| Bold in 1973, still pretty far out today. |
The Candy Snatchers (Guerdon Trueblood, 1973)
Wow. I'm trying to imagine the guts it must have taken in 1973 to take the exploitation film and throw such a nihilistic twist on it that it goes farther than most noir films. What kind of mind would make a movie like this? Perhaps more importantly, what movie house executive would greenlight releasing such a thing? And is there a snowball's chance in hell that it would ever happen now, twenty-three years later? (Short answer: no.) While The Candy Snatchers falls short of true genius, it sure was a gutsy attempt to redefine the world of exploitation cinema.
Candy (Susan Sennett of Big Bad Mama) is the sixteen-year-old daughter of jewelry store manager Avery (Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon's Ben Piazza). Three wannabe criminals-- Jessie (Playboy playmate Tiffany Bolling), her psychotic brother Alan (Brad David, who never appeared on the big screen again), and their pal Eddie (Vince Martorano, who comes out of almost twenty years of retirement later this year in Lady Magdalene's)-- hatch a plan to kidnap Candy and hold her for ransom. Things go awry when Avery doesn't show up at the drop site, and the ineptness of the criminal element quickly comes to the fore. Adding to the hilarity is mute toddler Sean (Trueblood's son Christopher), who sees the kidnappers deposit Candy the first afternoon, and quickly becomes intrigued with the plot.
This is a nasty, nasty movie in every way. I haven't looked it up, but I'm guessing Quentin Tarantino watched this film at least once during the writing of the Reservoir Dogs script. What was pushing the envelope in 1991 was way out beyond the bounds in 1973. This is awesome. It's cheesy as all hell, but that's a whole lot of the charm. You're going to love this. *** |
3 Rating
|
| Everyone wants a piece of Candy... |
I've always been partial to obscure, oddball films from the 1970s and the feature The Candy Snatchers (1973) certainly fits the bill, especially in terms of the former since it's never had an official home video release in any format until now. Written by Bryan Gindoff (Hard Times) and directed by Guerdon Trueblood, whose credits primarily consist of writing on such television films as The Savage Bees (1976) and Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo (1977), The Candy Snatchers features former playmate (April '72) Tiffany Bolling (Bonnie's Kids, Kingdom of the Spiders), Ben Piazza (The Bad News Bears), Susan Sennett (Big Bad Mama), Brad David ("Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker"), and Vince Martorano (Cornbread, Earl and Me). Also appearing is Bonnie Boland ("Chico and the Man"), Dolores Dorn (Underworld U.S.A.), Phyllis Major, one time wife to singer Jackson Browne prior to her 1976 death by overdose, and Christopher Trueblood, son of the director (he's listed in the end credits only as `Christophe').
As the film begins we witness a trio of amateur criminals, two men and a woman, in a funky van grabbing a Catholic school girl named Candy (Sennett) off the street and driving her into the hills of southern California. After binding, gagging, and blindfolding the girl, the trio proceeds to bury her in a box in the ground, with a small pipe protruding for air, near an abandoned cabin in which they've since taken residence. The three sociopaths are comprised of the following...an attractive blonde woman named Jessie (Bolling), who seems to be the leader, her stringy, switchblade wielding brother Alan (David), and a dopey looking ox/army veteran named Eddie (Martorano). Anyway, after they leave a doofy looking blonde kid named Sean, who happens to be mute, appears from the shrubs, apparently having witnessed the burial proceedings, and start messing around with the air pipe, even dropping pieces of food down the hole, but is soon called away by his weirdo mother (Boland) ringing an obnoxious cowbell (Sean and his parents live down the hill apiece). Alright, so now we begin to learn something of the kidnappers plans...seems Candy's father, Avery (Piazza) manages a jewelry store and the plan is to hold the girl hostage until pops pays them off with scads of jewels and such. Thing is, Avery doesn't seem all that concerned when he finds out what's happened, even to the point where he lies to his drunky wife about why their daughter hasn't returned home (given the fact Avery's wife is soused quite often she's easy to manipulate). Turns out Avery's got a chippie on the side (he's snogging an employee, played by Major), and for reasons which I won't reveal here, he's actually glad of what's happened so far. The kidnappers are suitably perturbed, believing they're not being taken seriously, and decide to up the ante, but given their overall ineptness, things continually go afoul. Eventually tensions (and paranoia) within the group push those involved further and further over the edge, forcing more drastic (and depraved) actions to follow...
