17 December 1968 (USA)
Christian Marquand
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
Candy, is possibly the quintessential over the top 60s movie. Hey if you're looking for faults you're no doubt find them, wherever you look, and Candy has its share. But frankly, if you like the 60s I don't see you not liking this movie. First of all, it practically has an all-star cast. And speaking of Stars, Ringo Starr makes an appearance in this movie as the dago Emanuel.
Candy, like most late 60s/early 70s movies was meant to satirize the establishment. And what better model is emulate than the ultimate satirical scourge Voltaire's Candide. Candy, is like a female Candide and instead of 18th Century France, her travels are through America in the late 60s when flower power was at it's height.
The over the top opening sequence of a celestial star-scape is certainly made more than endurable by the rocking psychedelic rock soundtrack. Things get started at the beginning of an average day when we see Candy day dreaming in a classroom where her father happens to be a teacher. She's caught and when she calls him daddy, she only gets in more trouble. Her father represents without question the fuddy-duddy conservative, the object of scorn from hippy scum everywhere. She has to cut their conversation shore however, as British poet laureate MacPhisto is making an appearance at the school today.
MacPhisto has his own soundtrack when he walks not to mention wind is always blowing his clothes and hair around, even indoors. During his poetry reading and sales-pitch, Candy catches his eye and he slips her a note asking to see her afterwards.
They drive off in his chauffer driven limousine, but little does she know about MacPhisto's 'need.' He becomes a lust-crazed maniac, which isn't helped by his binge drinking. He becomes a sex-starved drunkard, licking up the liquor from the glass limousine floor. They drag his drunken body into her basement to keep him safe until he sobers up. But their Spanish gardener, Emanuel, who comes from a very conservative background is quite afraid of the whole mess and refers to it as the house of the devil when he enters the basement at Candy requests him to bring them an ironing board. Meanwhile, MacPhisto is now cradling a mannequin and whispering poetry in it's ear. Emanuel refers to the poetry as 'devil-talk'. Candy says he's a credit to Mexican's everywhere. However, MacPhisto spurs him into a frenzy by telling him to remember La Revolution. Emanuel then takes Candy by force and begins to tear away Candy's clothing. MacPhisto follows suit and being to go at it with the mannequin.
"Look at that Mex go!" shouts Zero, MacPhisto's black driver and friend.
Unfortunately, while all this is going on, Candy's father and a group of literati walk in on it. Her father's brother is there and is a far cry from her conservative father. He seems quite interested in the whole matter and claims he wished he'd been there with his Polaroid. This is a good time to let you know that both her father and uncle are played by Gomez from the Addam's family. Her aunt seems pleased as well with the sexual shenanigans. The four of them then take off to take cover until the heat dies down. But on the drive there, they are attacked by a group of motorcycle riding Mexican women who have Emanuel in tow. The Mexicans beat them pretty bad, but they escape on an army plane.
Candy's father has been delivered quite a blow to the head. The army captain seems to be quite out of his mind. Of course, the movie is supposed to be sating conservatives so he is portrayed as a paranoid patriot bigot. He claims his squadron is always in the air except when they need to stop for fuel. Candy's father is bleeding quite bad so he needs a transfusion, but the General won't let them as he thinks it would be incest for a member of his own family to give him blood. He has also fallen under Candy's spell and tried to pillage her as well. In doing so he accidentally sets off an alarm which causes his entire squadron to abandon ship. He leaps out after them but his chute gets stuck and he goes barreling into the stratosphere.
Don't ask me who lands the plane, but they make it back down and to a hospital where her father will soon be operated on. But the surgeon, as everyone as in this movie, is stark raving mad. After a long, insane monologue he asserts that he is going to abandon all tried an true practices and "dig in." Dig in he does, but everything seems to turn out okay.
Things don't go well as Candy wanders though the hospital looking for the Surgeon. Everyone is insane as usual and offer her no help, in fact they impede her progress. Also, they all seem to think she's looking for him in order to seduce him. Candy then wanders into the post-operative bash where everyone has gathered, including her father, who now has an electrical outlet places in the back of his head. Her uncle takes the opportunity to plug a radio into it so they have some music. He also takes advantage of her fatigue and is preparing to seduce her in her father's hospital bed. The owner of the hospital walks in on this and once again, Candy get blamed. She faints under the rain of insults the owner throws at her, so he and the surgeon carry her off. The owner is tempted to 'examine' her, but the surgeon stops him. But after he leaves, the surgeon asks her to take off her clothes so he can examine her. He of course tricks her into sleeping with him. During all this madness, her father has just gotten up and is wandering around the hospital. As the entire hospital staff and patients seems to be after her, she escapes and goes off in search of her father.
She stops by a cafe to get a drink, but she doesn't have any money to pay for it. As the bartender is getting ready to strike her, a nearby gangster saves her. He takes her to the boss, who of course, is interested in her. As they're getting ready to take liberties, a nearby director scares them off by filming them. He leads her off into the men's room where he wants to film her. She knocks some pipes loose and so does he, so soon the whole room is getting filled with water. Some cops show up and open the door, flooding the place. They beat the director and then run off to apprehend Candy, who is now wandering throughout the city soaking wet.
She ends up in the park where she meets a strange fellow with a hunchback and a radio and speakers mounted on him. He asks her for a rub-a-dub-dub, and says he'll gather some dry clothes so she follows him. They go to what is apparently his apartment where he breaks a piano, starts a fire and begins to climb the walls. Literally, dude is like a spider. Now a bunch of beatnik types show up, but the guy no longer speaks, he just grunts at them. So they begin to steal all the paintings from the walls. Hunchback bites her thigh and then tries to pillage her onto of the piano. When she resists he pummels her as the bandits shower them with feathers.
The same cops from before show up and try to arrest the hunchback but he climbs to the ceiling and escapes. They take Candy prisoner as well as the bandits. They're getting ready to 'frisk' her but they get into an accident and land in some gay bar or something where everyone is cross-dressing. Candy takes advantage of the madness and escapes. She hitches a ride on a tractor trailer that turns out to be inhabited by a swami guru.
This is the only part of the movie that drags, the swami, played by Marlon Brando just babbles on and on and, as you may have guessed, seduces her. This scene, from the moment she enters the truck to the time she exits is about 15 friggin minutes long. Who the heck let that go? It's just not done in screenwriting. Anyway, after she exits, remember those cops form before? Yeah kinda lame, but they're back. They chase her into the desert and she finds a sand covered man with a bird on his shoulder.
She follows him around in the desert, through the city, and inside an old building, which turns out to me an old Hindu temple(?) it begins to crumble and the man, you guessed it, attempts to seduce her. Guess what everybody? It's daddy! See that coming?
The movie ends with a montage of her walking around through a crowd of people kind of like at Woodstock, and everyone from the movie is there. This movie is a rockin good time and you do well to check it out. It's totally far out.
