Funny Girl is a 1968 American musical biographical film directed by William Wyler and written by Isobel Lennart, adapted from her book for the stage musical of the same title. It is loosely based on the life and career of comedienne Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein.
Produced by Brice's son-in-law Ray Stark (and the first film by his company Rastar), with music and lyrics by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, the film stars Barbra Streisand (in her film debut reprising her Broadway role) as Brice and Omar Sharif as Arnstein, with a supporting cast featuring Kay Medford (also reprising her Broadway role), Anne Francis, Walter Pidgeon, Lee Allen and Mae Questel.
A major critical and commercial success, Funny Girl became the highest-grossing film of 1968 in the United States and received eight Academy Award nominations at the 41st Academy Awards including Best Picture, with Streisand winning Best Actress. Streisand tied for the award with Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter which marked the first and () only tie to happen in the category's history. In 2006, the American Film Institute ranked the film No. 16 on its list commemorating AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals. Previously it had ranked the film No. 41 in its 2002 list of AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions, the songs "People" and "Don't Rain on My Parade" at No. 13 and No. 46, respectively, in its 2004 list of AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs, and the line "Hello, gorgeous" at No. 81 in its 2005 list of AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes. Funny Girl is considered one of the greatest musical films ever made.
In 2016, Funny Girl was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress, and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.y
Plot Set in and around New York City just before and following World War I, the story opens with Ziegfeld Follies star Fanny Brice awaiting her husband Nicky Arnstein to arrive at the theater, and then moves into an extended flashback focusing on their meeting, marriage, and Fanny's rise to stardom.
Fanny is a stage-struck Jewish teenager who lands her first job in vaudeville. Her mother believes in her but her mother's card-playing friends, including Mrs. Strakosh, try to dissuade Fanny from show business, believing Fanny is not a stage beauty. During a rehearsal, Fanny's boss complains about Fanny's unsynchronized dancing skills and appearance, wanting to fire her. She perseveres and, with some assistance from Eddie, is put in a roller-skating act after falsely claiming she can skate. The performance goes wrong, but the audience thinks that Fanny is hilarious and cheers her singing. After the show, the suave Nicky Arnstein comes backstage to meet Fanny. She finds Nicky handsome and charming, but declines his invitation for dinner.
Fanny's dream is realized when, six months later, she is hired for the Ziegfeld Follies. In her debut performance, Fanny is cast as the beautiful bride in a romantic musical number. Uncomfortable about her looks, she adds a comic twist by appearing pregnant in the wedding gown. An angry Ziegfeld wants to fire Fanny but the audience loves the hilarious act. He tells her to play it that way every performance. Nicky Arnstein appears and congratulates Fanny on her success, then accompanies her to the Brice family celebration.
Within a year, Fanny is a Broadway star. While on tour, she runs into Nicky in Baltimore. During a romantic dinner, they declare their mutual romantic feelings. The reunion is cut short after Nicky's racehorse loses a big race, leaving him broke. To make money, Nicky heads for Europe to gamble during the voyage. Fanny impulsively quits the tour and rushes back to New York to join him. A tugboat takes her to Nicky's ship, which just left port. Nicky is delighted to see Fanny. During the trip, Nicky wins a fortune playing poker. The two eventually marry and move into a mansion and soon have a daughter. Fanny later returns to the Ziegfeld Follies.
When Nicky's various business ventures fail, he resorts to gambling to recoup his losses. This causes him to miss Fanny's new premiere, further straining their marriage. Fanny's mother tells an unknowing Fanny about Nicky's dire financial situation and advises her to "love him less and help him more". Nicky is offered a lucrative business venture, but he quickly realizes Fanny is secretly financing the deal and rejects it. He instead becomes involved in a bonds scam. The next day, before a matinee performance, Florenz Ziegfeld informs Fanny that Nicky was arrested for embezzlement. He advises her not to attend the court hearing, which suggestion she defies, and leaves the theater. At the court hearing, Nicky says nothing in his defense, and instead, the judge sees him in his chambers, where Nicky is given an 18-month sentence for embezzlement. Nicky and Fanny are allowed a few minutes in private, in the judge's office, to say goodbye, where Nicky tells Fanny to "keep on being a Funny Girl", before his incarceration.
The film shifts back to the present timeline as Fanny nervously awaits Nicky's return from prison. Nicky arrives, and, after a bittersweet reunion, the two agree to separate, leaving Fanny heartbroken.
Cast
Production Development
Isobel Lennart originally wrote Funny Girl as a screenplay for a drama film titled My Man for producer Ray Stark (whose mother-in-law was Fanny Brice). No studio or producers were interested in the project except for Vincent Donhue, who suggested turning it into a stage musical.Miller, p.377 Lennart consequently adapted her script for what eventually became a successful Broadway production starring Barbra Streisand.
Although she had not made any films, Streisand was Stark's first and only choice to portray Brice onscreen. "I just felt she was too much a part of Fanny, and Fanny was too much a part of Barbra to have it go to someone else," he said, but Columbia Pictures executives wanted Shirley MacLaine in the role.Pye, Hillier, "Funny Girl" entry MacLaine and Streisand were good friends and shared a birthday; both actresses rolled their eyes at the idea. Stark insisted if Streisand were not cast, he would not allow a film to be made, and the studio agreed to his demand.
