Johnny Carson used to say, “If you buy the premise, you buy the bit.” Well, in order to sit through “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,” you must buy a very large premise indeed!
Barbra Streisand stars as Daisy Gamble, a wacky chain smoker (“I’m an addicted addict and can’t stop!”). She is advised by a friend to attend a hypnosis class taught by a psychiatrist, played by Yves Montand. She starts treatments with the good doctor, who finds out she has had past lives, and he soon falls in love with her. The silly nonsense proceeds from there. Streisand’s performance is indeed weak; she struggles with a British accent in some scenes. Streisand had reached the extent of her very limited acting range.
The good news is that there are some decent musical numbers in this movie. It is based on the stage play of the same name by Alan Jay Lerner, who also wrote the screenplay. Nelson Riddle was the film’s music supervisor, arranger, and conductor. The film’s theme song, “On a Clear Day,” performed by Babs, is clearly the best of the lot.
The supporting cast behind Barbra Streisand and Yves Montand includes Bob Newhart, Larry Blyden, Simon Oakland, John Richardson, Jack Nicholson, Mabel Albertson, Leon Ames, Roy Kinnear, Irene Handl, and Pamela Brown.
Director Vincente Minnelli (“Meet me in St. Louis” 1944) is clearly off of his game at the helm of this disaster. This would be his second to last directorial job in a career that began in 1943 with a film called “Cabin in the Sky” at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The unwatchable nonsense “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever” was a big flop at the box office for producer Howard W. Koch and Paramount Pictures.
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970)
cinema
My Review
Johnny Carson used to say, “If you buy the premise, you buy the bit.” Well, in order to sit through “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,” you must buy a very large premise indeed!
Barbra Streisand stars as Daisy Gamble, a wacky chain smoker (“I’m an addicted addict and can’t stop!”). She is advised by a friend to attend a hypnosis class taught by a psychiatrist, played by Yves Montand. She starts treatments with the good doctor, who finds out she has had past lives, and he soon falls in love with her. The silly nonsense proceeds from there. Streisand’s performance is indeed weak; she struggles with a British accent in some scenes. Streisand had reached the extent of her very limited acting range.
The good news is that there are some decent musical numbers in this movie. It is based on the stage play of the same name by Alan Jay Lerner, who also wrote the screenplay. Nelson Riddle was the film’s music supervisor, arranger, and conductor. The film’s theme song, “On a Clear Day,” performed by Babs, is clearly the best of the lot.
The supporting cast behind Barbra Streisand and Yves Montand includes Bob Newhart, Larry Blyden, Simon Oakland, John Richardson, Jack Nicholson, Mabel Albertson, Leon Ames, Roy Kinnear, Irene Handl, and Pamela Brown.
Director Vincente Minnelli (“Meet me in St. Louis” 1944) is clearly off of his game at the helm of this disaster. This would be his second to last directorial job in a career that began in 1943 with a film called “Cabin in the Sky” at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The unwatchable nonsense “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever” was a big flop at the box office for producer Howard W. Koch and Paramount Pictures.