Candy should, I repeat should be off the scale incredible. But it’s not.

Candy was a film that was always talked about, but no one ever saw it. The poster of Candy topless in the airplane cockpit would always be for sale in the back pages of magazines like “Famous Monsters of Filmland” next to ones of King Kong and Frankenstein and it became a familiar image of the era. But the movie you never saw. Not on any late night movie show, never on a Sunday morning “Million Dollar Movie” or anything like that, Candy was seemingly banned from TV for being too racy and for whatever reason was never released on VHS either. Nor was it ever on HBO or Showtime. It was the great lost movie in my eyes.

I became mildly obsessed with this film I could never see and went about collecting movie posters, lobby cards, publicity photos and I own several different versions of the novel by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg with different groovy covers. The mythical Candy became a cult movie Holy Grail for me. I really built it up in my mind. For years I tried to get hold of a copy in the tape trading underground, but the best I was ever able to find was still unwatchable. Then finally it came out on DVD. It was like Christmas had arrived.

But it sucked! Really sucked. It was such a let down!

I mean just LOOK at the cast: Ringo Starr (Emmanuel, the Mexican gardener), Charles Aznavour (the horny hunchback), Marlon Brando (Grindl, the horny (fake) Indian guru), Richard Burton (MacPhisto, the drunk, horny Welsh poet), James Coburn (egotistical surgeon), John Huston (dirty old man doctor) and Walter Matthau (horny military general). Sugar Ray Robinson and Anita Pallenberg make cameo appearances. How could you go wrong with a cast like that?

Let’s not forget the amazing opening space travel sequence by Douglas Trumbull who went on to make 2001 with Stanley Kubrick. And the soundtrack by The Byrds, Steppenwolf and soundtrack great Dave Grusin (it’s INCREDIBLE and easy to find on audio blogs). The script was adapted by Buck Henry. HOW could this fail?

It even featured the decade defining pulchritude of Miss Teen Sweden, Ewa Aulin, in the title role of “Candy Christian,” the ultimate All-American girl.

But despite all this Candy is a terrible film and even worse, it’s boring.

One of the things that must have mucked up things badly for the production is—and I am just theorizing here—the contracts for the lead actors. These were THE leading actors of the day, all of them top drawer A-list 60s talent. After watching Candy the thought occurred to me that Marlon Brando’s agent probably asked how much screen time Richard Burton was getting and demanded the same for his client. Then James Coburn’s manager asked the same question and demanded equal time for his client and so on and so until each actor was guaranteed “Most Favored Nations” equal screen time. How else to explain the film’s structure? It’s maddening to watch and Candy feels like it’s never going to end.

STILL, I’m not saying it’s so bad you shouldn’t watch it. Actually I think that if this sounds even remotely intriguing to you then it’s definitely worth seeing. It’s not good, no, we’ve already established that fact, but it is a super insane, trippy, campy relic of the 1960s with some of the most iconic actors of the decade behaving like total hambones, each trying to outdo the other in chewing up the scenery.

Candy

Well, the record cover makes me wanna blow a load, but..

Come on. It isn’t as bad as all that. I adore it. It is one of a kind in the melange of 1960s fare.

This was shown on UK television, probably BBC2, round about 1978/9. I actually remember it because of the sexy pneumatic blonde playing Candy. I seem to recall a scene with some kind of guru type inside a truck and another of cops beating up drag queens in a bar.

Maybe I have this confused with some other whacky 60s movie though.

You’re right about the pneumatic blonde with her finger in her mouth the whole time. And I think it’s Brando in the back of the truck telling her about consciousness and sticking his hand up her dress.

I think Richard’s expectations just became too high when he started building it up in his mind. A movie is what it is. You’re the one who judges it bad or good, or projects expectations upon it. I had no expectations when I was shown this film by a crazy ex-boyfriend while I was on LSD, so I loved it. Years later away from the LSD, I still love it.

Your experience is what many will probably go through if “The Day the Clown Cried” is ever released.

One of my favorite Brando movies. I always had a hard time finding it because I’d always ask for “that Brando movie where he’s a guru”. I didn’t realize for a long time he just had a bit part.

