MovieChat Forums > On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970) Discussion > 3 Reasons for this movie flopping

3 Reasons for this movie flopping

posted 15 years ago by onepotato2
5 replies | jump to latest

3 culprits:

- The demise of the "Roadshow" musical by 1970 - A three hour print designed to mimic going to see live theater (overture, intermission, walking out music) was jettisoned after it had been assembled because by 1970 this was not how young audiences engaged film. Linking portions of the script are lost.
- Allan Jay Lerner! Cecil Beaton was awfully peeved that Lerner could not get a decent script done prior to going into production, which would have prevented time and money (hundreds of thousands of dollars in 1969 dollars) from being spent on sequences that never left the editing room. Entire historical sequences ($$$$) were scrapped. Lerner was also getting drugged up with shots from Dr. Feelgood.
- Babs! As always everything had to be rewritten to feature more of her, reflect more attention on her. I'm no play purist but songs don't even make sense once the gender is reversed and handed to her characters ("She wasn't you," becomes "He isn't you")

The ability of Chabot to enter Melinda's memories is also problematic.

[–] mikwalen 15 years ago

I know what you mean by saying that by 1970, the younger audiences wouldn’t be the ones going to see the big roadshow, 3 hour musicals – but yet, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF was 3 hours, advanced ticket sales, intermission, the whole 9 yards – and this was a huge success as a film. Then again, this is FIDDLER we are talking about, which already had a huge reputation and following.

What I find surprising is that Streisand was considered a sure-fire box office draw, and yet the film still had weak returns. Even DOLLY, for all the talk of it being a flop, still brought in many millions.

"Samantha! You picked a lemon in the garden of love!"

[–] markedjuan 14 years ago

The weak returns were also the result of the limited amount of money spent on marketing the movie. The studio virtually gave up on it when it was ready for release. Amazingly, Darling Lili was released a week after On A Clear Day made its debut. The Julie Andrews musical cost twice as much to make and grossed half of what the Streisand musical made.

[–] jrhpax 12 years ago

The original Broadway play ran for just 280 performances and was a trifle. It was blown up into a way overlong, hippopotamic movie musical with a gigantic budget (much as "Paint Your Wagon," another Broadway semi-flop, had been). It was an idiotic idea to make the movie.

That said, it's gorgeous to look at and somewhat watchable. But surely it's no classic.

[–] ChristmasStan 11 years ago

Paramount Pictures was almost bankrupt by the time "On A Clear Day" was being prepared for release. The Studio was just scarping by in 1970. They were saving money anyway they could in order to stay afloat. So marketing dollars were not "THERE" for this film and maybe this is another reason why the film suffered.

[–] 11 years ago

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