Under the Cherry Moon (1986) Warner Bros./Drama-Musical RT: 100 minutes Rated PG-13 (sexual references, language, some violence, thematic elements) Director: Prince Screenplay: Becky Johnston Music: Prince and The Revolution Cinematography: Michael Ballhaus Release date: July 2, 1986 (US) Cast: Prince, Jerome Benton, Steven Berkoff, Emmanuelle Sallet, Alexandra Stewart, Kristin Scott Thomas, Francesca Annis, Pamela Ludwig, Barbara Stall, Karen Geerlings, Amoury Desjardins, Garance Tosello, Sylvain Levignac, Guy Cuevas, Patrice Melennec. Box Office: $10.1M (US)
Rating: ***
Not only did I see the Prince vehicle (or as the opening credits proclaim “A Film by Prince”) Under the Cherry Moon at the cinema, I saw it in its second weekend of release. I am astonished it didn’t get pulled from theaters after the first week, especially with a tepid $3.1M opening weekend take. I mean, both American Anthem and Out of Bounds got yanked after five days. On the other hand, Howard the Duck stuck around for at least three weeks. In any event, the theater near where I worked at the time held it over so I went to check it out after my shift one Saturday night. I didn’t hate it.
Under the Cherry Moon marks Prince’s directorial debut. He took the reins after Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary 1 & 2) left the project over creative differences. The arty funk-rock singer/wannabe auteur had a vision of his own and now carte blanche to realize it. That’s when it went from movie to vanity project.
Under the Cherry Moon was shot on color stock then transferred to black and white in post-production. It evokes the B&W movies of the 30s and 40s; in particular, big melodramas with dashing romantic figures and screwball comedies that skewer the rich. It even has a bit of Fred Astaire musical. At the same time, Prince seems to be going for something along the lines of Fellini in how he shows the lifestyles of the rich and shameless. The birthday party, an exercise in wretched excess, is right out of one of the Italian filmmaker’s movies. It’s pretty bizarre.
In his second acting role, The Purple One plays Christopher Tracy, a gigolo working the French Riviera with his partner Tricky (Benton of The Time). They target rich older ladies like Mrs. Wellington (Annis, Dune) for marriage and a huge payday. While reading the local newspaper one day, Tricky sees that heiress Mary Sharon (Thomas, The English Patient) is having a huge bash for her 21st birthday. She stands to inherit a $50M trust fund on this day. Naturally, Christopher wants a piece of it.
He and Tricky crash the party where they don’t receive a warm welcome from their hostess. She finds them offensive and has them thrown out. And now a few words about Mary. She’s a sheltered girl who’s lived her entire life under the rule of her controlling father Isaac (Berkoff, Beverly Hills Cop). She’s tired of it. She wants to live her own life on her own terms, but still with Daddy’s money. She definitely doesn’t want to marry the guy he has lined up for her. It’s something to do with a business merger between two powerful families.
We already know Mary is something of a rebel by the way she shows up for her party dressed only in a towel. She proceeds to flash the guests (kids included) before hijacking the drums and doing an impromptu solo. Who does this? Intrigued by Christopher and knowing her father would never approve, she starts hanging around him and Tricky, running hither and yon on shopping sprees and what not. The three end up at a fancy restaurant where Christopher gets the crowd dancing and grooving to a performance of “Girls & Boys” with a giant ghetto blaster providing the funky instrumentals. Naturally, Isaac doesn’t approve of his daughter’s behavior or choice of friends. This gives her more of a reason to fall in love with Christopher. Looking to establish her independence, rebellious Mary starts hanging around with Christopher and He falls for her too. For the first time in his life, he starts to question his priorities. He ponders the big question that has plagued many a gigolo: what’s more important, love or money?
