Product: Funny Girl [VHS] (1968)
Rating: 4.0
BARBRA AT HER ULTIMATE BEST
"FUNNY GIRL" is arguably Barbra Streisand's best film; probably because, as Fanny Brice, Barbra was human andvulnerable; qualities she has rarely displayed on screen since. (In "THE WAY WE WERE", another three handkerchief weepie, she comes close.) "FUNNY GIRL" is one of my favorite movies from my teen-age years, but I certainly see it differently as an adult.As a musical biopic, "FUNNY GIRL" is a mixed bag. Several of the best songs from the original Broadway production, noteably "Coronet Man," "Who Are You Now?" and "The Music That Makes Me Dance", are absent from the film version. This is probably due to director William Wyler's inexperience with musicals. Composer Jule Styne was reportedly furious about the musical omissions. Herbert Ross directed the musical numbers that did survive, Wyler did the rest. Somehow, though, Barbra's amazing charisma and the spirit of Fanny Brice herself carry the viewer over numerous rough spots.The film is best when depicting Fanny's tremendous drive and deterimination to succeed in show-business, which mirrors Barbra's own. Whereas Barbra's quest for perfection and control made her an untouchable, unreachable star, I suspect Fanny always essentially stayed a kid from Brooklyn. Nobody from show-biz came pounding on Fanny Brice's door. So, Fanny opened doors herself, and paved the way for generations of unconventional, talented funny girls after her. If Fanny had lived in our generation, she would have undoubtedly earned a top spot on "Saturday Night Live" or something similar. She did become a top star of the Zigfeld Follies, but on her own terms, I'll bet. In the musical, she wants the audience to laugh with her instead of at her. So, she sticks a pillow under a wedding gown and turns a lavish Zigfeld production number into a comic farce. She feels the wrath of the Great Zigfeld (Walter Pidgeon) immediately afterwards, but even he admits her comic instincts were brilliant. He hated it, but the audience loved it.In terms of depicting Fanny's less than brilliant private life, the musical is a sketchy and inaccurrate mess. Fanny was briefly married to Harold White before she met and married gambler/con man Nick Arnstein (Omar Sharif).So, Nick was Fanny's second, not first, husband. But the audience is not likely to quibble over the facts. WhenBarbra sings "Don't Rain On My Parade" and Fanny Brice's signature song "My Man", the movie is sheer, absolute, bliss.The picture and sound quality, and the Interactive Menu, on the DVD are superb. This is a restored print.Barbra has often said that "FUNNY GIRL" is her favorite movie. Sadly, there is no Audio Commentary. If Barbra would (please!) someday do an Audio Commentary for another DVD edition, then the audience would truly be "the luckiest people in the world!" Oh, Barbra tied with Katharine Hepburn in "The Lion In Winter" for "Best Actress" of 1968-- the only "Best Actress Tie" in the history of the Academy Awards.To see the real Fanny Brice on film, check out 1938's "EVERYBODY SING" from MGM. I don't know if it is out on DVD. Fanny plays Olga, the Yiddish maid to Judy Garland's daffy theatrical family. Billie Burke (Glinda in "THE WIZARD OF OZ", and widow of Fanny's former boss Florenz Zigfeld) plays the scatter-brained mother.It's Judy Garland's show, but Fanny proves she is a funny girl when she gets into the act as her celebrated Baby Snooks character. Barbra is dressed as Baby Snooks in "FUNNY GIRL" in the scene where reporters ask Fanny about Nick Arnstein's criminal activities. She answers back in comical, Baby Snooks fashion until one reporter asks a question that hits a raw, emotional nerve.