The Candy Snatchers is one hell of an odd film, certainly not for everyone, but I sure enjoyed it...the kidnappers themselves come off pretty goofy, given their ineptitude, almost to the point of appearing like comical villains often depicted in some of the Disney live action films of the 1970s, except for the fact here they're homicidal sociopaths willing to resort to extreme violence to get what they want. Here they've spent an extensive amount of time planning what they believe to be the perfect crime, the kidnapping of a diamond dealer's daughter, and guess what? The guy doesn't even care...seriously, in his eyes, given his situation, it actually fits in with his plans. That's the main plot of the film, but there's secondary element thrown in that often includes some rather bizarre sequences involving the little mute boy Sean, played by the director's son. The kid, who appeared to have albino qualities, runs about with a scraggy white mop top, sometimes trying to communicate what he's witnessed, often ending up on the receiving end of some kind of punishment from his seriously wacked out mother (at one point she's so frustrated with the child she forces him to take a downer). My favorite scene is when the kid, trying to use the phone to call the authorities to help Candy, ends up calling a Jewish deli, apparently in New York. Since the kid can't talk, he tries to use a talking doll with a pull string on its back to communicate with the old man who answers, to which the man thinks it's all a prank by some punk and tells the caller to shove a salami up his ash. The real strength in this film was it's unpredictable, off the wall nature as the story featured a number of various twists that kept me guessing. I thought the performances were decent enough, although Ms. Bolling seemed to be the standout. The direction was tight (even if some aspects of the story weren't), and kept me thoroughly engaged (the finale was a real hoot). While this isn't a slick feature (the production values were minimal), it still looks decent enough. There is some strong violence throughout (including a couple of forcible violations, some gunshot wounds, beatings, etc.), so if you're squeamish towards that kind of thing, then this probably isn't the film for you. For the rest, enjoy a curious edgy, sleazy, sometimes rough nugget of exploitation that's rarely been seen in thirty years. By the way, this film is worth checking out if only to see the hilarious sequence where the gang tries to liberate a telephone company van from a lone worker (the worker turns out to be an uncooperative handful).
The picture, restored and presented in widescreen (1.85:1) format, enhanced for 16X9 TVs, looks excellent and the audio, available in both Dolby Digital stereo remix and original mono comes across crystal clear, so you all can chuck those old bootlegs you've been clinging to over the years. As far as extras on this Subversive Cinema DVD release, there's quite a few including a commentary track with stars Tiffany Bolling and Susan Sennett, moderated by Norman Hill, the producer of the DVD and Marc Eduard Heuck, a promotional still gallery, a featurette titled The Women of Candy Snatchers (31:53), extensive cast and crew bios, three 5x7 reproduction lobby cards, a nifty poster reproduction of some European artwork for the film, and various trailers including two for this film (one for the PG rated version and another for the R rated version), Freakmaker aka The Mutations (1974), Metal Skin (1994), Battlefield Baseball (2003), and The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976). I have to say, I've purchased a number of Subversive Cinema's DVD releases and I've always been impressed with their superior efforts. Their releases may seem a bit pricey, but I've always felt I've gotten my money's worth.
Cookieman108
Speaking of obscure cinematic gems from the 1970s I'd like to see Subversive release another Tiffany Bolling drive-in feature favorite titled Bonnie's Kids (1973), as it's another film that's languished out of the public eye for far too long.
|
5 Rating
|
