GOOD TIMES

 

Good Times was the directorial debut of William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection). In the movie Sonny signs a contract with evil Mr. Mordicus (George Sanders) for him and Cher to star in a film. The executive wants Sonny to do a script he has on hand, unless Sonny can come up with a better script before the movie starts to shoot. As Sonny thinks about different scenarios for him and Cher, Good Times has three mini-movies starring him and Cher in different scenarios (Western, Detective, Jungle).

Good Times features seven songs, all written by Sonny and six sung by Sonny and Cher and one solo Cher song: "It's the Little Things", "I Got You Babe" (two versions), "Don't Talk to Strangers", "Trust Me", "Good Times", "I'm Gonna Love You" and "Just a Name". "I'm Gonna Love You" a bluesy song sung solo by Cher is the only good song of the bunch, with of course, the exception of their signature song "I Got You Babe". All the other songs sound like something Sonny probably knocked off in a few minutes for the movie.

Good Times main crime is it's just boring. On Sonny and Cher's TV show, the duo could do a skit and if you didn't like it, well, it was over in a few minutes. The three mini-movies in Good Times are basically bad TV skits which run on 15-20 minutes, making for mind-numbing viewing. I thought Sonny and Cher's other film outing, Chasity, was pretty bad, but still better than Good Times. As a duo Sonny and Cher's best film outing is in Wild On The Beach where they appear as themselves singing one song. Sonny never had a lot of success in films; of course, Cher went on to appear in a string of great movies. 

CHASTITY

In the TV biopic And The Beat Goes On: The Sonny and Cher Story there was a part about making the movie Chastity and how it almost bankrupted the duo. I was interested in seeing a movie that could be so bad that it would cause such financial ruin. After viewing Chastity, I can understand why the word must have gotten out fast, on its initial release, that Chastity was B-A-D!

Chastity was written and produced by Sonny Bono and most people speculate that he also directed it under the alias Alessio de Paola, since there is no record of anyone with that name ever directing another movie, plus there is no biographical information on anyone in the film industry with that name. However, in 2005 another de Paola did a remake of the same movie... so go figure!


Hey! there's no doubt Sonny loved Cher and this is evidently the reason we get a lot of camera shots just lingering on her face. But the main problem, besides the terrible slow pace of the movie, is the script. Sonny obviously took Cher's smart ass demeanor and wrote her part with that in mind. The lines she delivers that stay within her own character are fine in the movie. The trouble comes when Sonny writes lines that are trying to make a statement OR show how hip he was. The trouble was Sonny and Cher weren't really hip, they just tried to look that way. I can understand Sonny's desire for "hipness", but sometimes you just have to go with what you've got. Sonny and Cher were much lighter personalities and I think that's the reason people liked them and why they worked so well in Las Vegas and on TV.


I can only briefly cover the plot, since that's what the plot is...BRIEF. Chastity (Cher) is running away from something, which won't be revealed until near the end of the movie and then not clearly. Most of the scenes in Chastity are: Cher running on the road, Cher hitchhiking, Cher being a tough smart ass with the people that pick her up, and Cher talking to herself. The aforementioned scenes are probably a good 75 per cent of the movie.

Chastity almost kicks into gear when Cher/Chastity steals a car and drives to Mexico. There she runs into a pimp and gets him to take her to the local whorehouse. The best scene in the movie follows with Cher/Chastity tricking a shy fellow into going into a room with her. She fleeces him out of his money and at the same time convinces him that washing his hair is part of the "full" experience he has paid for.


Unfortunately, we then get Cher introduced to the Madam of The House and the movie once again starts its downward spiral. It appears that the Madam is showing Cher the bad side of the whorehouse to scare her off; but following that scene, Cher and the Madam go off shopping, then to the fun park for some carnival rides, followed by a trip to the zoo (I swear, I'm NOT making any of this up!). Cher/Chastity is looking at The Madam as a mother figure; however, The Madam is a lesbian and has other ideas in mind. There's a lesbian scene between Cher and The Madam, but for the most part we get cutaway shots to water running, pampas grass blowing in the wind, and the camera looking up through trees.

Cher runs away from the Madam and returns to the U.S. and shacks up with a fellow she had met previously in the movie. But the thought of true love is too much for her and she runs away again. The last we see of her is Cher/Chastity crying in the middle of the road. A terrible ending to a terrible movie.


