FUNNY GIRL

One of the great openings in cinema may only last a few seconds but it makes an indelible impression and that's when we are introduced for the first time to Barbra Streisand, glimpsing her own reflection in a mirror, in "Funny Girl". 'Hello, gorgeous' indeed, and when a few minutes later she sings her first song, "I'm the Greatest Star", we know instinctively that she is. "Funny Girl" isn't a great film; it isn't even a great William Wyler film but it may be a great musical. Jule Styne and Bob Merrill wrote a very good score augmented in this film version by several standards including the tremendous "My Man" number that closes the movie, (even if that great song, "The Music that Makes me Dance", had to be jettisoned). Most of the songs, of course, went to Streisand, making it primarily a vehicle for this greatest of stars and I have no quarrel with that but there is no depth to the movie and as a biopic it's just like those Fox musicals of the '30's and '40's but on a bigger scale. But it does have likeable supporting work from Omar Sharif, (looking great, even if his acting is about as stiff as his starched shirts), Kay Medford, Walter Pidgeon and Anne Francis. But it's Streisand's show, one of the great screen debuts and a worthy winner of the Best Actress Oscar, even if she did have to share it with Katie Hepburn. An ill-advised sequel, "Funny Lady", turned out to be something of a disaster.