MovieChat Forums > Funny Lady (1975) Discussion > This Movie NEVER Should Have Been Made

This Movie NEVER Should Have Been Made

posted 16 years ago by missalex
16 replies | jump to latest

Ok, I just want to say that I absolutely fell in LOVE with the movie Funny GIRL when it was played on AMC a few months ago - so much so that i have probably watched it 100 times since then. So of course when I found out there was a sequel, I knew I had to see it. So I watched Funny LADY yesterday and my god was that ever painful. First of all, I loved Omar Sharif in the first movie. He was sexy and suave and romantic and yet in Funny Lady (made only 7 years later) he looks like an old man!! What was so great about him in the first movie is completely gone in this film. I mean I understand that probably helps the movie b/c now Fanny sees that they man she fell in love with before was not a real man but someone who put on a sense of sexiness and security to really coverup his insecurity, however it was painful to see OMar Sharif again in this movie.
Then you have Fanny Brice - now again, I understand that this movie is supposed to have an older, wiser more sophisticated Fanny, however, what happened to that lovable character from Funny Girl? Gone are the cute jokes and expressions and here we have a diva - that was probably done on purpose to show you how Fanny is now an established star, etc but she is no longer lovable and you are no longer rooting for her like you did in Funny GIRL.
James Caan was good but obviously him and the Fanny Brice character do not suit each other - and why the heck would Fanny marry Billy Rose anyway, the lead up to that proposal was weird b/c you never even saw them in a true romance, you just knew they had some attraction to each other.
I guess they wanted to make Funny Lady a more realistic movie than Funny Girl with less romance and fantasy but what was so amazing about Funny Girl WAS the whirl wind romance and passion and chemistry between Sharif and Streisand.
Funny Lady lacks everything - it lacks chemistry and passion and true romance and true laughs and seriously, everytime I saw Sharif and Streisand on the screen together it made me cringe. In those scenes between Nick and Fanny, they literally destroy everything that was magical between them in Funny Girl. I mean, Fanny saying that all she fell in love with was Nick's seven tooth brushes and his monogrammed towels (ie the suave persona that she is accusing Nick of faking in Funny Girl?) I mean come on!! NIck in Funny Girl was the real Nick and she did love him and he did love her. But in Funny Lady, they discount their courtship and marriage into nothing but a sham between two people who never belonged together and Fanny turns Nick into an uncaring, money hungry, absentee father who was nothing but a fake. However in the first movie they DID belong together - that was what was so magical! Nick and Fanny from different sides of the tracks, falling in love and defying the odds and Fanny wanting to stick with Nick no matter what. In Funny Lady, that was not the real Nick Arnstein - he was sweet and in love with Fanny in Funny Girl - all it was, was the fact that his pride had taken a beating after he started to "lose his poker face".
Funny Girl was remarkable because you hads the fantasy element plus the reality hitting at the end of the movie, but it still never lost its sense of romance and fairy tale. But Funny LADY has neither. I am trying with all my might to forget about this movie and maintain the image I have of Nick and Fanny from the first movie and leave it at that. I do not want to think of an aging Fanny and Nick, bitter and with all their magic gone - instead I want to think of them as young and sexy and in love.
It is sort of like the last Godfather movie. Godfather I and II were remarkable, then in 1989/1990, over 15 years after the second Godfather film, they decide to make another one and all you have is an old Al Pacino and an old Diane Keaton, bumbling along, reminiscing their past and discussing why they did things and analysing things and saying how they have changed, etc etc and all the viewer can go is cringe at Godfather III because it completely destroys everything you loved about the first two films and their characters. As with Funny Lady - its a pointless film - no reminiscing of Funny Girl is needed - no explanation or change of heart,etc is needed. Instead, Funny Girl, although it ended with Nick leaving and Fanny still loving him, is enough and it should have have been left at that.

