I Want Candy

Before I get into Candy (1968), I’d like to say a few words about my Netflix queue - specifically about the Saved queue. That’s the list of films that I want to see that Netflix doesn’t have. It includes some new movies that aren’t out on DVD, but there are a lot that are just ... there. My Saved queue is usually just a little shorter than my regular queue - 100-150. A lot of movies have been there forever. I think I queued Candy up shortly after I joined Netflix. It’s probably been there around 10 years.

Recently, things have been coming off the Saved queue, into the real queue. Saved is down to ~80 titles, although some have probably gone away because Netflix isn’t even offering the option of saving them. But I have seen some old choices popping up (like Straight to Hell). Then I have to decide if I really want to watch them.

I was pretty worried about Candy, a famously counter-culture sex farce from the high 60s. It was taken from a Terry Southern book, adapted by Buck Henry, directed by Christian Maarquand, a French actor. Would it still be funny? Would it be inept? Would it be gross? Well...

Candy is Ewa Aulin, a Swedish beauty queen. There’s a slightly psychedelic intro, indicating that perhaps she is a being from another planet. But we soon find her in high school, day dreaming through the class taught by her father, John Astin. She’s probably thinking about the poetry recital she’s going to attend, with sexual poet McPhisto (Richard Burton), whose hair and ascot are perpetually blowing in the non-existent wind. She catches his eye and he drives her to her house, where, for reasons I forget, he has to take his pants off. But he doesn’t have his way with her.

That’s because Candy gets the Mexican gardener, Ringo Starr, to help. He rapes her. But the rape probably isn’t as offensive as Ringo’s accent, with is vaguely Italian mixed with maybe Dutch? Anyway, his sisters are angry that he has been defiled, and chase Candy to the airport, where she takes off on a military flight with General Walter Matthau. He presses the Jump button while chasing her around the cockpit, and everyone on board parachutes out, including him.

And so it goes - Candy bounces from one situation to another, making men horny all around her. Some are sexy like surgeon James Coburn. Some are gross, like her leering uncle, also John Astin, or the hunchback Charles Aznavour. She also meets a New Age guru who has a temple in the back of a tractor-trailer truck - Marlon Brando.

I won’t spoil the ending, but that’s kind of impossible.

So - this wasn’t inept. It’s a well made film with good production values. It’s counter-culture, but not sloppy counter-culture. (Ringo’s accent is inept, but on purpose, I assume.) It’s pretty funny, although maybe not laugh out loud funny. It’s pretty gross, what with all the rape and harassment, but there’s a lot less skin than I expected: maybe a few breasts and possibly some Brando butt. All in all, a fun watch. Not my favorite movie written by Buck Henry, but I’m glad it came off the Saved queue.