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner) (Music by Burton Lane) [Sung by Barbra Streisand]
WHAT DID I HAVE THAT I DON’T HAVE (Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner) (Music by Burton Lane) [Sung by Barbra Streisand]
COME BACK TO ME (Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner) (Music by Burton Lane) [Sung by Yves Montand]
ON A CLEAR DAY [YOU CAN SEE FOREVER] (Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner) (Music by Burton Lane) [Sung by Yves Montand]
ON A CLEAR DAY [YOU CAN SEE FOREVER] [Reprise] (Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner) (Music by Burton Lane) [Sung by Barbra Streisand]
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Blu-ray Image Quality – ‘ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER’ has been presented to us by Paramount Pictures with a stunning 1080p image and equally enhanced with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The cinematography by Harry Stradling Sr. is truly amazing and catches the essence of the film, and especially with really vivid colours at the start of the film with all the colourful flowers blooming with the trick photography and you also get very well-balanced textures coming through beautifully on this brilliant Blu-ray disc transfer release. Director Vincente Minnelli brings out the amazing visuals of this film without exception. Especially when we see Barbra Streisand wearing her colourful dress of flowers that really stands out and also the blue jacket that Yves Montand is wearing, you can see so clearly the weave of the cloth and the wrinkles on Yves Montand face. Director Vincente Minnelli also gives for the eyes, the vivid period production design and the exceptional stylized contemporary sets of John DeCuir that elegantly compliments the amazing and splendid costumes by Sir Cecil Beaton (period costumes) and Arnold Scaasi (contemporary costumes).
Blu-ray Audio Quality – ‘ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER’ is brought to you by Paramount Pictures with two alternative soundtracks, which are 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and registers with my set up as 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio, but they say it is 1.0 Restored Mono Dolby Digital Audio. The dialogue sounds really nice and very clean, while the musical numbers appear to be mastered off a pristine soundtrack recording. The spacious audio mix on certain particular scenes in the film sounds absolutely sensational and also gives the film score a lushly romantic feel to it also. So all in all, this is a massive effort and a total improvement on the part of Paramount Pictures in bringing this film to a modern audience’s audio enjoyment and there is not a lot of audio difference between the two audio tracks, but I felt the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio had a slight edge to it.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras: Sadly Paramount Pictures have deemed not to provide any extras, which is quite a surprise, as I am sure at least in their vaults they could have given us the Original Theatrical Trailer and especially behind-the-scene filming and interviews with the cast and crew.
Finally, ‘ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER’ improves and is more enjoyable for each viewing. The first time I saw it was such a huge enjoyable film for me personally, but also on first viewing felt like a baffling entertaining jumble. So many ideas propped into one film to make it popular and a box office hit in a time of change and when the big film companies were desperately seeking hits to save themselves from total ruin. Also this film is crammed when ingredients that had proven successful in earlier films in the 1960s like the Barbra Streisand film and musical score for ‘Funny Girl.’ Some felt in America that Yves Montand was miscast because he had that earthy European charm, but as usual, Americans could not understand his European accent, which is so dumb and insulting. The songs I felt were very good, but to some critics they felt they were underrated and why does one never hear them as other classic musical numbers? The direction from Vincente Minelli works really well for this film as it is very lush and enthralling. The period costumes by Cecil Beaton are beautiful without being too much and look great on Babs. The snazzy Scaasi mod clothes are a hoot! Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