Only in “A Film by Prince” would sophisticated women be drawn to guy that looks and acts as weird as Christopher Tracy. Here’s a guy who dresses like a gay matador while everybody else dresses like a normal person. He often behaves like a petulant child. When he gives women “the eyes”, it’s not charming or alluring. It’s creepy. It’s more likely to make the skin crawl than the heart flutter. But this is “A Film by Prince” and his Purple Majesty’s ego must be stoked. So it is that this strange little alien (just a theory, folks) guy with a questionable fashion sense is irresistible to women.
We are informed of Christopher’s tragic fate via voiceover at the beginning. The narrator states, “Christopher lived for all women, but he died for one.” So when you think about it, Under the Cherry Moon is really a self-composed eulogy in which our protagonist imagines that the entire world revolves around him and will be affected by his demise. It’s okay though because he dies for love. I know it’s not supposed to be funny, but it kind of is if you look at it this way. It only stresses the fact that Prince made a film not to entertain audiences, but to sing his own praises.
There’s a lot that’s odd about Under the Cherry Moon. Okay, almost everything in it and about it is odd. But the oddest thing is that Prince doesn’t perform most of his songs on-screen. They’re mostly played on the soundtrack while the action plays out. He performs twice. The first, which I already mentioned, is the “Girls & Boys” number. The other is “Mountains”. He performs with his band The Revolution while the end credits roll. He and the others are floating in the clouds. It’s meant to indicate he’s in heaven presumably waiting for his true love Mary to join him someday. The performance is intercut with shots of Mary making pixie-like facial expressions.
The acting in Under the Cherry Moon is monumentally bad, but I suspect you already knew that. This is Prince we’re talking about after all. This is easily his goofiest performance EVER. His exaggerated facial expressions, his bizarre behavior, the way he talks, those outfits, YIKES! Benton fares slightly- and I mean SLIGHTLY- better than Prince. Berkoff camps it up nicely playing a villainous character, something he’s quite adept at. Besides Beverly Hills Cop (1984), he played bad guys in Outland (1981), Octopussy (1983) and Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985). Thomas, in her feature film debut, looks good. She wasn’t the first choice for the role. Mary was originally supposed to be played by Susannah Melvoin, twin sister of Revolution member Wendy and Prince’s girlfriend at the time. When it was noticed she couldn’t actually act, she was fired and Thomas was hired. I wonder how long their relationship lasted after that.
Visually, Under the Cherry Moon is a sight to behold. Yes, the whole B&W thing is pretentious as hell, but it’s still quite striking. It’s a brilliant mix of cinematography (Michael Ballhaus), production design (Richard Sylbert), costumes (Marie France) and Art Deco set design (Ian Whittaker). It’s like an arty 60s film by Fellini or Antonioni with an 80s music video sensibility and occasional out-of-left field comedy bits like Christopher and an entire restaurant fleeing in terror after Tricky alerts them to the bats hanging from the rafters. The melodrama is amped up to 11 at the end with almost everybody weeping over Christopher’s dead body. Tricky actually pleads with God saying “Don’t take Christopher yet!”
There is dopey dialogue aplenty in Under the Cherry Moon, but the topper has to be when Tricky tells his girlfriend Katy (Sallet, The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of Yik Yak), “I don’t need friends! I’m my own man, just like Liberace!” Uh, okay, right, yeah, whatever that means. The runner-up is when Christopher yells, “Maybe if you took off your chastity belt, you could breathe a little mo’ betta!” as he’s being escorted from her party. Such humorous banter should never be forgotten.
Under the Cherry Moon is indeed a bad movie, but it’s not unwatchable like Graffiti Bridge. To be fair, Prince didn’t write this one. That honor belongs to underground (No Wave) filmmaker Becky Johnston who would go on to co-write the Barbra Streisand vehicle The Prince of Tides (1991). Her pretty good script is undone by Prince’s massive ego. This is what I love about Under the Cherry Moon. It’s a perfect storm of celebrity ego and a studio letting a star run amok. How can I not enjoy it?
