Funny Lady

The beloved "Funny Girl," featuring the screen debut of Barbara Streisand, was directed by William Wyler, a master of composing imagery for the big screen. Even among musicals, his "Girl" is rarely elegant: The plot machinations may be as silly and vulgar as usual, but the actor's movement and blocking was pleasurably operatic. The sequel, "Funny Lady," directed by Herbert Ross, doubles down on the visuals: Colors explode off the scream, musical performances scream in your face -- at one point, wild animals are sprinting through the frame. The "Girl" had reserve -- but "Lady" is madcap.

That's accentuated by the fact that Streisand's character -- a heavily fictionalized take on performer Fanny Brice -- has grown more manic since the first film's end. That one concluded with a page taken from "A Star is Born": Fanny accepted she had outgrown her husband Nicky, and granted him his requested divorce. But she carries his torch throughout "Lady" anyway, pining openly for Nicky even in front of her second husband (James Caan, as Billy Rose, is typically charming). Maybe that's the ideal plot for a sequel out to recapture the magic of the prior film: Streisand's Fanny can't help but yearn and desire the familiar.

What "Lady" does recapture is the stage-show energy and exuberance of the original. This was the last film shot by legendary cinematographer Jimmy Wong Howe, whose palette of pastels and flattering lighting gives the film a delectable pop-art texture. The musical sequences recreate performances from Brice's career, and they're deliberately oversized: Even the smaller clubs are shot with wide angles and powerful spotlights befitting a Broadway stage.

Twilight Time's Blu-ray brings together three featurettes regarding the film, which look at Streisand's performance, her legacy, and her treatment of the film's musical numbers. The disc's most notable attraction, though, is the stellar video transfer of the movie itself. It's a pristine presentation -- light sources rendered tactile, colors translated brightly, and digital noise kept to a minimum. This is the best this movie will ever look outside of a movie theater. "Lady" is hobbled by standard sequel problems -- a retreaded plot, loose construction, a reliance on star power -- but it's a complete pleasure to look at.

"Funny Lady"
Blu-ray
$29.95
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