Original subtitles

Good times! Any time you need a payment. Good times! Any time you need a break.

Good times!

Any time you're up and under.

Not getting hassled, not getting hustled. Keeping your head up for water.

Making a way when you can.

Temporary layoffs. Good times!

sweet baby.

Baby, baby, baby, let's give our love a fairytale. Michael, would you please be

quiet now? Come on. Sorry, Thelma.

Jack

be

nimble, Jack be fast.

Brother Jay is home at last.

one of those Motown Martians with a bad case of Saturday Night Fever.

Hey, Michael, take off those headphones.

Can't you see your eminent big brother's talking to you? And stop shaking your

booty like that.

Will you calm down, J .J.? Hey, Michael, you mean to tell me Thelma ain't

finished writing that play yet?

Nah, she's still got some extra work to do on it, so be quiet.

Michael, I'm quieter than a mouse skating across a bowl of Jell -O.

Quieter than the guest of honor at Ferguson's funeral, Paula.

Michael, we all know that I am the quietest. No, no, no, Brother J. I am

quietest. I am the quietest.

Oh, yes.

If it got any quieter, we'll have a rock concert in here.

Hey, Thelma, you just about finished over here?

Yeah, almost. I gave the first draft to Mrs. Flick, my teacher. I'm just waiting

to hear from her. Oh, don't worry, Thelma. From now on, we won't give you

nothing but peace and quiet around here.

Peace and quiet!

Oh, thanks so much.

Hey, y 'all, have I got news for you. Guess what?

Thelma's still writing.

Okay, listen, but you got to hear this. My daughter, Penny, has been selected to

play in the Easter pageant.

Hey, congratulations, Penny. Very happy. And not only that, the costume will be

styled and designed by the one and only her mother, the star's mother.

What part are you playing, Penny?

I'm a tree.

I wanted to be a bunny, but they ran out of air.

Oh, a tree, huh? So now when you trace your roots, all you got to do is take

your shoes.

The important part in the whole play is where the heroine talks about her dream.

You know, it's... And I can't even hear myself think with the gun show going on

in here.

Thelma, honey, don't you think you're going a little bit overboard after all?

You've just been writing a very short time.

Well, Lona, I have been writing for at least a dozen years.

Let me show you.

Thelma, writing on the elevator walls doesn't qualify you to be Alex Haley.

Leave the child alone. She needs encouragement.

12 years?

Gosh.

Thelma started writing before I was a kid.

Me too.

What's that?

Those are my private diaries. Private? Wow.

Come on now.

You know, Bologna, every night for the last 12 years, I've been writing about

everything that has happened to me. Oh, my good times, my bad times.

A secret desire? Oh. A boyfriend?

Uh -uh. A family?

All right. Family? Let me see that boy.

Oh! Hey! Give me that book! Give me my book! Dear Diary, last night me and

Ebay... Give me this diary. What is

wrong with you?

Mrs. Thelma's personal thoughts. Her innermost feelings.

Interruption. Take it easy there, my little Shakespearean.

I'll handle this so you can keep scripting your scribe.

I'm a teacher, Mrs. Flicker.

And this is Penny and her mother, Walona Woods.

How do you do?

And this is my little brother, Michael.

What it is?

And this is my stupid brother, JJ.

Unpredicated.

Well, I must tell you the wonderful news or I think I'll die.

Or at least get sick.

from Mr. Nicholson, head of the community theater.

He has decided to put on your play.

My very own play.

I mean, actors is on stage saying the words I want to say.

Oh, girl. I can't believe it. Hey, I'll tell you, this is the greatest thing

that's happened to the ghetto since the colonel got real.

Out of 83 entries, yours was the play chosen to be produced.

My dear, Thelma, you are going to be paid $250.

is remarkable this is only the beginning for you film today one small script for

chicago tomorrow it's broadway hey

when do we start rehearsals oh now we haven't even chosen the cast yet and i

think we ought to have a reading of the play first just so we can hear how it

sounds oh yeah but we can have it right here if i may be so inconspicuous

to take my services in some small menial part, such as leading men.

You're an actor.

Oh, my good God.

How do you feel about Stanislavski? They should have never traded him to the

Rams.

Well, it's all set.

They traded Stanislavski to the Rams.

changes that Mr. Nicholson suggests.

But I thought you said that not even a word should be changed. It doesn't

to a thing. They're just the normal, ordinary changes every playwright is

to make.

Well, um... Hold on there.

If I may be so humble and vanishing.

Speaking as the artistic director, I'll just hand this.

All right.

Look here, dumber. You ain't had a play published, written, or nothing yet.

The girl's going to offer you $250. You're going to turn that down. You

not turn that down.

Okay,

Miss Flicka, make any changes you want. Just go ahead and adjust the position,

change, pay to do whatever's necessary.

Well,

what are the changes?

Now, Mr. Nicholson wondered if you would mind changing the name of your heroine

from Pauline to something else.

But what's the matter with Pauline?

Oh, that's the name of Mr.

Nicholson's ex -wife.

It was a very messy divorce.

How about changing it to Boom Boom?

Mr. Nicholson suggests Yvonne. That's the name of his present friend.

Yvonne's fine with us. Just fine.

Right on.

Yes, Yvonne is a very nice name. We'll change Pauline to Yvonne. All right.

a tiny thing here on page 16. Okay. It says that Loretta is a, well, I say a

lady of the evening.

Now, Mr. Nicholson feels that it would be better if you referred to her as a

dancehall girl.

She's what she is.

Mr. Nicholson doesn't want to offend the audience.

Besides, there was some question about his ex -wife, Pauline.

Well, okay. She can become a dancehall girl. That's nice.