[–] Isaac5855 16 years ago

You are certainly welcome to your opinion,but I don't think this film is nearly as awful as you make it out to be. No, it's no FUNNY GIRL, but how many sequels are as good as the original? The film is watchable and I think hard-core Streisand fans enjoy it.

[–] GlitteringCupcake 16 years ago

This movie is complete and utter *beep* Streisand is over doing her acting, and it is completely obvious that she had lost her touch in between Funny Girl (an utter fave of my mine) and this bologna. In fact it felt like she was just playing herself, except with really bad hair and makeup. This movie is CRAP!

[–] mark-1589 16 years ago

Have to agree with GlitteringCupcake, this movie was a piece of garbage. I saw it when it came out (I was 12, but I still remember it vividly), and I thought it was one of the worst pieces of crap I had ever seen. Haven't seen it since, and don't intend to ever see it again. Bad script, bad acting, horrible songs and directing. Yeech, yeech, yeech!!!!!

[–] judith-mcgee1025 12 years ago

I enjoy seeing the film "Funny Lady", a major musical produced at the end of that era (1975). It also marked Ms. Streisand's becoming less a musical theatre performer and more a motion picture actress. I never saw the film in a theatre, and wish that I had. Fortunately it disposes with the extreme romanticism and kind of fanciful presentation of Fannie Brice's personal history and style as shown in "Funny Girl". I believe it also dispenses with the numerous location filming that was "Funny Girl"'s hallmark and which must have made that film very expensive to produce. True, James Caan looks nothing like Billy Rose, but his brassy style fits in well with Ms. Streisand's tough cookie Fannie Brice. Roddy McDowell's presence is always welcome in a film. The cinematography (James Wong Howe) is terrific; glad that Mr. Stark and Columbia Pictures were able to assemble the necessary creative forces together to make this film.

[–] scatman1933 16 years ago

Yellow M&M

I agree completely, they should have quit while they were ahead. I absolutely loved Funny Girl when i rented it and had to go out and buy it. Like everyone else, i found out there was a sequel to Funny girl and was very excited only to be extremely disappointed. Funny Lady killed everything that was charming, sweet and fun about Funny Girl. The swearing in 'Lady' was NOT needed in my opinion and ruined the character of Fanny Brice to me. Why do we need to see Fanny older and embidered by life and love. I know Funny Girl ended on a sad note but you were still left with some hope and the ending i believe was better left to the imagination. Seeing Fanny cynical and hard, and Nicky remarried and basically a playboy living off his new wife's money totally destroyed these wonderful characters that i fell in love with in Funny Girl. I hated what Fanny said about "her falling in love with his seven toothbrushes" that there relationship was a complete lie. I don't agree. I believe they really loved each other but pride and miscommunication was their downfall in the end. Anyway that is what i think. Stick with the original!

[–] weepups2-1 15 years ago

guess it just goes to show that RAy stark who was behind both movies who just happens to be married to Frances, fanny brice's daughter. he gets to have the power to make this into two undeserved movies. Funny Girl was great loved. Funny lady has a few good scenes but nowhere near as good. Fanny came off as a diva bitch too bad. just shows why some "sequels" should never be made.

[–] dawnm5 15 years ago

I disagree with all of you. This movie was awesome. I loved it. James Caan was incredible in this movie and his chemistry with Barbra was wonderful. I loved it almost as much as Funny Girl. "How Lucky can you Get", and Barbra and James' duet were two of my favorite numbers, but I loved them all.

[–] jjuergen 14 years ago

I enjoyed the movie overall, but I tend to be a stickler for detail. With the exception of the cars and some of the wardrobe this movie didn't have much of a 20's-30's feel. There was hardly any similarity from that period.

I would have liked if Barbra would have done more of music from the period.

Of course I'm an egomaniac! I have America's Sweetheart climbing up my drainpipe!

[–] loredanaghidarcea 14 years ago

I didn't think the movie was all together awful but one thing I will say is they really destroyed the character of Nick.

