Funny Lady movie review & film summary (1975)

Caan makes a passable Billy Rose, although we never get much sense of a connection with the historical Rose and his prodigious talent as a producer and packager. But Sharif, as Arnstein, is an embarrassment. He wasn't this bad in "Funny Girl" because that was all Barbra's show. He had to mope around, spaniel-eyed and worshipful, until her talent outgrew his weakness and they split up. This time, inexplicably, she can't get that man outta her mind.

No wonder. He's presented as some sort of Playgirl or Viva fantasy, forever casting his quick, enigmatic glances from atop his polo pony. In the most laughable scene of a movie filled with them, they have a reunion and he explains that even if he leaves his rich wife, "I'll walk away with a large stake." Streisand breathes dreamily and embraces a handy nearby pillar.

A lot of this junk could have been saved by some great Streisand numbers. But here's where Herbert Ross, the director, fails most spectacularly. He wastes resources on a series of musical extravaganzas that are supposed to be bad -- the Billy Rose flop in Atlantic City that becomes a hit on Broadway -- and although he goes to the extreme of providing a runaway buffalo on stage, he doesn't get many laughs because his bad numbers are so overproduced and badly timed they are not funny, they're ungainly. With less than the cost of the costumes, Mel Brooks could (and in "The Producers" (1968) did) provide a bad musical number infinitely funnier.

In the midst of the carnage, Streisand sometimes hardly registers. She does a lot of her songs voice-over, which displaces her great presence and delivery, and there's a would-be big number involving a car and an airplane that draws only negative comparison with her "Don't Rain on My Parade" spectacular in "Funny Girl."

Ross consistently misses high points, ends scenes without completing them, gives us a muddy sound track, wastes time on ridiculous dialog (the conversation about Arnstein's toothbrushes has to be heard to be disbelieved), and then commits the most inexplicable omission of all. After a 10-year absence, Billy Rose reappears to coax Fanny Brice back onto Broadway. We look forward to the obligatory comeback scene with the old trouper bringing the house down -- and instead we get the end credits.

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