FUN LADY

FUNNY LADY (1975)
dir: Herbert Ross

MAD #179, December 1975
w: Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker

Sequel to earlier movie Funny Girl about the life of comedian Fanny Brice (Barbara Streisand), this one concentrating on her marriage to songwriter/producer Billy Rose (James Caan)

The movie begins with Fanny finishing a show and going backstage ready to see her husband Nick Arnstein (Omar Sharif) only to be greeted with divorce papers. Later, as she's going over her finances, she meets fast-talking stenographer Billy Rose.

When Fanny is at a club, she's approached by Rose, an aspiring songwriter, who asks her to record a song of his, and talks her into investing in it in exchange for profits, if there are any. He later promotes a Broadway show using her name without her consent.

Fanny's manager Bobby is played by Roddy McDowall.

After Fanny agrees to do the show, anything that could possibly go wrong does, with props breaking and animals running loose. Billy breaks into Fanny's hotel room under the pretense that he needs to make a phone call to bookies and tells her he's in deep financial trouble unless he makes significant changes to the show and asks for her help.

One night when Fanny does her show, she sees Nick in the audience and tries to resist the urge to go back to him. Ultimately she makes the choice to marry Billy.

They didn't know it at the time, but the next version of A Star Is Born, the story of one half of a showbiz couple's rise to fame and the other's decline, remade every generation or two, would star Barbara Streisand.

Although Billy Rose and Fanny Brice are married, their careers keep them from ever seeing each other. She comes to see him while he's working on his show Aquacade and suspects something may be going on with his star Eleanor Holm.

In Beverly Hills, Nick comes to see Fanny again and she tells him how unfeeling he really is and how her heart belongs to Billy Rose. She flies to see him and finds he is in fact having an affair with Eleanor Holm. Flash forward to at least ten years later, after Fanny and Billy are long divorced, and he tries to convince her to appear in another Broadway production.

Fanny Brice was big in the 30s and 40s, probably most remembered for her character Baby Snooks.