1h 31min | Comedy, Musical, Western | May 1967 | Color, ws
Director: William Friedkin
Stars: Sonny Bono, Cher, George Sanders.
Andre Tayir ... choreographer
6 songs in the Soundtracks, all by SB (b. '35). Cher (b. '46) sings on all, sometimes with SB.
1st of 19 film director credits for WF (b. '35).
GS makes 11 more films (of his 117 total) after this, dying in '72. Here he plays a businessman who sometimes makes films.
First and only acting on film together for S&C, playing themselves. The seeming point of this film was to demonstrate why they should not be making a film.
They sign a contract with GS, and have script alteration rights. They don't like the script they're offered, so GS gives them 2 days to come up with an alternative. The film consists of the ideas SB is dreaming up and rejecting:
- a western where he's the sheriff abandoned by his deputies and the townspeople (but without the Quaker wife and without any ending), Cher is a dance hall hostess/singer,
- a private eye yarn where he's the dick, and Cher is both the client who gets shot and his gf/nightclub singer,
- a Tarzan-type, whom the animals ignore when he calls for help.
If this were my only exposure to them, I would not have a clue why they made it big. It doesn't use enough of their hits.
It gets quite tedious after a while, but it has a very sweet ending, with a very different arrangement of I Got You, Babe sung by the pair.
distr. Columbia, dir. Friedkin; 6-
