Opened June 17, 1970
Barbra Streisand’s third film, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, was described in Paramount's production notes as a “delightful combination of comedy, drama, fantasy and music. The film deals with a psychiatrist who becomes professionally and emotionally involved with a remarkable girl patient, who possesses extrasensory powers and relives, under hypnosis, an earlier incarnation.”
On A Clear Day was based on the Broadway show that ran October 1965—June 1966 starring Barbara Harris, which was originally titled I Picked A Daisy.
Alan Jay Lerner (who wrote the book and the lyrics for the play; Burton Lane wrote the music) continuously tinkered with the show, even after it closed, eliminating characters and adding or subtracting songs. (Incidentally, Alan Jay Lerner received amphetamine shots from Dr. Max Jacobson—“Dr. Feelgood”—while he wrote Clear Day, which may explain its weirdness — how many other musicals that you know of concern themselves with reincarnation and ESP? )
Director Vincente Minnelli recalled, “It was mystical and Lerner has been interested in that since he was a child. He was trying to say something, I dug into the story and that was what came out. Lerner had read all these books and followed the fantasy as he saw it completely. I didn’t subscribe to it, not at all.”
Developing “Clear Day”
The producers made some changes transferring the play to film.
Alan Jay Lerner revised his original story.
Vincente Minnelli requested that the regression sequences be changed from a Restoration to a Regency setting. He told writer Henry Sheehan, “I felt that was what was wrong with the play. It was white wigs and writing with feathers which gets to be very boring. I wanted to make it Regency, because the world was more inviting. That’s particularly why we changed it. Then I wanted to come in on a climax where she didn’t know what was happening and it was explained later on. Whereas it couldn’t matter less in the play.”
Several songs from the Broadway show were not used in the film version. Several new ones were added (and then cut!).
Designer Arnold Scaasi created the modern fashions that Streisand's character Daisy would wear in the film.
The venerable Cecil Beaton was hired to create Streisand’s Regency gowns for the flashback scenes. Beaton wrote in his diaries: “But although the clothes were mostly made here in London, the time spent in going to Tangier to get cheap tissues, and supervising each individual ball dress, was quite considerable.”
Neal Hefti (Batman title theme, The Odd Couple movie, Barefoot in the Park) was hired to score the film but was replaced by Nelson Riddle. Producer Howard Koch remembered that “[Barbra] and Nelson were like a team from the time we switched.”
Several male stars were considered for the role of Dr. Chabot, Melinda/Daisy’s love interest in On A Clear Day. The late Richard Harris (Arthur in the film version of Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot) was one of them. “Lerner and Streisand stitched me up,” he said. “They wanted it their way. Lerner never liked my singing, and he took out the best songs from the original Broadway show. Streisand wanted to be Queen Bee. I told her to bark up someone else’s tree.” Harris was passed over for Yves Montand, who starred years earlier with Marilyn Monroe in Let’s Make Love.
Right before filming began in January 1969, Paramount threw a “Reincarnation Ball” party at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Celebrity guests were encouraged to dress as the person they would have liked to have been—in a past life! Streisand came as Colette, the French writer, dressed in a white lace dress and curly wig.
Filming Begins
“…on Tuesday Miss Streisand was watched by hundreds of people as she took part in shots on the [Brighton] lawns, which had been greatly changed to preserve the Regency atmosphere. A screen with trees painted on it hid the traffic, and a cobbled road was put down to give the illusion that the entrance to the Pavilion faces Pavilion Parade…. Miss Streisand is staying at the Hotel Metropole. If she gets any free time she intends to go shopping for antiques in the Lanes”
(Brighton Herald, 11 April 1969, p. 4)
“Barbra Streisand swept out of Brighton yesterday and most of her 240,000 dollar entourage went with her. After eight days and that amount of money, Paramount had filmed just 10-15 minutes of screen time of their lavish musical ‘On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.’... The rest of the film will be completed in Hollywood…. One scene the unit didn’t have time to shoot at the Pavilion should have been in the pantry. But this was a small problem. Instead, they have taken photographs and will construct a replica in Hollywood”
(Brighton Herald, 11 April 1969, p. 2.).
