Candy

Terry Southern's novel, Candy, written in 1958, was considered scandalous at the time. In it, a young, innocent girl, Candy embarks on a world of sexual discovery...and that's about it. Along the way, there are plenty of jabs at 50s morality as Candy goes on her innocent promiscuous way.

Terry Southern: Candy

If Southern was out of step with the 1950s, he was undoubtedly right in tune with the 1960s, where, at least, the concept of free love was being debated by intellectuals, churchmen and the general public.

Candy movie poster

Candy starred the exquisite Ewa Aulin, along with a hatful of big names who are all eager to help in her education.

Candy Trailer

I have to admit, I'm not aware of any film that brings out the innocence of the late 1960s more than Candy. At one level it's a pervy, satirical laugh and at another it's a metaphor for what would inevitably happen to the innocence of those times. Strangely it's one bookend to another movie, Apocalypse Now, with both films starring Marlon Brando as a mystical character, one comic and the other, about personal disintegration.

Candy

"...This film is certainly like no other movie you've seen. You can tell from watching it that it could never have been made before or after the years between 1967 and 1970. It brings to mind Casino Royale and Barbarella but Candy is better. This is a psychedelic Candide...Our heroine, Candy, travels around the world and encounters a number of men, all weirder than the last...:

Walter Matthau plays a sex-starved general
Richard Burton a pretentious, self-obsessed, alcoholised poet
Ringo Starr plays the Mexican gardener and
Marlon Brando makes a hilarious performance as an Indian guru

...It is filled with humour...but whether you laugh with the movie or at the movie, it's still lots of fun. This is a one-of-a-kind movie that's not for everybody's taste, but it's definitely worth checking out..." Amazon reviewer No Wire Hangers

Can satirical humor reach across forty years or more? Well, it can but its power is often diminished and that's certainly the case with Candy. It's hardly as tittillating as it once would have been considered but it's a fascinating look at the spirit of the 1960s and if you have a ribald sense of humor, it's worth checking out.