Candy (1968)

 Released the same year as the MPAA ratings system was launched, 'Candy' takes full advantage of its R rating. It's a main stream release with big stars, but it's also very much an explotation film at heart. The story concrns Candy Christian (Ewe Aulin, a former Miss Teen Sweden and Miss Teen International, only 18 at the time of filming), a high school girl who lives in the Midwest with her widower, teacher father (John Astin, who also plays this characters twin brother).

 The episodic plot concerns a series of men, usually played by well known actors of the time, who seek to and usually succeed at having sex with Candy, sometimes through rape. The film also features some badly dated racial stereotype parts played by white actors, such as Marlon Brando as an Indian guru, and Ringo Starr as a Mexican gardner. It's a comedy, all unpleasantness is played for laughs, the film even ends on an incest joke.

Based on a popular, notorious "dirty book" of a decade before, 1958's 'Candy' by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg. The property had been considered unfilmable and probably should have stayed that way. The great Buck Henry, who had done 'The Gradute' the year before was brought in to do the adaptation. Henry would go on to say that the preview showing he attended for the movie went so badly he worried he'd never work again.

Henry needn't have worried however as prurient interest made 'Candy' a big hit at the box office, $16.4 million off a $2.7 million budget. Filmed in Italy by Frenchmen Christian Marquand, the big name cast included the likes of James Coburn and John Houston riffing on their public personias.

 While there is much base humor the film is often rather witty and contains some very funny dialogue. It also boasts some strong comedic performances with highlights being Walter Matthau as a general and Richard Burton as a Welsh poet, both seem to be having a blast.

The movie is still a badly dated, uncomfortable piece of 60's psychodelic film making, overstuffed in the tradition of 'Skidoo' or the original comic version of 'Casino Royal'. If ever a movie called out to be canceled by both Right and Left its this bizarre sex farce built around a credulous teenaged blonde with the most stereotypical of bimbo names. *1/2