Candy
Tags: psychedelic, satire

Plot synopsis:
The Candy Candy manga provides a "coming of age story" in the shōjo genre. Candy, an abandoned orphan taken in by the orphanage Pony's Home near Lake Michigan around the start of the 20th century, spent the first years of her life at the orphanage, to where she would often return to repose and to decide her next course in life. When Annie, her best friend at the orphanage, was adopted, she ran outside crying, and met briefly a young man in kilt who told her not to cry. Candy retained fond memories of the young man and, not knowing his name, remembered him as her "Prince on the Hill". The young man will have great influence and importance in her life later on.
When she turned thirteen, Candy was taken in by the Lagan family as a companion for their Lagan family daughter, Eliza. The Lagans treated her poorly and eventually made Candy a servant girl. When the Lagan family accused Candy of stealing and sent her off to work in their family farm in Mexico, Candy was rescued from being sent to Mexico by William Audrey, the sole heir of the very wealthy Audrey family and the owner of the Audrey estate. William Audrey became Candy's adoptive father, but his true identity remained a mystery and she would not meet him until the end of the story. He was also the uncle of Candy's first love, Anthony Brown, and a relative of Anthony's cousins, the Cornwell brothers Archibald (Archie) and Alistair (Stear), as well as the Lagan children.
Later on, Anthony died in a hunting accident when he was thrown off the horseback. Thereafter, Candy, along with Archie and Stear, and the Lagan children, were sent to London to attend the prestigious St. Paul's College, a secondary school, where she met the rebellious bad boy Terry Grandchester the illegitimate child of a British Duke, although she has once saw him crying on the same boat she was taking to travel to London. Terry was her second and grand love (in the words of the author Keiko Nagita/Kyoko Mizuki in the essays found on Misaki's website, "the great love that cannot bear fruit"). Circumstances divided the pair when Eliza Lagan schemed to have Candy expelled from St. Paul's by manipulating them into a scandal.
After the scandal, Terry left St. Paul's to protect Candy's reputation, but Candy also decided to leave. They would both embark on their individual life journeys forward in the United States, where Candy trained to become a nurse in Chicago around the time of World War I, and Terry pursued a career as a rising star actor on Broadway in New York. An actress in his theater troupe, Susanna, became attracted to Terry and believed she loved him. During a rehearsal session, an accident occurred and Susanna saved Terry's life, but in the process became disabled. Her injury destroyed her acting career. Her mother demanded that Terry takes care of her for the rest of her life. Susanna herself became depressed and attempted suicide, knowing that Terry loved Candy and did not love her. Feeling responsible, Terry was torn between reuniting with Candy and his duty to care for Susanna. When Candy discovered what happened, she decided to sacrifice her own happiness and left Terry, so Terry could remain with Susanna, even though Terry did not love Susanna and was deeply in love with Candy.
Afterwards, Candy returned to Chicago to continue her life. By chance, she became the nurse and caretaker to her adoptive father, William Audrey, who lost his memories after a World War I related bomb explosion on a train in Italy. William ultimately regained his memories and revealed his true identity to Candy. At the end of the story, Candy discovered that he was her childhood Prince of the Hill. In Italy, however, the anime's ending was changed, and Candy and Terry meet again at a train station deciding to stay together.
In 2010 the novel "Candy Candy The Final Story" written by Mizuki using her real name Keiko Nagita, Candy discovers that Susanna has died and Terence writes her a letter to say that for him nothing has changed, leaving hope that they will reunite.
There were some plot and character differences between the manga and the anime: Candy's age was different for several events when she grew up at Pony's Home. In the manga, she was six or seven years old when she met her Prince of the Hill, but was ten in the anime. Her sidekick pet raccoon Kurin/Clint belonged solely to the anime version.

Review: But perhaps the most reviled of the lot has been the film Candy.Candy tells the simple tale of a sweet young thing that goes out into the world to grow but finds herself confronted at every turn by typical male stereotypes (played by some of the biggest stars of the day) who really only have one goal in mind.
