Chastity (1969)
Cher has her first dramatic role in this R-rated psychological drama/character study, after appearing in the G-rated musical comedy
Good Times (1967) with husband/co-star Sonny Bono. Bono wrote and produced this attempt to lose their squeaky-clean image. Directed by somebody who has no other credits. I just found out that it was remade in 2005, without Cher!
Chastity (2005) - IMDb
Yes, this is the source of the name of their daughter Chastity (now a son named Chaz.) I'm not sure that I would name my (non-existent) child after a character with serious psychological problems in a movie with adult themes, not to mention a name that could easily serve as a source of suggestive remarks, but that's just me.
Anyway, Cher stars as a young woman who calls herself Chastity. The film begins in arty/psychedelic/pretentious fashion with a silhouette of a woman's head, which is filled with a constantly changing and repeating series of images, abstract and figurative. I guess this symbolizes what's going on in her mind. Then we get a scene of Cher running away from the ocean (although the setting is Phoenix, Arizona) toward the viewer. At last we get our titles, with Cher's name bearing an accent over the vowel, while we hear her singing for just a brief time, as we will during the end credits. The rest of the plot is episodic.
1. Chastity, hitchhiking in the pouring rain, gets a lift from a trucker. She shares his motel room, but sleeps fully clothed on the floor, making it absolutely clear she's not going to fool around with him.
2. Chastity cons a guy out of five bucks by pretending to be the attendant at a gas station.
3. Chastity gets picked up and treated to a meal by our movie's Nice Guy, a law student, and spends the night in his home, while he sleeps on the couch; again, no fooling around. (The source of our film's title?)
4. Chastity wanders into a Catholic church, talks to a woman who is trying to pray, goes into the confessional booth for a few seconds, then leaves without talking to the priest.
5. Chastity steals a car -- easy enough; somebody stupidly left the keys in the ignition of a convertible with the top down -- and drives to Mexico, where she tells a shady guy that she wants to work in a brothel. At the brothel, she pretends to be one of the prostitutes so she can con a young, nerdy guy out of his money, still without fooling around with him. The lesbian who runs the place takes a fancy to her, and they begin a sort of mother/daughter relationship. She buys Chastity new clothes, takes her to an amusement park and petting zoo, and so forth. Still no fooling around. Things seem OK, but suddenly Chastity screams and leaves. (Up to now, Cher has shown little emotion.)
6. Chastity goes back to Nice Guy, and, it's implied, finally fools around with him, and seems ready to settle down into domestic bliss. However, when he's gone, she has flashbacks to voices she heard in childhood (revealing the situation that messed her up), wrecks the Nice Guy's home, and goes back to hitchhiking, ending the film weeping.
A strange film and a box office flop, delaying Cher's movie career for a decade or so.
Good and interesting review.
