SusannahCandy (1968)
January 22nd 2007 07:21
CANDY (1968)
Screenplay by: Buck Henry
Based on the novel by: Terry Southern & Mason Hoffenberg
Starring: Ewa Aulin, Richard Burton, Marlon Brando, Ringo Starr, James Coburn, John Huston, Walter Matthau, John Astin.
Dir: Christian Marquand
No, not that movie starring Heath Ledger and heroin, but instead one of the strangest, and most difficult to find cult movies you may never see. I first saw this film in a double billing with Zardoz (see previous review) as part of an Incredibly Strange Film Festival, and then recently again on a DVD from the UK, which seems to be the only country where it is available.
Based on the novel by Mason Hoffenberg and Terry Southern (Barbarella, Dr. Strangelove or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Easy Rider), and adapted for the screen by Buck Henry (The Graduate), the film is apparently a satirical take on Voltaire’s Candide.
The plot is thus: a young high school girl called Candy Christian, accidentally ends up going on a journey where she encounters a series of over the top male characters, who all attempt to sexually molest her. It is meant to be a comedy, honest!
The film opens with a psychedelic sequence where Candy appears to land on earth from space. Then it cuts to Candy daydreaming in class, where she is reprimanded by the teacher, who is also her father (John Astin), for not paying attention. Candy, by the way, is a fantastic looking woman. She looks exactly like a Barbie doll: with enormous blue eyes and blonde hair down to her waist.
Candy then dashes off to hear a poetry recital at school given by MacPhisto (Richard Burton). This is one of the best bits in the film. MacPhisto is perpetually wind blown, his hair and scarf blown back in a dramatic fashion, and he recites his poetry with as much over the top Shakespearian scale delivery as he can muster. He singles Candy out from the other girls and gives her a ride home in his limo. Cue one of the most memorable scenes in the movie, where MacPhisto gets drunk while hitting on Candy and goes on about his “gigantic, overwhelming need” while the camera shows him shot from below through the glass floor of the limo licking the alcohol up off the floor. The words “my need” will never be the same.
Taking pity on MacPhisto in his hopelessly drunken state, Candy takes him into her home and installs him in the basement. She enlists the help of their Mexican gardener, Emmanuel, as played by Ringo Starr. Yes, you read that right: Ringo Starr plays a Mexican. Yes, he is from Liverpool, in England, and as far as I know has no Mexican heritage. It is one of the strangest pieces of casting you will ever see. He also does one of the worst Mexican accents you will ever hear. The phrase “Dis no good” will never be the same either. Emmanuel eventually becomes overcome with lust and has sex with a not entirely willing Candy on a pool table, while MacPhisto apparently has sex with a Candy lookalike doll. Yes, you read that sentence right. I said this film was strange. Emmanuel even lets loose with a “Viva Revolution!” at the point of climax.
Mr Christian, along with his identical twin brother (John Astin again) and his brother’s wife, decide to send Candy to a school where she can be protected (can you blame them?) but on their way to the airport are pursued by a group of Mexican women on motor bikes, who are the angry sisters of Emmanuel, out to punish Candy for taking his innocence.
Sample Dialogue:
T. M. Christian: Now look you people! This isn't some godforsaken border town where you can just, uh, go about as you please and, and bother innocent people and do... do... do... Mexican things!
While jumping aboard a military plane to escape the sisters, Mr Christian is injured and the group encounter General R. A. Smight (Walter Matthau) whose comedy sequence is reminiscent of the aircraft scenes in Dr. Strangelove. Candy escapes the advances of Smight, only to end up in a hospital where John Huston hams it up as a brilliant surgeon Dr. A. B. Krankheit, who operates on her father and tattoos his initials on all his sexual conquests. He saves Candy from the sexual advances of Dr. Arnold Dunlap (John Huston), only to hit on her himself. Candy is also hit on by her uncle, discovers her comatose father has disappeared and so flees, only to eventually end up having sex with a hunchback in a piano. No really.
Sample Dialogue:
Candy: This hospital is full of really sick people.
Eventually Candy meets Grindl (Marlon Brando) a guru who tells her that the only way to enlightenment is to apparently perform the Kama Sutra with him. Grindl, by the way, lives in the container of a truck that is decked out with silk scarves, flowing water, a bed and a fake night sky. Brando’s sequence is also one of the most entertaining segments in Candy’s rather plotless journey, which is less a cohesive story, than a series of skits and an actor showcase. God knows how they got such an impressive cast for such an oddity.
I won’t spoil the odd and rather disturbing climax. But I will say that the end features an extended credit sequence where Candy walks through a field past every character she has met in the movie, dressed in a white sarong that gets increasingly covered in more flowers. Each character is in a setting befitting their character. She even walks past a giant mirror that reflects the entire crew. Trippy.
An incredibly odd, even offensive film, considering it is about a young woman who constantly receives unwanted advances from every man she meets. But well worth a look, if you can get it, if only to see A list actors of yesteryear having fun tapping into their comedic sides and hamming up the screen.
Trivia: The novel was also adapted for the screen in 1978 as a porn film starring John C. Holmes in The Erotic Adventures of Candy.
