Candy (1968)

Based on Terry Southern's satirical novel, a sendup of Voltaire's -Candide-. Young Candy is a high school girl who seeks truth and meaning in life, encountering a variety of kookie characters and humorous sexual situations in the process.

Director:

Christian Marquand

Writers:

Buck Henry (screenplay), Mason Hoffenberg (novel),

Stars:

Ewa Aulin, Charles Aznavour, Marlon Brando

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ewa Aulin	...	Candy Christian
Charles Aznavour	...	Hunchback juggler
Marlon Brando	...	Grindl
Richard Burton	...	MacPhisto
James Coburn	...	Dr. A.B. Krankheit
John Huston	...	Dr. Arnold Dunlap
Walter Matthau	...	Gen. R.A. Smight
Ringo Starr	...	Emmanuel
John Astin	...	T.M. Christian / Jack Christian
Elsa Martinelli	...	Livia
Sugar Ray Robinson	...	Zero
Anita Pallenberg	...	Nurse Bullock
Lea Padovani	...	Silvia Fontegliulo
Florinda Bolkan	...	Lolita
Marilù Tolo	...	Conchita

Storyline

Candy Christian is an innocent young girl when she first hears NcPhito, an alcoholic Welsh poet, talk of love and self-sacrifice. Candy narrowly escapes McPhisto's attempt to rape her, only to succumb to her father's Mexican gardener, Emmanuel. When her father catches her with the gardener, he banishes her to a trip with his twin brother, Uncle Jack, and Jack's wife Aunt Livia, who are headed for New York City. As Candy makes her way to the airport, Emmanuel's three sisters attack her because she has corrupted their brother. Because of Candy, Emmanuel has now forsaken the priesthood. During the scuffle, Candy's father takes a blow to the head, resulting in a serious head injury. Candy nearly gives in to a General Smight on the plane in exchange for a blood transfusion for her father. In New York, an ego-maniacal brain surgeon Dr. Krankeit operates on her father, while Uncle Jack pursues his own operation on Candy. When Candy bashes him with a bedpan, Uncle Jack is put in her father's ...

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Plot Keywords:

hermit | california | gardener | sex | surgeon | 

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Taglines:

She's only faithful to the book.

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

France Italy USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 December 1968 (USA)

Also Known As:

Candy - hun er så fræk

Filming Locations:

Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Corona Cinematografica, Dear Film Produzione

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to a 1969 issue of Photoplay, Pia Degermark was the first choice for the title role. Other contenders included Connie Kreski and Sydne Rome.

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Quotes

Jack Christian: Nobody loves your daddy any more than I do. I'd chop off my right arm for him.
Livia: You're left handed.
Jack Christian: Well, that's beside the point.

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Connections

Referenced in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

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Soundtracks

"Magic Carpet Ride"
Performed by Steppenwolf

User Reviews

An incoherent, bewildering and hedonistic mess of a movie which must be seen to be disbelieved.

There has never been - nor will there ever again be - a film quite like Candy. This vulgar, scattershot, psychedelic sex satire is an utter failure, but boy what a fascinating failure!! It offers the chance to see a roster of talented stars working on such obfuscated material that their only get-out clause is to overact to epidemic levels. It also offers a chance to experience the sexual permissiveness and hallucinatory extravagance of 1960s society, in a film made just as the cinema was breaking away from the Production Code into a new and exciting era of relaxed censorship and franker morality.

The film has no plot to speak of, but is more a series of highly exaggerated vignettes. Naive high-school beauty Candy Christian (Ewa Aulin) begins her odyssey of sexual misadventures at a poetry seminar given by the reviled but popular poet McPhisto (Richard Burton). Upon taking the drunken poet back to her house to dry his trousers - soaked with booze - the family's Mexican gardener Emmanuel (Ringo Starr) mistakenly believes that Candy is coming on to him, so he makes love to her on a pool table in the basement. Candy's father (John Astin) walks in on them and is so distraught that he arranges for his daughter to take a break in New York with her uncle (Astin again). Candy ends up on an Air Force jet where she is once again seduced, this time by a mad air force officer (Walter Matthau); later she is taken advantage of by a brilliant surgeon (James Coburn) who performs a dangerous operation on her injured father. During a post-operation party, Candy's father wanders off and the girl attempts to find him on the streets of New York. Here she gets into yet more sexual situations, first being raped by a weird hunchback thief (Charles Aznavour) and later rather indecently frisked by a horny cop (Joey Forman). Candy finally seeks refuge in the back of a truck, but it turns out to be the travelling home of sex-addicted guru Grindl (Marlon Brando)... and, yes, you've guessed it, he too takes advantage of the over-sexed yet ever-innocent girl.

It is hard to be sure if there is any point to all this, though the lack of a meaningful narrative suggests that the film is trying to convey some kind of subtextual meaning. Perhaps the film is attempting to say that men are devious and conniving creatures who will try every dirty trick in the book to get into the pants of an attractive young girl? Or maybe it is saying that pretty young blondes who wear impossibly short skirts are capable of driving men of every age and occupation to experience their deepest desires? The original book was apparently a satire on pornographic clichés (I haven't read it, but I've read ABOUT it), but the film seems to be more concerned with titillation than out-and-out porn. Of the actors involved, Burton registers best as the self-indulgent poet. Matthau is quite funny too as the absurd air force officer. The biggest wastes are Coburn and Brando, the latter giving perhaps his laziest ever performance as the sex guru (though you can understand his agreeing to be in this.... a salary of $50,000 to rip off Aulin's clothes and romp around with her seems a pretty fair incentive!) Candy is a total mess of a movie, but you should still watch it if only to say you've had the dubious pleasure of experiencing its unique brand of vulgarity, chaos and extravagance.