Along the way she meets up with the artist (Richard Burton), the soldier (Walter Matthau), the healer (James Coburn) and the guru (Marlon Brando) among others.
Despite the premise Candy is more like a teasing Roger Vadim film (think Barbarella) and the nudity is kept to an absolute minimum.
The biggest surprise is even with the big name cast, the films best performance belongs to John Astin as Candy's Father and also as her lecherous Uncle who has his own designs on her.
The lead actress Ewa Aulin is lovely to look at but delivers all of her lines like she has just learned them phonetically and has no idea what she is saying and the directer allows the pace to drag at many points.Still if the films from this era interests you than this one should be required viewing.
Based on Terry Southern's classic novel, CANDY is remarkable film featuring a swinging soundtrack, actors like Richard Burton and Marlon Brando spoofing themselves, and a fast-moving picaresque story that satirizes late 60s America (military, academia, Eastern religion, etc).
Advocating sexual freedom and experimentation, Candy is one fun movie with a funny script by Buck Henry and wild visuals, like a glass-bottom limousine and Brando's gurumobile.
that's what makes it great.Seriously, its like if in 40 years, film critics try to asses the cultural validity of 'Dude where's my Car'.
It starts off great, with Richard Burton (McPhisto) with wind constantly blowing thru his hair no matter where he happens to be, squaring off with John Astin as Candy's square father Mr. Christian.
Expect tons of name puns like that, and way loads of social satire against all the 6 food groups of establishment authority figures (Military, Doctors, Beaurocrats, Teachers, Cops and Spiritual Healers) and see what they all have in common, namely hypocrisy and Candy.This seems to be a sequel of sorts to The Magic Christian in not only author, but style and attitude as well.
Its also reminiscent of Harold and Maude, O Lucky Man, Brewster Mcloud, Holy Mountain (okay, a tiny bit) and half a dozen other late 60's satirical and somewhat surreal comedies.Who needs a linear plot when you have great social satire performed by top actors (Marlon Brando, James Coburn, Walter Matthau)?
With a stellar cast of Richard Burton, Walter Matthau, Charles Coburn, Marlon Brando (and Ringo Starr), how could writer Buck Henry go so wrong???
The video clip reminded me that the movie is just as good as I remember!McPhisto, played by Richard Burton, reminds me of my old Psych Professor, Don Whaley, who taught a WMU and North Texas State.
If you understand this movie,it is very funny.It is really an exaggeration of the way life is.It shows the plight of naive young girl,who encounters men,who want nothing more,than to get into her pants.
Naive high-school beauty Candy Christian (Ewa Aulin) begins her odyssey of sexual misadventures at a poetry seminar given by the reviled but popular poet McPhisto (Richard Burton).
Candy ends up on an Air Force jet where she is once again seduced, this time by a mad air force officer (Walter Matthau); later she is taken advantage of by a brilliant surgeon (James Coburn) who performs a dangerous operation on her injured father.
and, yes, you've guessed it, he too takes advantage of the over-sexed yet ever-innocent girl.It is hard to be sure if there is any point to all this, though the lack of a meaningful narrative suggests that the film is trying to convey some kind of subtextual meaning.
a salary of $50,000 to rip off Aulin's clothes and romp around with her seems a pretty fair incentive!) Candy is a total mess of a movie, but you should still watch it if only to say you've had the dubious pleasure of experiencing its unique brand of vulgarity, chaos and extravagance..