Actually it DOESN’T SUCK. Before I saw it, I was expecting it to be bad, due to all the bad press and Terry Southern dissing it as for ‘dumbos’, but it was far better than I’d thought it’d be. Burton as McPhisto is brilliant and John Astin in double role as her uptight dad and her lecherous uncle steals the movie. Plus James Coburn as brain surgeon Krankheit and John Huston as his boss are also very funny. Ewa Aulin is perfect as CANDY. The only sequence that blows is the one with Brando as the guru. Plus the music is great.

Oh, I LOOKED at the cast alright
and decided that this is a film for dirty old men

candytoon

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available for rent at rocket video on la brea blvd.

agreed this movie is scummy, but in the same breath it is part of my childhood just as much as the hobbit cartoon and the last unicorn.  its all part of that same vein of childhood visuals.  but what im confused about is how you couldnt find it on TV.  I remember watching that movie on some pay channel on milwaukee cable in the early 90’s, and i couldnt have been more than 7 or 8.  when was it released on DVD that you finally saw it?

Agreed, this should be one of the best things ever (as it is, it’s just “special”).  Agreed, the soundtrack is great.  And agreed, Burton is just fucking hilarious.  And agreed, it just fails, a big disappointment for Southern fans.  But how to explain the structure?  Doesn’t the “Candide” pun in the title stick out?  Has nobody noticed the ending homage in “The 40-Year Old Virgin”, though, or is it just me?

A few things:

Candy WAS released on VHS through Anchor Bay, which also released the DVD. However, both formats are now out of print, unfortunately.

I don’t think it’s a total failure. Sometimes it’s wildly off the mark, sometimes it really scores, especially with James Coburn putting in a very funny performance.

Author Terry Southern reportedly was ready to write the screenplay for the film himself when Marlon Brando expressed interest. However, Southern claims that Brando and director Christian Marquand stole the film from him and thus decided to stay out of the production created and not to pursue his own production of Candy.

You must be a youngster, as I saw Candy when it was first released. At the time, it was supposedly at the vanguard of hipdom, with such surroundings as The President’s Analyst and Morgan and Blow-Up, not to mention Barbarella and I Am Curious/Yellow. Heady times, pun intended. But it flamed and crashed, mostly because, as you say, it was boring. But also mostly because it was simply uninspiring sexually, because it really didn’t try very hard to be anything but preciously clever.

read the book.

“give me your hump”

Saw Candy in the late seventies when it was shown periodically in the New York City film revival circuit (i.e. Bleecker St. Cinema, the Thalia). Never have read the novel, but didn’t appreciate the film version.  Indeed, have considered it one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, for I didn’t find it funny, sexy or even entertainingly trippy. Then again, I wasn’t a big fan of Barbarella either - arguably a better film only because of Jane Fonda.

I have avoided seeing The Magic Christian because I suspect it’s only more of the same, but I have enjoyed other “cult” films of the era.  Robert Downey Sr.‘s films such as Greaser’s Palace and Putney Swope regularly appeared on the revival circuit, and I highly recommend them even as they don’t seem to be shown very often.

“The Day the Clown Cried”???
“Hey lady, you want I should shove you into the OVEN???”

i trudged through the magic christian.  there were some almost mildly funny bits which i would like to believe my inner self was laughing at, but i recall that it still felt like i was self-flagellating in the process.  it could have been that the poor audio, the accents, the low saturation, all added to what seemed to equate to low grade drive-in schlock from the 60’s.
for now, someone has it on youtube, so if you have the willpower, check it out.

I couldn’t even make it through the trailer!

“Something’s happening, but you don’t know what it is—do you, Mr. Jones.”  Rotten ‘Candy’ was just another case of Mr. Jones, a horny old movie executive producer from the 1930s, trying to present hippie kulture to the masses and (as usual) completely missing the mark.  Arthur Penn’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ probably came close, but still no cigar.

Terry Southern was a misanthrope and an alcoholic whose bitterness obscured his satire and relegated any humor int his film to a spew of L7 perve crap and pointless jabs and thrusts. I hired the guy to write a script and had to wear gloves to read the tainted drivel. But he dis have his moment, Candy not being among them.

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There are movies I have seen that have inspired me to read the book that they were adapted from.  Usually I expected, and found, that the book was better—as in the case of The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh.

