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We’ve mentioned Barbra Streisand before during Snark Week, and the costumes from her frock flick forays show up in our memes. And while I do enjoy some of her historical musicals, I fully admit they don’t hold up to a lot of scrutiny. Such is the case with On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970), which is actually a contemporary movie with historical flashbacks. But those flashbacks are key to the story and yield plenty of material to snark…
Not that the rest of the movie holds together all that well. It’s a silly plot about a mousey New York gal, played by Babs, who seeks out a doctor to hypnotize her so she stops smoking. Under hypnosis, she starts recounting tales of her past life during the English Regency. I wanted more of these flashbacks because that part was faintly more interesting than the limp love story and mild ending of self-empowerment set in modern times. The songs weren’t memorable, and either Barbra hadn’t learned how to lip-sync well at the time or it’s just that these are very torch-song-y style songs that don’t fit into the narrative style here. Plus, since there’s no choreography, the singing is literally people just standing there and singing, which is even more awkward than musicals usually are.
The costume design job was split up and the modern stuff was done by fashion designer Arnold Scaasi, while Cecil Beaton did the period costumes. As I said in my write-up of his overall work, Cecil Beaton’s historical designs are often the Bridgerton costumes of their day. He takes period shapes and stylizes the hell out of them, using his own visual language to create a world that makes sense within itself. Sometimes this works well, as in My Fair Lady, where the costumes aren’t historically accurate but they work to create the story. But in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever‘s 1810s scenes, there’s a lot less of that internal consistency, and the result just looks like 1960s does 1810s. The colors make it a bit acid-trippy and the hair is all bouffant, all the time.
Streisand’s past-life incarnation, Lady Melinda Winifred Waine Tentrees, is first introduced at the trial where she’s convicted for treason and will be executed. You know she’s guilty because she’s wearing whore red!
The brim on the hat is ridiculous, & that’s a lot of cleavage for daytime.
This wouldn’t be so terrible if weren’t all in one color & that color wasn’t screaming RED.
Put it in a color found in nature, don’t be so matchy-matchy, and of course, fill in the cleavage:
1813 – Morning dress from Ackermann’s fashion plates
Also, for some reason, a screamingly bright yellow version was made that doesn’t appear in the film.
The one good thing, IMO, about the Regency scenes is that they were filmed at the actual Brighton Pavilion, starting with the lawn outside, which was spiffed up for the occasion. Having recently visited myself, I’d love to see it with a historical party! But a better one, hah.
Here’s Lady Melinda’s version of a little white Regency dress (even though she’s a bad girl). So much cleavage, so much bouffant!
Wearing a doily on your head.
There’s bangs to go along with that bouffant!
Everybody say it together now: “I don’t care if it’s historically accurate, I just want my tits out!”
That outfit should look more like this:
1811 – Promenade dress from Ackermann’s fashion plates
The crowd is a mix of not-too-bad costumes and WTFrock … click the pix for the large view so you can see ’em all!
On the far left, the white dress is fine & the bonnet is crazy exaggerated. Closer left, the white & red dress isn’t that bad. Far right, the dress seems fine, but the oversized mob-cap thing has been out of style for 30 years.
In the back, there’s a nice white dress without cleavage! The green dress is fine, & standing next to her is another nice white dress & a tall white hat. But what’s that blue & white dress behind the main couple? It looks very Disney princess & totally not Regency, but she’s standing next to another nice white dress.
Then there’s this Bridgerton Easter-egg couple. The guy will be Lady Melinda’s love interest & second husband, btw.
WHAT THE HELL HAT IS SHE WEARING?!?
The party moves inside the Royal Pavillion, which again, is pretty damn cool because those rooms are fabulously over the top. Bummer that the costumes don’t match. Because this is where Streisand wears the sparkly white dress with the giant egg headdress.
Everyone wears their lurex & lame for this event!
This is so 1960s it hurts.
According to Cecil Beaton:
“It was inspired — and both our ideas, really — to wrap the Streisand features in a glorious white turban to further accent her strong features. At the same time, she was totally feminine, beguiling, shamelessly sexual. In my designs, her look was soft, almost maternal, but very beautiful, as in a Raphael painting. I tried to stress the lushness of the fabrics, the intricate designs and motifs, in short, the physical if not spiritual splendor of the period we were dealing with.”
