On a Clear Day You Can See Forever

1970
G
2h 9m

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

4.4K

YOUR RATING

Barbra Streisand in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970)

Comedy Drama Fantasy Musical Romance

A troubled young woman who visits a psychotherapist to help her quit smoking undergoes hypnosis and finds herself reliving a tragic Victorian romance from a past life.A troubled young woman who visits a psychotherapist to help her quit smoking undergoes hypnosis and finds herself reliving a tragic Victorian romance from a past life.A troubled young woman who visits a psychotherapist to help her quit smoking undergoes hypnosis and finds herself reliving a tragic Victorian romance from a past life.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

4.4K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
According to the 1974 biography "Barbra Streisand: The First Decade", this was originally envisioned as a three-hour "road show" extravaganza, and included many sequences of Daisy's other lives (photos of which were printed in some pre-release promotions), but director Vincente Minnelli and the studio felt it would be too long, especially since musicals had already begun to fail at the box office. In addition to all but the briefest of Jack Nicholson's scenes being cut, a musical number sung by him and Streisand, "Who Is There Among Us Who Knows?," was also cut, as well as "Wait Till We're Sixty-Five," a duet between Larry Blyden and Barbra Streisand. Producer Howard W. Koch conducted a search for the deleted footage in 1994, particularly Nicholson's song, which he wanted to showcase during the AFI tribute to the actor. Nothing turned up at Paramount. Koch asked Streisand and Minnelli's widow if they had remnants of the cut footage, but neither did. Koch determined that if the film still exists, it's probably in a mislabelled canister.

Goofs
The telephone ring in Chabot's office is not a typical Bell company ring, even though the story is supposedly set in New York.

Quotes
Dr. Marc Chabot: I used to be in love with answers, but since I've known you I'm just as astounded by questions. Answers make you wise, questions make you human.

Connections
Featured in Paramount Presents (1974)

Soundtracks
Hurry! It's Lovely Up Here!
Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Music by Burton Lane

User reviews63

Review

Featured review

A Wonderful, Old Fashion, Musical

On A Clear Day came at the end of the Movie Musical Cycle that started strong from MY FAIR LADY. Once the market became supersaturated with musicals (Half A Sixpence, Dr. Doolittle), the beauty of the movie musical wore off.

On A Clear Day started life as the next go-round for Richard Rodgers. After he retired working with Oscar Hammerstein, he partnered with Alan Lerner and they started to write this musical. Rodgers backed out of the project but the show made it to Broadway with Barbara Harris in the lead. It was respectfully received but never did blockbuster business. In fact, if it weren't for the song "What Did I Have?" it would almost be forgotten.

Enter Vincente Minelli and Ms. Streisand. Together, they took the idea and ran with it until it became a big, bright, lovely movie. The old songs (the title song and "What Did I Have") are rendered priceless by Barbra who sings them as emotional tour-de-forces. The new songs (a cute duet "Go To Sleep" and "Love With All The Trimmings") are wonderful. In fact, the latter was filmed a la Tom Jones. In short, everything about the film worked.

Originally it was three hours long and intended as a road show production (tickets ordered in advance; two shows a day). Paramount went for the fast buck and they trimmed it to under two hours. Yes, what is left is priceless and wonderful but I wish they would release the Director's Cut of this musical. If what we see today is still excellent, I can't help but wonder about what they took out.