American cinema lost one of its iconic filmmakers of the ‘New Hollywood’ era when William Friedkin passed away August 7. His most celebrated works stem from the 1970s, that great decade of commercial moviemaking when it seemed to audiences then (and especially now) that a new sense of filmmaking and the purpose of cinema was on the horizon. But, before Friedkin arrived at the celebratory point of his career, he had to traverse the difficulties which so many budding and ambitious filmmakers find themselves in; namely, finding a project that will allow them to break into the industry and establish themselves as a director with commercial viability. To do this, Friedkin began at the bottom: starting out as a mailroom attendant for WGN, an independent television station in Chicago. From there, he graduated to shooting live television and documentaries, most notably The People vs. Paul Crump, which was invoked in getting Crump’s death sentence commuted to life in prison. The success of this project got the attention of no less than the producers of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, who hired Friedkin to direct an episode in 1965, and his career was on its way.

Two years after establishing himself in national television, Friedkin became acquainted with Sonny Bono, who was seeking funding for a movie project centered on himself and his wife and fellow star Cher. As Friedkin and Bono became friendlier, they began searching for a suitable script, in the end forced to write their own, Good Times, a week before production (it was named after a song Bono was writing at the time). In later years, Friedkin noted perhaps the only qualification he had was his youthful vigor, which attracted Bono and allowed them to work well together. Yet, he also recognized his lack of visual and dramatic flair for such a project at that point and called the movie “terrible and forgettable.”

True to Friedkin’s word, his debut is, to put it mildly, disappointing at best and flat-out boring at worst. The film has an improvisational feel with various storylines and ideas introduced and then either discarded or dealt with superficially. Good Times amiably wanders through various fantasy sequences during which Sonny daydreams about starring in a motion picture, with all the fantasies ending in what is supposed to be hilarious disappointment. Instead of zany outrageousness, the sequences lightly imitate established genres like the Western, private eye and jungle adventure with a little anachronistic humor to boot. None of these sequences offer any insight into the dimensions of the genres nor why they remain popular. The movie tries to weakly string the sequences together through a story where Sonny meets with an all-powerful, egotistical producer (George Sanders), who (not coincidentally) is the evil foil in every fantasy. Nothing is surprising or memorable, and each ridiculous fantasy fills up dead space until the next one emerges. There are, of course, multiple musical sequences featuring the popular singing duo, but too many are dubbed and whatever spark of ingenuity and interest may have been in the script is lost in the confusing choreography and blatantly phony sound editing. Meanwhile, Cher, who would go on to have a remarkable solo musical and acting career, is reduced to spouting pointless one-liners at Sonny’s expense with little to no impact on the story at large.

Despite its numerous flaws, Good Times does illustrate the devil-may-care attitude towards pacing and storytelling that Friedkin would utilize much better in subsequent, superior scripts. Given his documentary background, Friedkin had the improvisational and quick-thinking ability to get a project like Good Times done within the necessary confines, and his energy and love of classic Hollywood musicals must certainly have been an attractive quality. Such economical filmmaking often ensures filmmakers have a future in the movies and despite not being a hit, Friedkin’s reputation was set for the foreseeable future. Perhaps this was just the wrong type of project for his sensibility (he never directed another musical, though he said he always had the desire to), but soon he was to find a different avenue more in line with his realistic and expressive interests that began with documentaries and evolved into theatrical adaptation.