Was he high? Did people really find this “feminine” and “sexual”? She looks like an alien queen about to spawn.
Yes, turbans were popular during the English Regency, but they were not that massive! There are tons of fashion plates showing evening dresses with lovely turbans that hug the head, and if anything rises high above, that’d be a feather spray or flowers.
1815 – Evening dress from Ackermann’s fashion plates
Even weirder, during this whole dinner, she’s mentally singing at her would-be lover while finger-fucking this wine glass. Her long nails are prominently displayed and so distractingly modern.
I’m no expert in historical manicures, but I’d bet money that this is NOT what 1810s nails looked like.
She really stands out in white.
Lady Melinda isn’t the only one with wacky headgear …
Why wear one turban when you can wear two?
Another bulbous creation!
This gold headdress was fascinating.
It’s like a hennin with her hair coming out the tip top!
Why bother with real tiaras when you can use cardboard?
Bouffants for everyone!
Prinny! He’s hosting this dinner although he doesn’t really get any lines. His costume is fine, though that medal thing on his coat is ridiculously oversized. Do take a look at Mrs. Fitzherbert, on the left, wearing a ghastly shiny green dress of no discernible historical era and a hairstyle that’s more 1780s than 1810s.
Bonus rando on the back left wearing a teal shower curtain!
While most of the egregious costumes are on the women, I noticed that Melinda’s love interest, Robert, has a feather collar on his coat.
Totally reminds me of these things you find on Amazon:
But hey, he does have that swept-forward hairstyle that fashionable Regency men wore, so proof that someone in this movie could do historical accuracy. They just chose not to most of the time. See?
Left: 1807 – Portrait of a gentleman by John Wesley Jarvis; right: 1815 – Edward Archer by Andrew Plimer.
Since Melinda meets her great love Robert while she’s already married to an old fogey, she has to get divorced. She wears this black and white outfit to court.
The feather muff is awesome, & here, the oversized thing is more accurate.
Not sure about the hanging feathers, but this is one case where the scale is accurate.
1814 – Promenade dress from Ackermann’s fashion plates
The ruffles at the neck and the sleeve cutouts are vaguely reminiscent of Regency styles, so I’ll give them this one. Minus the hair, of course.
Then Melinda realizes that Robert is a cheater and a spendthrift, and she confronts him in this scene at a hotel. Her hair is particularly epic here, and like all her movie hairstyles, it was created by Frederick Glaser. No idea what he was thinking!
That’s not even a simple spencer jacket — it’s a very 1960s trapeze coat, shortened.
His hair is more Regency than hers.
There’s slightly big hair in the Regency, but it’s not that big. Compare with these curls styled up in ribbons:
1813 – Ball gown from Costume Parisien fashion plates
Or this braid wound on top of the head:
1816 – Evening gown from Costume Parisien fashion plates
Of course, the whole hotel is filed with whack-a-doodle looks:
Did she just get out of the shower?
This looks rather happy-hands-at-home for a Cecil Beaton production.
Then there’s the final flashback where Streisand tries to channel the famous portrait of Madame Récamier…
The couch looks reasonably accurate, I guess.
Just compare…
1800 – Madame Recamier by Jacques Louis David at the Louvre Museum.
You know what’s wrong here — it’s the hair. That’s the main thing, though the cut of the bodice is too modern as well.
Much like in My Fair Lady, Cecil Beaton designed a shitton of extra costumes that didn’t make the final cut. Beaton had some OPINIONS about this, as he wrote in his diaries:
“Now I see the film and see the appalling waste due to the fact that no one had prepared a proper script. One whole ballroom sequence with B.S. in dark red satin, and all the others in the specious stoned velvets, has been cut. B.S.’s best dress cut, many scenes cut, and the laying down of cobbles in Lansdowne Crescent (Brighton) and the hedges specially built, all unnecessary, all cut. If Alan Lerner had delivered a carefully considered script, many hundreds of thousands of dollars would have been saved. It may be said that I was paid well for the job and that is all I should worry about. But that isn’t the whole story. I really sweated to see that things were perfect, and that is the only way I can work.”
At least, like the earlier movie, there’s a few promo pix of Barbra Streisand wearing these things. Like this swingin’ ’60s purple outfit from a flashback where Melinda arrived at a building in a horse-drawn carriage.
That’s just a slinky 1960s caftan and a super-weird hat!
