Funny Lady (1975)

I guess a sequel to "Funny Girl" (1968) was always likely, but it really ended up being a shame that we waited seven years for this really unremarkable follow-up. The theme picks up the life of the now successful Fanny Brice (Barbra Streisand) and develops her rather lively relationship with two-bit writer Billy Rose (James Caan), who wrote a few of her hits and to whom she got married. Unfortunately, despite a decent effort from the star, the writing is not a patch on the first film: the humour there that was naive and amusing has now become coarse, unfunny and strained. The musical numbers - "More Than You Know" from Streisand and "Me and My Shadow" from Al Jolson demonstrate that Rose had some skill (with Yip Harburg on the first song too) at song writing, but again there is a paucity of memorable songs from his pen. Indeed the Oscar nominated (John) Kander and (Fred) Ebb seem to have done most of the musical heavy lifting here. We also dwell far too much on their flawed relationship, and by halfway through, the initial "breath of fresh air" approach Caan brought to the film, was drowning in a sea of treacle. Omar Sharif brings a soupçon of style to this film, and there's Roddy McDowall - well he could hardly be described as versatile, but he tries to liven things up a bit too - but, in the end it's a film about two songs with performances that almost look like they were implanted into the thing. As you would expect, it is a well put together piece of cinema - it looks and sounds great, but like a meringue - there is not much inside.