Broadway and Hollywood have a long history of creating stories about real life characters that play fast and loose with the truth and "Funny Girl" is no exception. If you are looking for the history of Fanny Brice or, particularly, Nick Arnstein*, then you should read a book! And, since I am just in the mood to sound like a retired history teacher....I'll just skip my complaints about the accuracy of the film! But, if you don't mind that the details are often just plain wrong, the film is exceptionally entertaining.

Barbra Streisand was apparently NOT a pleasant person to work with if you read through the IMDb trivia. However, considering she'd been doing the show on Broadway for years and won the Oscar, perhaps in hindsight her diva-like demands were for the best. The film is filled with wonderful songs by her as well as a nice comedic touch. In fact, pretty much all of the film was excellent except for one odd thing--why Omar Sharif?! His singing was passable but to be playing a sophisticated Jewish con-man and gambler, Sharif just seems all wrong. Perhaps Streisand insisted because she thought his being in the film wouldn't overshadow her or would complement her character. I dunno...but it did seem odd. Aside from that, a lovely film--even with its historical lapses (for one, by the way, Streisand was just too pretty to be playing Ms. Brice).

*Okay, I will go on a BIT of a rant. The real life Arnstein was from all reports a thoroughly despicable jerk. A crook, a cheat and a man who horribly used his wife. This is nothing like the likable rogue in the film who almost by accident got into trouble with the law! But, having the main character in love with scum wouldn't have been romantic, so I guess I can understand why they so thoroughly sanitized the guy.

Funny Girl for me did drag in the second half and fairly badly and some of the script is contrived with some lines in the second half that may make one cringe. However, Funny Girl is a beautifully done film and without a doubt one of Barbra Streisand's best films. And Fanny Brice gets my vote as her best performance, it's a fantastic performance that was fully worthy of the joint Oscar and it is from personal view one of the greatest film debut performances ever. Her singing cannot be faulted, a big, well-supported and beautiful voice that was capable of much emotion as can be heard in My Man, and acting-wise she does do funny and poignant brilliantly, just love her facial expressions as well. Omar Shariff is handsome and ultra-smooth in his role, and the two do show some passionate chemistry together, while Mae Questel is hilarious, Kay Medford has sincere fun in her small role and Walter Pidgeon is endearingly curmudgeon. Anne Francis doesn't have a whole lot to do but is very charming. Other than Streisand the other high points are the score and songs. The score is lushly orchestrated with lots of bombastic energy and pathos without ever being syrupy. The songs are equally marvellous, the rousing Don't Rain On My Parade and the truly emotional My Man being the highlights. The way the numbers are staged are not static nor are they overblown, an achievement seeing as there are a few lengthy ones in there, People is particularly well-done in this regard. The story has pacing issues but still manages to be fun(with some very cute jokes from Streisand),charming and touching, and there are some very good production values particularly in the opulent costumes though the colourful sets and fluid cinematography are notable too. This may be the first and only musical William Wyler made but as far as directors-who-only-directed-one-musical Funny Girl does stand out as one of the better ones by quite some way, never pedestrian or heavy and there is at least a sense that he knew what he was doing. All in all, not perfect with the pacing and scripting issues but it is well worth seeing for Streisand, whose performance alone is worth two stars already. Adding the music, supporting cast, production values and how to me emotionally investing the story was Funny Girl for all its comparatively small imperfections is a great film. 9/10 Bethany Cox

There are two important things to remember about Funny Girl when writing about it or discussing it. The first is Nicky Arnstein was still alive in 1964 when it debuted on Broadway, he died the following year. The second is that Ray Stark, the producer of Funny Girl on stage and on the screen is the son-in-law of Fanny Brice and Nicky Arnstein. So off the bat you know you're going to get a sanitized version.

Not that what they created was bad, how could it be for giving Barbra Streisand the role that made her a star on both stage and screen. Fanny Brice didn't do too bad out of it either, unlike a lot of her contemporaries she lives on through the artistry and interpretation of an icon in a future age.

But was Fanny's story ever given the literary dry process cleaning. Eliminated was her brief marriage to a first husband. Changed is the fact that she knew exactly who at what Arnstein was before she married him. Arnstein was a big time con artist who had no shame whatsoever in using his famous wife's name as a come on. Fanny herself though was never involved in any of his schemes. Arnstein did in fact take the fall and never squealed on any of the ones behind him who certainly were more than capable of reprisals against him and possibly against Fanny Brice.

Jule Styne and Bob Merrill wrote the original songs for the Broadway score and added one song, Funny Girl, for the film. But still the two standouts are Barbra Streisand's classic People and Don't Rain On My Parade, a couple of standards she's made almost exclusively her own. I don't think anyone else would attempt to sing them.

Added to the film are a couple of contemporary songs that Fanny Brice made famous that Barbra reinterpreted, the classic My Man, a song she sang before Nicky Arnstein went to the joint, but still is identified as her lament for her husband in stir. She also sang Second Hand Rose, a really great comedy song, emphasizing Brice's Jewish heritage. I wish a couple of others had gotten in there. I've got Brice recordings of Cooking Breakfast For The One I Love and I'm An Indian. That last one is especially hysterical, Brice did it one of the Ziegfeld Follies dressed as an indigenous person to this continent with the last line being "I'm a Yiddishe Squaw". It's great to hear and must have been fabulous to see.

Funny Girl got seven nominations which included Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Song, Best Musical Scoring, Best Editing, Best Cinematography and a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Kay Medford, the only other player from Broadway besides Streisand to be in the film. But the only Oscar it got was a shared one when Barbra Streisand tied for Best Actress with Katharine Hepburn. One of the very few times someone got an Oscar for their very first big screen effort.

Of course two things helped Barbra greatly. One was a role she had made her own and the second was direction by William Wyler who has won Best Director three times in his career and directed more players to Academy Awards than any other. Barbra was his last. Oddly enough he wasn't nominated for Best Director.

Those who are interested in seeing Fanny Brice as she really was can see her in The Great Ziegfeld, The Ziegfeld Follies, and Everybody Sing all of which are out on DVD and/or VHS. I think Barbra channeled more of Fanny into Funny Girl than the sequel Funny Lady, but I'll let you the viewer be the judge of that.

You can't go wrong seeing and hearing Barbra Streisand do some of the best material ever written for her in both films.