On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970)

Daisy Gamble, an unusual woman who hears phones before they ring, and does wonders with her flowers, wants to quit smoking, to please her finacee, Warren. She goes to a doctor of hypnosis ... See full summary »

Director:

Vincente Minnelli

Writers:

Alan Jay Lerner (play), Alan Jay Lerner (screenplay)

Stars:

Barbra Streisand, Yves Montand, Bob Newhart

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Barbra Streisand	...	Daisy Gamble
Yves Montand	...	Dr. Marc Chabot
Bob Newhart	...	Dr. Mason Hume
Larry Blyden	...	Warren Pratt
Simon Oakland	...	Dr. Conrad Fuller
Jack Nicholson	...	Tad Pringle
John Richardson	...	Robert Tentrees
Pamela Brown	...	Mrs. Fitzherbert
Irene Handl	...	Winnie Wainwhisle
Roy Kinnear	...	Prince Regent
Peter Crowcroft	...	Divorce Attorney
Byron Webster	...	Prosecuting Attorney
Mabel Albertson	...	Mrs. Hatch
Laurie Main	...	Lord Percy
Kermit Murdock	...	Hoyt III

Storyline

Daisy Gamble, an unusual woman who hears phones before they ring, and does wonders with her flowers, wants to quit smoking, to please her finacee, Warren. She goes to a doctor of hypnosis to do it. But once she's under, her doctor finds out that she can regress into past lives and different personalities, and he finds himself falling in love with one of them.

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Plot Keywords:

doctor | flowers | hypnosis | love | past | 

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Taglines:

Look into my eyes.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 June 1970 (USA)

Also Known As:

Melinda

Filming Locations:

Brighton Pavilion, Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

129 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to the 1974 biography, "Barbra Streisand: The First Decade", this was originally envisioned as a 3-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, "Who Is There Among Us Who Knows?", with Barbra humming in harmony, was also cut, as well as a duet between Larry Blyden and Barbra Streisand.

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Goofs

An hour and twenty in Daisy (as Melinda), after Chabot speculates that she can see into the future, says "I can about certain things, but never, never about myself". But at about the two hour mark, Daisy says she and Marc were married in 2038.

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Quotes

Dr. Marc Chabot: Melinda's soul inside of you? God! What a housing shortage!

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Connections

Featured in I epithesi tou gigantiaiou mousaka (1999)

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Soundtracks

"Come Back to Me"
Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Music by Burton Lane

User Reviews

A few clouds in that clear sky!

This is one of those films that one would like to praise without reservation, but, alas!, some elements are not quite up to the high level of some of its attributes.

Streisand, after that stunning title montage (Love those blooming flowers and the clever lyrics that coax them into the sunshine!) is a bit grating in her opening scenes as Daisy Gamble, though she mellows somewhat as the modern-day plot progresses. However she more than rises to the occasion when Melinda is exhumed and she gets to parade about in Cecil Beaton's absolutely stunning accoutrements. Montand, who seems to have learned his lines phonetically (A foreign accent can be charming but he seems to be exaggerating his!), is serviceable, sings on key, and manfully wades through the machinations of the scriptwriters, what with the absurd brouhaha over reincarnation among the university's powers-that-be and Dr. Chabot's stubborn reluctance to admit that Daisy has psychic powers, et cetera. John de Cuir does his usual eye-filling wonders with the production design, beautifully aided by Harry Stradling, Sr.'s use of the Panavision/Technicolor cameras. And, of course, Burton Lane's score has a few liltingly listenable songs that propel the story quite felicitously. And there's the bonus of two of my favorite actresses, Mabel Albertson and Irene Handl, to add some sly support. (And, one must reluctantly mention Jack Nicholson, youthfully handsome in his brief appearance here, now a gothic ruin of his former self...Must be all those ill-tempered characters he's since played, as well as the reported off-screen dissipation in the decades since.)

But Nelson Riddle, undeniably one of the all-time great arrangers for singers like Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, seems the wrong choice to orchestrate and conduct the musical elements. His work seems a little thin and not equal to the lush visual panoply. And, I suspect, Vincente Minnelli was hampered by the producer, Howard Koch, whose credits suggest a level of taste and achievement more oriented to audiences that preferred something less refined than what might have best suited this enterprise. The direction seems a bit diffuse, and even dispirited, and certainly not up to the standard of Minnelli's best in his halcyon days at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Nevertheless, I'll admit I enjoyed it when I saw it during its theatrical release, but beware of non-letterboxed video transfers. "Formatting" will reduce this one to considerably less than its makers intentions. If a DVD release comes along and you're a Streisand (or Minnelli) fan, it'll be worth the wait.