I love this film Candy.  Still find it amusing.  Offbeat, somewhat surreal, a touch immature, but fun.

And it’s better than the novel.  Sorry, Terry.

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I read recently in Black Dahlia Avenger that director John Huston was part of a secret society of Hollywood sadists that enjoyed the sexual humiliation/tortue/deaths of women…book is written by George Hoder Jr. the son of the Black Dahlia serial killer,,,,seems Mr. Huston was the keeper of many secrets…he always seemed an oily, greasy kind of character…not the kind of person you’d expect in a movie like Candy…wonder what he thought of the leading lady???

I saw this movie on Christmas day in 1968 and again at a drive-in in 1972. Great music-the Byrds’ “Child of the Universe” ( a better version than the one they put out),(and Dave Gruisin’s version was very kitchy 60s, Austin Powers was lifted from this,  Steppenwolf debuted “Rock Me” here, again a better version than the one they put out.

The Magic Christian is the greatest movie ever made.
Favourite scene: Yul Brynner singing “Mad About the Boy”, in drag, to Roman Polanski.
Ya Philistines.

I saw the film when it was first released in the 1960s, I liked it. 

Of course when one is young artistic discernment can be lacking.

I love this movie! Ewa Aulin is magnificient (also in the great psych-giallo death has laid an egg).
richard burton’s performance mind blowing, marlon brando sickest performance… icould go on and on and on. if you like terry southern, voltaire, swedish girls etc etc etc. gotta go

Yes, there were many such films at the time - in addition to those mentioned, this one reminds me of Casino Royale, the 1967 satire with David Niven, Orson Welles, Peter Sellers, and too many others. That’s what these two have in common: Too many “name” actors trying to be hip and satirical in a muddled chunk of celluloid. Oh, well, we can hope that they had fun while they were filming it…

Drugs should only be consumed by the people who watch films, not the ones who make them.
Anybody remember “Sextette”? (There’s that Ringo guy again!)

CANDY is failed art, really. It’s not the worst film ever but it’s definitely not for all tastes. I love the ending. It also features an early appearance by cult Euro star Florinda Bolkan as one of Ringo’s malevolent sisters. Since the US DVD is OOP, I bought a Region 2 disc from the UK for next to nothing. The quality is pretty poor but I don’t think this is a film that anyone should’ve ever have obsessed about…

Haven’t seen this yet, saw the Magic Christian and that was a disappointment, Ringo couldn’t remember the title of it on the one show recently, his best film was That’ll be the Day ,he’s his younger self in that one

it’s a dated mess—but fun, with a few standout scenes.  burton is hilarious.

Candy is not a good film, but it has a fascinating history.

The book is a brilliant satire on Candide, and a cornerstone of Sixties obscenity cases (and it’s more Mason Hoffenberg than Terry Southern. Btw. Hoffenberg’s wasted promise would make a great DM subject ala Trocchi).

As noted, Grusin’s soundtrack is one of the Sixties’ greatest (which is saying something).

It was John “Gomez Adams” Astin’s one shot at transforming himself into the beatnik Peter Sellers he thought he was. No go, alas.

Director Christian Marquand was Brando’s favorite party buddy in Europe and was a better actor than director (he’s the French plantation owner in Apocalypse Now Redux). You can imagine what the coked-up horndog set must have been like. Candy actress Awlin had a complete breakdown on-set and was committed by the studio to the Burroughs sleep cure. She would only act in one other movie, one even more bizarre than Candy: the junkie classic Microscopic Liquid Subway to Oblivion which I highly, highly recommend…

I agree that this movie is dreadful, but there is something I find fascinating about it. It is one of few prime example in which older Hollywood tries to get hip(pie) and insert themselves into the counterculture lexicon of the 60’s. Sure, some of the people involved with this movie were young, but the faces through which the story was mostly conveyed were not. James Coburn? John Huston? Please! The only thing that this movie had to offer the target audience of pot-smoking youths of the time was a few songs on the soundtrack and the psychedelic, spacey opening. The other example of this sort of inanity would be “Skidoo,” which is terrible for a completely different set of reasons. Though, I have not many positive criticisms here, I actually love both “Candy” and Skidoo.” These movies entertain me because they are like watching a 65-year-old man trying to breakdance.