It’s a literal lampshade hat. But could it have historical precedent? Yeah, just horribly misconstrued!
1814 – Half dress from Ackermann’s fashion plates
Another scene on the cutting room floor was a whole bit inside the Royal Pavilion where Robert and Melinda are first introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Robert Tentrees. She wears this deep red velvet dress, and more details about it can be found on a listing at Antique Dress. I agree with Cecil Beaton it’s one of the better gowns in the film, being both flattering and a touch leaning towards Regency style.
But the hair kills it.
Have you braved any of Barbra Streisand’s frock flicks?
Many, many moons ago, I loved this film…but still always found the costumes made me twitchy. Btw, that beige/caramel satin beast gives new meaning to the phrase ‘pussy bow’ don’t you think?
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
Funny Girl and Hello Dolly. I know (from this blog) that neither is particularly accurate, though they are both spectacular (from “spectacle”). I enjoyed Hello Dolly. Just shut my brain down and had fun with it. Didn’t much like Funny Girl because of the music, Babs or not.
I do love the music of Hello Dolly! & the whole sequence in the restaurant is freakin’ awesome. Also, that gold dress? Stun-NING.
Louis Armstrong AND Barbra Streisand? Take my money now.
Perhaps that plunging decolletage and OTT headgear was what the mousy modern-day heroine imagined for her Regency self. Ah, well–Streisand was in her ’20s, and I’m convinced we’re all still kind of silly then, especially about our ego, image, etc.
Streisand is at the top of my favorites list for more than her singing. I watch On A Clear Day and Funny Girl and Funny Lady and Hello Dolly over and over, because her striking features and big hair carry off historical fantasy costumes so well. And in my opinion, the absolute best is that gold dress and singing with Louis Armstrong in Hello Dolly!
The doily dress reminds me of the scene in Funny Girl, where she is singing the beauty or something of his affection and shows 9+ month pregnancy. I loose Mt popcorn or coke every time it plays.
Whatever Cecil Beaton was smoking, I want some. :)
Same ;)
I don’t know about what he was smoking, but I think ergot (proto LSD) poisoning was involved.
Beaton worked so hard to make sure everything was perfect?!?
I just throw my hands up in despair.
I never could understand why the film put Melinda in Regency-era England, when in the original play, she is in pre-Revolutionary War England with ties to a Hell-Fire type club.
That purple hat reminds me of the I Love Lucy episode where Ricky and Fred have “high fashion” dresses made for Lucy and Ethel out of burlap – with a burlap-covered wine bucket for a hat.
I think they might have raided some of the costumes from « The Masque of the Red Death. »
I saw this when it came out and I was about 10…not sure why or the context of going lol but I loved it at the time though it was very possibly the last musical I ever saw…
The turbans and egg-casings are gigantic to enclose the bouffants I guess? No excuse for the cleavages…
Cecil B. really thought she looked lush and sensual etc int he white ensemble? The fabrics looked lush?? Hmmm
The white turban would actually make a fine headress for an alien queen. And the Recamier gown and the purple caftan, like the hair, would totally work in a 1960s setting!
Since the main character can see her future incarnations too, maybe she was confused & Lady Melinda was actually from the year 4015, when aliens have taken over the Earth & are ruling with their own regency!
😂
Hello, Doily!
I’m not going to lie, my abiding impression from this review – and attached pictures – is that the young Barbara Streisand should have played (or at least been dressed as) Marie Antoinette at one point: she’s really suit the Rococo.
Is that a navel circular cut-out in the red velvet gown, edged in jewels/gilt? From the side angle it is hard to tell 100% – though there seems to be maybe two in the pic of her standing, one EVEN LOWER!!!! What is being revealed? There seems to belly flesh with the upper, so are they showing off some Regency pubic topiary with the lower? Hah! Maybe some of her acid alien blood has burnt out holes in her gown.
Yeah, it’s a series of oval cutouts with fleshtone-ish backing, all down the front — click the Antique Dress link for the actual gown!
Oh, I stupidly missed that link. Duh. Well, yes – I think that that gown is now even more confusing, now that I’ve perused the whole thing. It looks ever so slightly like a stage costume worn by Diana Ross, all it needs is a massive boa. Also the ‘flesh tone’ seems the sort of the colour you would find on a pair of a grannies pop-socks!