This is three movies in one. It is a hilarious modern romantic comedy with Barbara Streisand as a delightfully Goldie Hawnish type character. It is a wonderful 19th century, sweeping romance with Tom Jones-like wit. Unfortunately it is also a dull melodrama about Yves Montand as a psychologist falling in love with one of the personalities of a patient. The first two movie shine and make for a delightful 1 hour and 20 minutes, the third movie is like a poor episode of a 1960's television show, and just lays there very flat.This is one of Streisand's best performance, but it is also one of Montand's worst. There is actually much more chemistry in the scene where the two Streisand characters meet than in any scene between Streisand and Montand. Probably the idea was that Streisand would act badly and sing well, while Montand would sing badly and act well, thus balancing both the book and music. It turned out that Streisand both acts and sings terrifically, while Montand looks amateurish doing either.Costumes and sets are terrific. I do agree with those who find that there are only two really good songs, the title song and "Come Back To Me". The rest seem over-orchestrated by Nelson Riddle, and his band seems to be fighting Streisand instead of accompanying her.The bottom line is this is a good movie, but a bit disappointing. If Jack Nicholson or Robert Goulet had been cast in Montand's part, it could have been a masterpiece.

The final musical directed by the legendary Vicnente Minnelli, ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER, is the expensive and lumbering 1970 film version of the 1965 Broadway musical, revamped to fit the talents of Barbra Streisand. In her third feature film, Barbra plays Daisy Gamble, a college student who we learn has ESP and the ability to make plants grow VERY quickly, who seeks the help of a college professor, Dr. Marc Chabot (Yves Montand) in helping her to quit smoking via hypnosis. While under hypnosis, Chabot discovers Daisy had a previous life as a 17th century temptress named Melinda Tentrees, who he falls in love with, but has to deal with the dull and annoying Daisy to get to the ever fascinating Melinda. This inventive Broadway musical has been dramatically re-tooled into a Barbra vehicle and despite Minnelli's still evident eye for color and cinema landscape, this long lumbering film fails to sustain interest until the end, despite some lovely scenery and breathtaking period costuming by the legendary Cecil Beaton. Streisand and Montand have no chemistry whatsoever and Bob Newhart, Simon Oakland, Larry Blyden, Elain Giftos, and Jack Nicholson (!?!)are wasted in pointless supporting roles. The severely tampered with Burton Lane-EY Harbug score includes "Hurry, It's Lovely Up Here", "What did I have that I Don't Have?", "Melinda", "Go to Sleep", and "Come Back to Me." For hard-core Streisand addicts only.

You could be forgiven at first thinking this is a bit like My Fair Lady. The flower lady, the professor having a kind of relationship with a quirky young lady and a few lovely songs. But suddenly we get into reincarnation, psychosis and hypnosis. It is very much the thinking persons musical and it was not a great success on Broadway mainly because it was way ahead of its time. Its time for a revival and to look at this again as it is a masterpiece. It was equally brave for Hollywood to adapt a complex failure like this to the screen. Cecil Beatons costumes are pure art. Not much reality but beautiful to look at. Matching nighties with the matching pillows and sheets. Costumes even blend into the wall paper. A visual feast! Barbra of course s in fine form. At the peak of her great career she pulls out all the stops. She delivers a kookie central character that she always does better than any one and when she sings well "quiet please, there's a lady on the stage". Most pleasant surprise is Yves Montand who sings the title song very well. I must admit howver, its not nearly as good as John Callum from the Broadway recording. Montand is howver impressive and its really quite a revelation. The hight light is come back to me! Its a brilliantly staged number. This is a superior movie and very profound: each time you see it you will discover something more. The layers and depth of the work are amazing and as for the score, its magnificent.

"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.