Screenplay by: Buck Henry
Based on the novel by: Terry Southern & Mason Hoffenberg
Starring: Ewa Aulin, Richard Burton, Marlon Brando, Ringo Starr, James Coburn, John Huston, Walter Matthau, John Astin.
Dir: Christian Marquand
No, not that movie starring Heath Ledger and heroin, but instead one of the strangest, and most difficult to find cult movies you may never see. I first saw this film in a double billing with Zardoz (see previous review) as part of an Incredibly Strange Film Festival, and then recently again on a DVD from the UK, which seems to be the only country where it is available.
Based on the novel by Mason Hoffenberg and Terry Southern (Barbarella, Dr. Strangelove or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Easy Rider), and adapted for the screen by Buck Henry (The Graduate), the film is apparently a satirical take on Voltaire’s Candide.
The plot is thus: a young high school girl called Candy Christian, accidentally ends up going on a journey where she encounters a series of over the top male characters, who all attempt to sexually molest her. It is meant to be a comedy, honest!
The film opens with a psychedelic sequence where Candy appears to land on earth from space. Then it cuts to Candy daydreaming in class, where she is reprimanded by the teacher, who is also her father (John Astin), for not paying attention. Candy, by the way, is a fantastic looking woman. She looks exactly like a Barbie doll: with enormous blue eyes and blonde hair down to her waist.
Candy then dashes off to hear a poetry recital at school given by MacPhisto (Richard Burton). This is one of the best bits in the film. MacPhisto is perpetually wind blown, his hair and scarf blown back in a dramatic fashion, and he recites his poetry with as much over the top Shakespearian scale delivery as he can muster. He singles Candy out from the other girls and gives her a ride home in his limo. Cue one of the most memorable scenes in the movie, where MacPhisto gets drunk while hitting on Candy and goes on about his “gigantic, overwhelming need” while the camera shows him shot from below through the glass floor of the limo licking the alcohol up off the floor. The words “my need” will never be the same.
Taking pity on MacPhisto in his hopelessly drunken state, Candy takes him into her home and installs him in the basement. She enlists the help of their Mexican gardener, Emmanuel, as played by Ringo Starr. Yes, you read that right: Ringo Starr plays a Mexican. Yes, he is from Liverpool, in England, and as far as I know has no Mexican heritage. It is one of the strangest pieces of casting you will ever see. He also does one of the worst Mexican accents you will ever hear. The phrase “Dis no good” will never be the same either. Emmanuel eventually becomes overcome with lust and has sex with a not entirely willing Candy on a pool table, while MacPhisto apparently has sex with a Candy lookalike doll. Yes, you read that sentence right. I said this film was strange. Emmanuel even lets loose with a “Viva Revolution!” at the point of climax.
Mr Christian, along with his identical twin brother (John Astin again) and his brother’s wife, decide to send Candy to a school where she can be protected (can you blame them?) but on their way to the airport are pursued by a group of Mexican women on motor bikes, who are the angry sisters of Emmanuel, out to punish Candy for taking his innocence.
Sample Dialogue:
T. M. Christian: Now look you people! This isn't some godforsaken border town where you can just, uh, go about as you please and, and bother innocent people and do... do... do... Mexican things!
While jumping aboard a military plane to escape the sisters, Mr Christian is injured and the group encounter General R. A. Smight (Walter Matthau) whose comedy sequence is reminiscent of the aircraft scenes in Dr. Strangelove. Candy escapes the advances of Smight, only to end up in a hospital where John Huston hams it up as a brilliant surgeon Dr. A. B. Krankheit, who operates on her father and tattoos his initials on all his sexual conquests. He saves Candy from the sexual advances of Dr. Arnold Dunlap (John Huston), only to hit on her himself. Candy is also hit on by her uncle, discovers her comatose father has disappeared and so flees, only to eventually end up having sex with a hunchback in a piano. No really.
Sample Dialogue:
Candy: This hospital is full of really sick people.
Eventually Candy meets Grindl (Marlon Brando) a guru who tells her that the only way to enlightenment is to apparently perform the Kama Sutra with him. Grindl, by the way, lives in the container of a truck that is decked out with silk scarves, flowing water, a bed and a fake night sky. Brando’s sequence is also one of the most entertaining segments in Candy’s rather plotless journey, which is less a cohesive story, than a series of skits and an actor showcase. God knows how they got such an impressive cast for such an oddity.
I won’t spoil the odd and rather disturbing climax. But I will say that the end features an extended credit sequence where Candy walks through a field past every character she has met in the movie, dressed in a white sarong that gets increasingly covered in more flowers. Each character is in a setting befitting their character. She even walks past a giant mirror that reflects the entire crew. Trippy.
An incredibly odd, even offensive film, considering it is about a young woman who constantly receives unwanted advances from every man she meets. But well worth a look, if you can get it, if only to see A list actors of yesteryear having fun tapping into their comedic sides and hamming up the screen.
Trivia: The novel was also adapted for the screen in 1978 as a porn film starring John C. Holmes in The Erotic Adventures of Candy.
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Great review of a superb curio..keep up teh good work and post more often....I always dig reading your stuff