Ah, Thelma, you've been an angel about this.

Here we are.

We're going to celebrate Thelma's hit play. Come on. Oh,

Thelma. Thelma, just a minute. Just a minute. If you don't mind, there are

a few more changes. Just a few more, dear.

Now, you know, throughout the play, you use a lot of street language.

Now, Mr.

Nicholson knows that people talk that way, but he feels that there's some

in the audience who might take offense to it, like his friends.

His friends are going to be there.

So now, on page 22.

case of black oak disease.

Penny, you look so sharp.

Doesn't she look beautiful?

My own tree, honey.

the valve on your flusher? Oh, Bookman, you cannot change a valve now. We're

getting ready to read my play.

No kidding. You wrote a play? Yeah. Hey, you got any small parts to fit me?

I beg your pardon.

Small parts to fit you, Booker.

There ain't no part that can fit you.

Well, I guess I'll get diploma so we can go to work.

can handle little things but when you want to hit a home run

Perhaps later. Now, shall we start the play?

Hey, folks, can shorty use the phone?

Yeah, I wanted to call my old lady.

Hey, how come you didn't call her before you came from work?

Man, are you kidding? My wife would kill me.

Now, when we start the play, our heroine, Yvonne, has left Chicago

Creole boyfriend, Eugene, who is a low -down, dirty, conniving, despicable

gambler.

I'm going to have a tough time acting that part.

Now, unknown to Yvonne, Madame Lafitte.

Oh, that's me? Yes. Starring Ro?

Yes. Has her eye on Eugene.

Eye on Eugene. Got that in code.

Now, nobody knows about this except Loretta, a dance hall girl.

And Madame Lafitte's sleazy bar.

Now, as the play starts, we are at the...

Cafe where Jeffrey, the Jamaican bartender... All day, all night, mixing

drinks. All day, all...

Is listening to Chops the Trumpet Player.

Lafitte's dimly lit... You're over here, dear. Oh, I see. And Madame Lafitte's

dimly lit Bourbon Street Cafe.

Jeffrey, the bar's over here. Loretta, you come over here.

Yvonne, you make your entrance up center, please. Center, okay.

Now, remember, this is New Orleans, 1955.

There are a lot of people around.

A jigger of vodka, a shot of yak juice, and something to hold on to.

I'm coming right up, big boy.

Tell me Mr. Nicholson has a note here about alcoholic beverages. He's afraid

that some people will find it objectionable.

All right, good. I'll change it.

Read on. Okay, okay.

love slave.

I am my own man, and I plays the field.

Well, monsieur, you must understand that if you do not give me your whole heart,

your little Creole butt will be tossed into the bayon.

Hold it.

Hold it. Yes, there is another note. Thanks. Yes. Now, Mr. Nicholson suggests

that your little Creole butt is suggestive.

And I must admit that... Oh, come on, that's cool.

Yes, dear, yes. Now, we must not argue with Mr.

Nicholson. Read on.

Yes.

Well, in that case, I better go break the bad news to Yvonne.

That bank shop gambler, Eugene, is gonna break poor Yvonne's heart.

Hey, he can't help it if he's loved by two women.

what he's going through.

Tell me if you're lying.

You're lying.

Eugene,

I have to talk to you.

Not now, baby.

I want to hear Chops sing.

L -R -V, baby.

Well, I'm tired of it.

And I'm going back home.

I'm tired of your phony dreams, too.

Because I have dreams of my own.

Very funny.

Frenchie.

But Yvonne, baby, this is our dream right here in New Orleans.

It's going to come true. It's right here in the palm of our hands.

Holding on to dreams that you can touch, Eugene, are not the best kind of dreams

to have.

You know, my daddy once told me...

You have to reach for dreams that nobody can see but you.

And those are the kind of dreams that will give you more than just a pat on

back from your friends.

Yeah. Those are the kind of dreams that will give you your future.

And they're out there.

They're out there.

And this is one black woman that's going to reach her dream.

All right.

Word change.

What word change?

Well, you know, he feels that your place should be for everybody, just not a few

people. It's not universal enough the way you've written it. It's too heavy,

black. Oh.

Oh, so that's a little word change.

Black. Well, yes, yes. All you have to do is take it out and put it in. Look,

change it to this. Look, right here, dear.

This is one woman that's going to reach her dream. So what's wrong with that?

Everything.

Because the play is not about being black.

It's about being a woman. And a woman happens to be black.

So you can tell Mr. Nicholson he can go butcher up somebody else's play. Tell me

you know what this means.

It means forget about Mr.

Nicholson and forget about doing my play.

Tell her what she's passing up. I'm sorry, honey. It's between Thelma and

herself.

Thelma, I think you're making a mistake.

Sometimes compromises are necessary.

I've had to make them all my life.

Do you think I like playing errand girl to Mr. Nicholson?

I've got to keep my job.

I need it.

So what's wrong with a little compromise if it puts $250 in your pocket and gets

your play done?

I understand about compromise, Mrs. Flicker.

But compromise, to a certain point, becomes surrender.

And I'm not changing another word.

All right, Thelma. I'll tell Mr.

Nicholson.

Thelma.

I wish I had your guts.

on, you know?

I won the battle, but I lost the war.

Mama, listen to me now.

You just keep on trying, you keep on writing. You understand me?

That's right. Hey, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.

Yeah. All right.

And one day...

Just looking out of the window, watching the asphalt road,

thinking how it all looks and it dies.

Good times, good times, keeping your head above water, making a

wave when you can.

Temporary layoffs, good times, easy credit ripoffs, good times.

Good times is videotaped in front of a studio. your audience.