Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

InspireGato Film Perfection

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

atlasmb I saw this film on its first release, then immediately bought the soundtrack album. The songs, by Lerner and Lane, still stand up. I don't think the film was very successful. Vincent Canby of the New York Times gave it a lackluster review that had little to criticize about it or its star; just vague insinuations of disappointment.Barbra Streisand had shined in "Funny Girl" and then taken a less stellar, though titular role, in "Hello Dolly!" "On a Clear Day" was the third stage-to-screen role to get the Streisand treatment. She plays a young woman, Daisy Gamble, with supernatural gifts, like premonition, telepathy and the ability to grow flowers with amazing speed. She convinces a professor to use hypnosis to cure her of her smoking habit. Yves Montand feels miscast as the academic who falls under her spell, but I have trouble thinking of a more suitable actor for the role. Robert Goulet comes to mind.As the professor works with his willing subject, she regresses to reveal an unexpected past. Thanks to Director Vincent Minelli, Streisand's exotic beauty is fully realized. Some wonderful costuming helps complete the transformation.Streisand's comedic abilities should not be overlooked. As she did in "Funny Girl" and would later do in "They Way We Were", she can combine self-deprecating humor and an unexpected beauty very convincingly.The film suffers somewhat from a weaker third act, but remains engaging. The music and Streisand's vocalizations remind us that no one else has done more to keep the musical genre alive during this era.With better editing and a few tweaks this could have been a superior film, but it is still worth seeing.

Keith Orr I don't believe it would be much of a spoiler alert to say that the title of the film refers to Streisand's character Daisy Gamble's extraordinary gifts for clairvoyance, ESP, past life regression as well as an uncanny ability to make her rooftop plant life grow that goes quite beyond having a mere green thumb. And she discovers these deeply- suppressed talents with the aid of Dr. Marc Chabot (Montand) who inadvertently dredges them to the surface in an effort to get her to kick an everyday commonplace nicotine habit to empress her stuffy staid fiancée whose strictly squaresville. Coming after Streisand's Oscar winning role as Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl" (a shared win with Katherine Hepburn for a "Lion in Winter" that same year of 1968) and the miserable drubbing she received from the critics for her unique interpretation of Dolly Levi in "Hello Dolly" (1969), it was hoped by all that her performance in "On a Clear Day..." would solidify her prominence as a reigning star in Hollywood. Such was not the case. Nevertheless, Streisand's dominant bubbly, effervescent personality always managed to emerge transcending her many characterizations to radiate despite the various roles she elected to appear in establishing her considerable mainstay to this very day. Nor was this Vincente Minnelli's best directorial effort who was responsible for such cinematic musical milestones in everything from "Meet Me in St. Louis"(1944) to the Oscar-winning Best Picture for 1958 "Gigi" as well as keeping his hand in as an unqualified expert dramatist with film adaptations such as "Tea and Sympathy" (1956). Still, there's still quite a bit of magic evident in this film to have made this journeyman effort on his part a bright enough light among so many musicals which lit up Broadway to justify the estimated $10,000,000 Paramount Pictures sent on "A Clear Day..." well worth anyone's while.

mark.waltz When Broadway and Hollywood's "Funny Girl" takes on a character who seems to have more lives than Disney's "Thomasina", you know she's going to not only sing out a storm but wear some delightfully lavish costumes, both period and modern. Ms. Streisand didn't just get another big vehicle to show off her enormous talents, but a legendary director who knew a thing or two about movie detail: Vincent Minnelli. Having just completed work with Minnelli's old MGM pal Gene Kelly on "Hello, Dolly!", Barbra added, for her third movie, another movie version of a Broadway musical to her film credit, and if "On a Clear Day" wasn't the smash of the first two on stage, it was certainly a vehicle worthy of her talents."Climb up, geraniums!", she sings gregariously as she dances her way through a flower garden. Is this a music video, movie musical or nature show?, you may wonder as the film begins, but after hearing her voice initially, you wait for the big star entrance, and boy, is she given one. She's on her way to Columbia University to see psychiatrist Yves Montand in an effort to stop smoking, and with their meeting, more is revealed than meets the Marlbrough. Take us back to Charles Dickens era England where we discover one of Streisand's previous lives: She's a female Oliver Twist, brought up in an work house (even seen eating gruel) yet ends up the wife of a wealthy aristocrat clad in a gorgeous beaded and hooded gown which looks like something out of "Metropolis". "Love With All the Trimmings!", she sings over the action as her manicured goddess makes her lust towards a handsome visitor obvious to everybody but the cuckolded husband.Back in 1970 Manhattan, Streisand and psychiatrist Montand have instant rapport, even though Montand is more interested in Streisand's past lives than helping her quit smoking. This leads to the amusing revelation of his true intentions, and Montand is faced with possibly losing his greatest psychiatric discovery once Streisand learns the truth. "Come Back to Me!", he sings from his office window, and this, combined with the fact that she has gained E.S.P. from her meetings with him, makes her unable to sleep. One of the people she encounters during this song is the adorable Judith Lowry ("Phyllis's" Mother Dexter) who must mouth Montand's words to her while Streisand desperately tries to get Montand's voice out of her head.There's plenty of comedy here, but the romantic chemistry between Streisand and Montand is nill. For the most part, he's a handsome but dull partner, giving the impression that perhaps somebody like Louis Jourdan would have been better in this role. Other cast members are wasted, and they include a young Jack Nicholson and a pre-TV Bob Newhart. Amusing with her few scenes is "Bewitched's" Mabel Albertson as Montand's secretary, quite ironic considering her larger part in Streisand's comic masterpiece "What's Up, Doc?".While not perfect, and certainly nowhere near faithful to the original Broadway play (it is certainly a lot better than a recent Broadway revisal), this is at its best when Streisand is either singing, clowning, or clad in outrageous outfits. Minnelli shows he still has a flair for great detail, and even with this not being the smash he had hoped it would be (or the unfortunate misfire of his badly edited "A Matter of Time"), he shows that the magic of his triumphant MGM years had not wained.

Ed "On a Clear Day" is one of the less successful collaborations of Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane and, though I thought the film was entertaining enough, I can't say I was bowled over by it. The idea for the Broadway show must have come from the popular 50s "Search for Bridey Murphy" even though the original musical was of the 60s. Alan Jay Lerner probably had a fondness for ESP or the supernatural since he also collaborated on the shows "Brigadoon", "Finian's Rainbow", "Camelot" and even the film "The Little Prince", all of which had these elements.Miss Streisand is one of the towering egos of show business and I found it impossible to accept her as the "mousy" Daisy Gamble. To me, her singing was always rather mannered to the point of being overbearing and to suggest, as the script does, that Daisy is commonplace and lacks personality is pretty mind-boggling. Perhaps she was more acceptable as Melinda even if her British accent was a little less than perfect.I thought that Yves Montand as Dr. Marc Chabot (Dr. Mark Bruckner in the original Broadway musical) was adequate and, of course, he sang well. The rest of the supporting cast were also adequate without anyone really standing out and the title song, mostly sung by Yves, had to be reprised by Big Babs of course.Entertaining but nothing special. The DVD is in the letterboxed format and there are no extras.