Anne Francis' screen time
As Gary Brumburgh wrote in his review, Anne Francis' screen time was cut to zip, but she could steal the thunder from everyone else in her scenes. Her one line, "Has he fired you?" is the primo example... Thoughts?
shareI was around when this movie was being shot in 1967-1968 and it seemed like every day there was an item in the columns about Anne Francis' part be cut to nothing on Barbra's orders. Francis herself has said recently she does not blame Barbra, but she did petition to have her name removed from the credits.
It all goes back to the Broadway show. That same part Anne Francis played was set to be played by Alynn Ann McLerie on stage - the pretty and smart-mouthed co-star/side kick. But the show was not working, and in Boston, Jerome Robbins was called in as a play doctor. He told the director (Garson Kanin) "This show is not about the Zigfield Follies. It is not about Jewish mothers. It is not even about Fanny Brice. It is about Barbra Streisand" and he suggested they pare away anything that did not put Barbra front and center at all times.
Four years later, they are making the movie, and it is the same story - the sidekick goes, as well as several musical numbers not feauturing La Babs. Francis gets to display some interetsing character traits, and if you look closely, there are enough remnants of her character to suggest a bigger part. For example - Anne Francis (georgia) call Zigfield "Flo" while the others adress him formally. She also drinks - witness her stepping off the train and asking "Conductor baby" where they are. She looks a wreck. She also had a scene in the boring second half of the movie right before Fanny is playing cards with her mother. Georgia is drunk complains about getting older and losing her looks and Fanny puts her to bed. Also the scene with Fanny and Eddie doing sit-ups at rehearsal had a brief bit with Georggia asking about the baby. Whatever.
FUNNY GIRL is a strange musical film. Made right at the time when big musicals were coming out of Hollywoood on a regular basis and showing disappointing results at the box office, here comes a mucial with a great musical talent that looks like it is afraid to be a musical. The numbers are just kind a snuck in as if they hoped the audience wouldn't know it was a musical.
STAR! with Julie Andrews opened a month after FUNNY GIRL and failed miserably at th box office, but in my opinion it is a better movie than FUNNY GIRL. But the public was tired of Andrews at htis point, and Streisand was a new star. But audiences did not love her the way they loved Andrews.
It's true that the role played by Anne Francis (and earlier on stage by Allyn Ann McLerie) was superfluous and expendable, and that's the reason it ended up being cut. But regarding FUNNY GIRL on stage, the show's ultimate content was dictated by what the audience responded to during the out-of-town tryouts, and the creative team couldn't help noticing the show played better when they stuck with their star. As for Jerome Robbins, he came in as more than just a "play doctor" - he essentially took over the reins of the show as it neared its Broadway opening. The final program credits read "Production Supervised by Jerome Robbins."
I'm amazed you would think a film that has Barbra Streisand singing on a train & then a tugboat (while cruising by the Statue of Liberty, no less) "looks like it is afraid to be a musical." Streisand is singing "I'm The Greatest Star" about ten minutes into the film, followed by numbers that she performs at Keeney's, the Ziegfeld Follies, and even the street outside her mother's saloon. The finale features a solitary figure on a bare stage singing a song - that's all. No camera tricks and no flashy editing. Here's a film that not only knows it's a musical, but is proud of that fact.
And if you were around in 1967-1968, then you must be aware of the fact that STAR! failed not because "the public was tired of Andrews at this point," but because the film received terrible reviews (and word-of-mouth was equally poisonous). Pauline Kael took director Robert Wise and screenwriter William Fairchild to task in her New Yorker review, stating "They've made her (Gertrude Lawrence) a bitch all right, but they've failed to make her a star." And this was a fairly typical viewpoint among film critics at the time.