April 26th: UNDER THE CHERRY MOON (Prince, 1986)

Riding an immense wave of popularity after the success of his Purple Rain album and its accompanying film, Prince had a tremendous amount of clout in Hollywood. His next cinematic endeavor would turn out to be one of his biggest missteps, saved only by the success of its soundtrack.

Prince somehow managed to convince the studio to put up over $10 million on a pseudo-period piece (despite many modern props, dialogue, and music), with a focus on classic screwball comedy over music, which would star him and other unknowns. On top of that, the plan was to release it in black & white prints.

Screenwriter Becky Johnston (later an Academy Award nominee for her adaptation of The Prince of Tides), was hired to flesh out Prince's original idea. The production moved further away from the studio's grasp by shooting on location in Nice, France, and the studio's attempts to have their own writers change the script were unsuccessful.

After a creative disagreement with director Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary) on what would have been her first feature film, Prince took over her duties, something that would have been impossible on an American shoot due to Director's Guild regulations. Lambert was demoted to advisor and then soon left altogether.

Veterans behind the camera were production designer Richard Sylbert (Chinatown, Dick Tracy) and Michael Ballhaus (GoodFellas, The Age of Innocence), maintaining a high-quality level on the visuals.

On-screen, Prince was joined by friend Jerome Benton of Minneapolis band The Time (who had a smaller role in Purple Rain), but plans for his girlfriend and Revolution bandmate Susannah Melvoin to co-star went awry due to the poor quality of her performance, and she was replaced by then-unknown Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient).

After a premiere in the hometown of an MTV contest winner in Wyoming, Under The Cherry Moon was released to near-universal bad reviews, and fell short of making back its budget. The film's companion album Parade, with Prince using orchestrations (courtesy of Clare Fischer) and jazz elements, was ironically a critical darling, and yielded the hit single "Kiss".

Running time is approx. 100 minutes.