Mike Nichols, George Roy Hill, and Gene Kelly were considered to direct the film, then Sidney Lumet was signed. After working on pre-production for six months, he left the project due to "creative differences" and was replaced by William Wyler, whose long and illustrious career never had included a musical film. Wyler initially declined Stark's offer because he was concerned his significant hearing loss would affect his ability to work on a musical. After giving it some thought, he told Stark "If Beethoven could write his Eroica Symphony, then William Wyler can do a musical."
Streisand never had heard of Wyler, and when she was told he had won the Academy Award for Best Director for Ben-Hur, she said "Chariots! How is he with people, like women? Is he any good with actresses?" Wyler had directed Roman Holiday (1953), which won three Academy Awards, including the Best Actress award for Audrey Hepburn who had been chosen by Wyler despite her relative obscurity at that time. Wyler said "I wouldn't have done the picture without her." Her enthusiasm reminded him of Bette Davis, and he felt she "represented a challenge for me because she's never been in films, and she's not the usual glamour girl".
Casting
Styne wanted Frank Sinatra for the role of Nicky Arnstein, but the actor was willing to appear in the film only if the role was expanded and new songs were added for the character. Stark thought Sinatra was too old and preferred someone with more class like Cary Grant, even though Grant was 11 years older than Sinatra. Marlon Brando, Gregory Peck, Sean Connery, David Janssen, and James Garner were also considered. Egyptian Omar Sharif was cast to star opposite the Jewish Streisand after Wyler noticed him having lunch in the studio commissary. When the Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt broke out, studio executives considered replacing Sharif, but both Wyler and Streisand threatened to quit if they did. Later, the publication of a still depicting a love scene between Fanny and Nicky in the Egyptian press prompted a movement to revoke Sharif's citizenship. When asked about the controversy, Streisand replied, "You think Cairo got upset? You should see the letter I got from my Aunt Rose!" Anne Francis was cast in a new role as the lead chorus line dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies.
Wyler allegedly purposefully cast two leading stars known for their romantic propensities, hoping to create a lustfulness that would amplify the dynamic on-screen. Sharif was single at the time and Streisand was on the downslope of her marriage to Elliott Gould. Wyler crafted various scenarios to foment romantic impulses between the two stars; one such tactic was to place Streisand's trailer window in direct, but hidden view of Sharif's. One of Wyler's assistants later gave Sharif the go-ahead to use the on-set shower while Streisand was still using it. These stratagems bore the fruit Wyler intended. An affair did indeed take place between Sharif and Streisand for the duration of filming. Due to the Egyptian-Israeli War, the liaison earned intense disapproval from Streisand's family.
Choreographer Herbert Ross, who staged the musical numbers, had worked with Streisand in I Can Get It for You Wholesale, her Broadway debut.
Filming
Rehearsals and pre-recording of the songs began in July 1967. During pre-recording, Streisand had demanded extensive retakes until she was satisfied with them, and on the set she continued to display her perfectionist nature, frequently arguing with Wyler about costumes and photography. Streisand has since rebutted this in her 2023 memoir, where she argues that she loved to collaborate with Wyler, and that the media exaggerated these reports.
Principal photography began in August 1967 and was completed by December. Streisand's first scene was set at an abandoned rail depot in New Jersey where she had just got off the train and was posing for the photographers. A difficulty of filming that Barbra did not anticipate was that she had to do musical numbers multiple times for different camera angles. For the helicopter shot of "Don't Rain on My Parade", aerial photographer Nelson Tyler had to develop a special helicopter camera rig. Allegedly, so many of Streisand's scenes with Anne Francis were cut before the film's release that Francis sued to have her name removed from the credits, but lost. Streisand later claimed she never told Wyler to cut anything and that the final film reflected his choices, not hers. Francis later said "I have no feud with Barbra. But doing that film was like Gaslight. What infuriated me was the way they did things—never telling me, never talking to me, just cutting. I think they were afraid that if they were nice to me, Barbra would have been upset." Shooting for the musical number "My Man", which the original Fanny Brice made famous, took place at the end of the shooting phase. Sharif was present to help Streisand get emotional and build up sadness. The crew did at least ten takes. Also in that shoot, Stark thought the film would cost $8 million, which he deemed to be "half as much as any other big musical...and it will be twice as big."
Music
"Overture" "I'm the Greatest Star" – Fanny "If a Girl Isn't Pretty" – Mrs. Strakosh, Rose and Fanny "Rollerskate Rag" – Fanny and Rollerskate Girls "I'd Rather Be Blue Over You (Than Happy With Somebody Else)" – Fanny "His Love Makes Me Beautiful" – Fanny and Follies Ensemble "People" – Fanny "You Are Woman, I Am Man" – Nicky and Fanny "Don't Rain on My Parade" – Fanny "Entr'acte" "Sadie, Sadie" – Fanny and Nicky "The Swan" – Fanny "Funny Girl" – Fanny "My Man" – Fanny "Exit Music"