It was hard at times to continue viewing Chastity and I almost gave up several times. The only things that kept me going were Cher was fairly good with the weak part she was given and, as I previously mentioned, the movie picked up some during the middle.

One final note, there are two nude scenes in the movie. The first one shows Cher/Chastity from the neck down. The second shows Cher/Chastity from the side with her hair draped over her face. Making it pretty obvious that both these scenes used body doubles.

AND THE BEAT GOES ON THE SONNY & CHER STORY

I know that some of the facts in this biopic are not correct and that some events shown are not in the correct time line of the history of Sonny and Cher. However, that certainly did not keep me from thoroughly enjoying And The Beat Goes On (ATBGO). When you see facts below that are wrong, please remember, I'm only reporting the facts as ATBGO showed them to me.

The main reason I probably liked the movie so much is the two actors playing Sonny and Cher - Jay Underwood and Renee Faia are both fantastic in their roles, with Renee being somewhat more of a standout than Jay. That's not taking anything away from Jay who really does a good job. It's just Cher is such an interesting person that it seemed my attention was more drawn to her.

After watching ATBGO, much of what makes Cher tick is still a mystery to me. Some of that may be the result of the movie being based on Sonny's memoir "And The Beat Goes On", so we're really only getting Sonny's side of the story. Not that Cher comes off bad....anything but, in my opinion.

In Cher we see a person who is enormously talented and is guided by the somewhat Svengali Sonny. I really thought they both got something from the business part of their relationship. Cher got someone who knew how to guide a career and work the music business. Sonny got someone with talent and charisma, who he could attach himself to and have the music career he desired.

Besides the music/business side of their career, I also saw a couple who really loved each other and I don't think that love ever died, even though they eventually split up.


ATBGO starts with Sonny on David Letterman with Letterman asking him "What Happened". The movie then flashes us back to Sonny delivering meat, before he broke into the record business at Specialty Records as an A&R man. At Specialty, Sonny does a good job, even though we see one scene in which Sonny fails to get Little Richard (Walter Franks) to fulfill his contract with Specialty. This was during the period when Little Richard turned his back on Rock 'n' Roll and turned to religion. Little Richard consults Jesus for a decision...but Jesus says "No"!

Sonny eventually loses his job at Specialty, because according to the movie he had too much ambition. It seems he was pursuing other career lines, such as producing his own records, at the same time as his A&R job. Not long after Sonny is fired he meets Cher and they move in together. Sonny is out of work and needs a job to support him and Cher. He has always admired Phil Spector (Christian Leffler), so he goes to a Spector recording session and talks his way into a job as Spector's West Coast Promotion Man.

One day in the studio, Spector needs a demo vocal recorded, but his female singers have gone to lunch. Cher is in the studio hanging out with Sonny and Spector says he wants her to do the demo. Cher refuses to sing by herself, so Sonny stands by her side and sings a little bit with her until Cher's confidence is built up enough that she can sing on her own....thus we get the beginnings of the duo Sonny and Cher. Sonny really gets it into his head that he can make Cher into a star. When Spector won't record her, Sonny does it on his own and as they say....the rest is history.


After having huge success in music, Sonny wants to branch out and make a movie starring Cher, since The Beatles and Elvis had done movies. Cher tells him they're not that big of stars, but Sonny plows right along and almost loses everything they own in making the movie "Chasity". This is the first point in ATBGO that we see a strain on their relationship with Sonny eventually cheating on Cher.

Desperate for money, Sonny convinces Cher to take a job in Vegas opening for Pat Boone. Cher doesn't think they're "Vegas Acts", but eventually goes along with Sonny's plan. They're a big success in Vegas and this leads to, according to the movie, Sonny creating their TV show. With the TV show, having a child, and Sonny signing them up for more Vegas shows, we see the next strain on their marriage and Cher openly cheats on Sonny.


This is really the beginning of the end for the duo known as Sonny and Cher. The movie quickly moves to Cher suing Sonny for divorce over "involuntary servitude" and then skips ahead 14 years until their reunion duet on "The David Letterman Show" singing "I Got You Babe". As a coda to ATBGO, there is a short segment featuring the real Sonny Bono.

I enjoyed the movie from start to finish, and as far a biopics go, I thought it was one of the better ones, especially considering that it put 15 years into 85 minutes. You'll enjoy the movie more if you don't get too hung up on details; but after watching ATBGO, if you would like to read more on their career, the Wikipedia entry: Sonny and Cher, while incomplete, will still give you a rough idea of their career.