I mean, in Funny Lady he's this money grabbing hussler with no depth. While that might be true of the real Nick Arnstein, the Nick character in Funny girl practically drove himself in prison because he refused to use his wife's money, his pride got in the way. He even says he wants to be the man of the house. I just don't see that Nick marrying someone for her money and living off it when he abhored it to that extent when he was with Fanny. And him saying their problem was the lack of money?!? That was never it! Fanny was making a great living when they were married. She even had the means to put up 50.000$ for his cut into the casino. If he wanted money that badly, he would have had it. It was his inability to "keep up with her" that ultimately drove them apart. That and Fanny's inability to discuss and help him in the right way.

I don't know why they felt the need to turn Nick into this new character and especially have Fanny say she fell in love with his 7 tooth burshes. That seemed a bit harsh ...

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[–] jjuergen 14 years ago

That is a good analogy. Basically the only similarity between FG Nick and FL Nick is his name and that it was played by the same actor. It was almost like the writers failed to watch the first film.

Of course I'm an egomaniac! I have America's Sweetheart climbing up my drainpipe!

[–] shandy8 13 years ago

I read your post. I am watching 'Funny Lady' now and logged onto IMDB to see what what was being said about it. Your review is very well thought out and you make some great points.

'Funny Girl' was a hit stage show, and the movie based on it was also a great hit; however, 'Funny Lady' was a movie that capitalized on Streisand's super-stardom at the time. You (probably) have no idea how huge she was at that time. This move was 'fun' but certainly not a decent follow-up to 'Funny Girl' (a classic). It's still good to see her in her prime singing and being Streisand.

How could Shariff go from 'hot' to 'haggard' in just a few years? Who knows. It's still a fun movie.

"What do you want me to do, draw a picture? Spell it out!"

[–] jjuergen 13 years ago

Regarding Sharif, not sure how much of it was him, or the makeup that made him look like that. The real life Arnstein did do some prison time around the same time. Prison can definitely age you.

Ohhh, it's all so complicated, with the flowers, and the romance, and the lies upon lies.

[–] vpilutis 12 years ago

Trust me the real Nick was no Omar Sharif, in the play he's portrayed by not so handsome actors. I never saw the show but I did see Barbara's replacement (this was on one of the afternoon talk shows) and the actor who played Nick was somewhat plain looking. Billy Rose was no James Cann either.
Anyway I saw this for the first time in years this evening it hasn't played on cable or network TV in some time. I got the two DVD film set (FG & FL)for the wife at Xmas. I recall liking it back in 1975 and I still liked it tonight.

TCM has FG again today but they never show FL.

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[–] geode 13 years ago

I think the intentional tone of "Funny Lady" is darker and more downbeat than that of "Funny Girl"... when I saw the two of them in the era in which they were released I liked "Funny Lady" better. However, I should admit that I was warming up to musicals in the time that passed between the two films. In the 60's I used to say that I could count the musicals I liked on one hand, and "Funny Girl" was not one of these. It actually is one of two films I have walked out on (the other was "Manderlay"). I walked out of "Funny Girl" at the intermission, and I still have not seen the part of the film that followed. The belting one out in New York Harbor capped what I had already seen and not enjoyed much at all. I

I was working as a projectionist when "Funny Lady" was released and I enjoyed watching some scenes several times. I think it remains under-rated. I will have to re-watch the two films and get a new take on them now that I quite like musicals. I just bought a DVD of "Funny Lady" and watched the "How Lucky Can You Get" number...I remembered most nuances after 35 years. Once again I liked having the up-tempo version on record followed by Fanny's "frustrated" and bitter version on an empty stage. This scene was very well-conceived.

I also watched some other numbers and remembered the lyrics to "Clap Hands" and "I've Got a Cold in My Nose"...and could sing along. I liked the score better back then, and probably still do. I also liked James Caan in this and couldn't have cared less whether or not Omar Sharif showed up. As it was it was just a cameo so I don't see any reason to get worked up over his appearance one way or the other.

Oh Lord, you gave them eyes but they cannot see...

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