i was very young,maybe early teenage years when i was fortunate enough to view this movie in it's entirety on late night tv in australia.since then i have made it my personal quest to locate it on video if it exists in that format.to this day my efforts have been in vain.my memories of "candy" (1968) are very blurred even though i was substance free at the time due to my age but images from the film are still quite fresh today.this was helped by some recent documents on terry southern's work (he wrote the novel in the 50's,as well as easy rider,dr strangelove,uncredited writing on casino royale) all favourites of mine & most people who would have an interest in viewing cany again or for the 1st time.i agree with what i've read that it would be more appreciated in todays viewing standards.john astin who plays dual roles had a standout performance,what sticks in my mind is the brain surgery one of his characters had to endure which resulted in a 240 volt powerpoint being inserted into the back of his head to attach some electrical device to aid his recovery.all shortlived cameos by the likes of richard burton,marlon brando,james coburn & walter matthau are all brilliant.i can't see (as one reviewer suggested that marlon may have buried the film rights out of embarrassment) the whole movie is intended as a farce & it looks like everyone involved had a hoot making it.see IMdb review for extensive review,i could easily use my 1000 word maximum recounting my fond memories which i hope one day can be complimented with a 2nd viewing.you know something is special when one can rave about it over 20 years later from the time it was experienced.i have tried italian video suppliers out of desperation to access a video copy,the only chance now seems to be from a pirate copy.hopefully someone out there can help in this regard.film was also known as "candy e il suo pazzo mondo" as it was a joint american/italian production.title star was played by former miss teen sweden ewa aulin cameo also by ringo starr as a mexican gardener,hope to here back from any other fans of an extraordinary rare 60's classic,cheers stuart.
I cannot imagine how you can possibly put Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, James Coburn, Walter Matthau, Elsa Martinelli and John Huston in a film and fail?
The main character Candy (Ewa Aulin) wanders through this film like she is basically stoned, and you could watch a porn film and find a wider degree of expressions on someone's face (Basically she makes Jenna Jameson look like Meryl Streep).
This film is without question the greatest waste of talent in motion picture history (Brando, Coburn, Matthau & Huston FOUR Oscar WINNERS (Burton nominated 7 times)), and thus belongs in my 10 All-Time worst film list (Not quite "Machete" or "Walk On The Wild Side" but pretty damn close).
It's the psychedelic story of Candy Christian (Ewa Aulin), a teenage girl who constantly gets raped.
The mammoth cast includes John Astin as Candy's father, Richard Burton as a Dylan Thomas-like poet, Ringo Starr as a gardener, Walter Matthau as a general, James Coburn as a surgeon, Charles Aznavour as a hunchbacked thief and Marlon Brando as a guru.Okay, so I didn't actually experience the 60s, so "Candy" doesn't have the same significance to me as it did to my parents' generation.
Most scenes seem to go on forever ("the director wouldn't shorten any of it in the editing!" said the designer) but it is incredible watching Walter Matthau, Marlon Brando, James Coburn and Ringo Starr (as a mexican..
Embarrassing performances by such "luminaries" as Richard Burton, Walter Matthau, James Coburn, and Marlon Brando were obviously turned in for scale- that is, the scale the director must've used to weigh out the dope that permeates this piece of tripe.
Granted, there are some very weak sections, e.g. the Matthau, but I laughed even as this absurd chapter came to a close...it's a product of an era when not only sex, but laughter and freedom, were celebrated and must be seen in that mindset...this is a movie that people who write certain modern movie guidebooks will never, ever, ever understand...for the simple reason that, in this era, as prurience increases, thus does narrowmindedness, so that we come to forget completely the now remote atmosphere in which such a film could be made..
After watching him trying to get it on with a mannequin, I thought to myself, "He must have loved Elizabeth Taylor so much to have allowed himself to be humiliated like that." This was around the time he bought the famous 69-carat Taylor-Burton diamond for his wife, and he needed the money.The music is terrible, the acting is terrible, there is no plot, and overall it is a tasteless mess..
Christian Marquand's film-version of the Mason Hoffenberg-Terry Southern novel (adapted by the usually acerbic and talented Buck Henry) becomes a star-studded, but frantic and unfunny sex spoof ('alleged comedy' would seem more appropriate).
John Astin is amusing as Candy's father, but everyone else in the cast (Richard Burton, Marlon Brando, James Coburn and Walter Matthau among them) is simply dreadful.
Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, Charles Aznavour, James Coburn, Walter Matthau, John Huston, Ringo Starr, john Austin, Elsa Martinelli, Anita Pallenberg and Sugar Ray Robinson are among the cast with Ewa Aluin in her first film role as Candy.
All in all, I don't think I completely understand this movie, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, especially because of its stars Ewa Aulin, Marlon Brando, Walter Mathau, and Ringo Starr..
The "encounters" she experiences involve various stars of the period.Basically, Candy is an innocent & winsome adolescent continually seduced by several institutional isms: romanticism (Richard Burton), patriotism (Walter Matthau), professionalism (James Coburn) and mysticism (Marlon Brando); I'm not sure what ism Ringo Starr's character falls under (ethnic-ism?).
I saw this film in 1969 when it was released (though I suspect that it was actually 68 before I joined the Air Force) and still remember gags like the restaurant Candy steps into and orders a Coke.
"You must go beyond hunger - beyond thirst" while the hungry and HOT Ewa Aulin complains of hunger is a gem of a scene, along with Burton's WAYYYYY over the top Dylan Thomas type poet.Mark here that a scene in the overrated "American Pie" of sex on a pool table was done better here where you actually SAW the act, and not just heard about it while characters were supposed to be seeing it.All in all, those who choose to hate this film, get a sense of humor.
Marlon Brando explains as an Indian guru the title of this highly weird and boring movie, the girl who is named candy stands for C and Y, you get it!?
What i really tried to figure out when i was watching this movie is why do all these stars show up in this movie, the only explanations i can think of is that they lost a bet or the cast was blowing their heads off during filming.
When you're 17, and love the Byrds, Steppenwolf and later Dave Grusin, and the music pushes the movie no matter HOW bad it is, you've got a winner to a 17 year old.
There were several films I remember seeing when I was a kid growing up that would forever change my view of women, they were 'Barbarella', '1Million Years BC' & 'Good Grief It's Candy'.
So, I unwrapped the DVD, put it in the player, told my girlfriend about it being a bizarre film that I saw when I was a kid & I couldn't really remember that much about the movie but there was a gorgeous girl who starred in it who I fancied when I was younger.
As satire & a social commentary of the time it pretty much took the rip out of all the establishment, including hippies.I am still thinking about the movie a day on trying to suss out what it was trying to say, whether it was trying to say anything, whether it was one of the best or the worst films I have ever seen.
One of the most maligned of the all-star "anything goes" extravaganzas typical of the late 1960s – this time with pretensions towards satire given its origins as a Terry Southern novel (here adapted for the screen by Buck Henry, who also appears briefly as a lunatic) – is not too bad, actually (somewhat in the same vein as THE MAGIC Christian [1969] but slightly more entertaining), though it does run badly out of steam two-thirds of the way in.18-year old Swedish "newcomer" Ewa Aulin plays the naïve but well-meaning heroine who's taken advantage of by practically everyone she meets; actually, she had already appeared in two notable Italian movies both starring French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant – Tinto Brass' DEADLY SWEET (1967; which I caught at the 2004 Venice Film Festival with its infamous director in attendance!) and Giulio Questi's DEATH LAID AN EGG (1968) – and she would go on to star in two more worthwhile European movies which, incidentally, both feature Italian actress Lucia Bose' – Romolo Guerrieri's THE DOUBLE (1971) and Jorge Grau's BLOOD CASTLE (1973; with which I'm unfamiliar myself) – before bailing out of the film industry altogether to become a teacher!
The impressive supporting cast includes (in order of appearance): John Astin who has the triple roles of Aulin's father, a hellish vision of same and her uncle; a somewhat embarrassing Richard Burton is MacPhisto, a poet-teacher (with wind forever blowing in his face) who is worshipped like a rock star by his students and whom the script requires to lick champagne off the glass-plated floor of his limousine and make love to an inflatable doll!; Ringo Starr's role isn't clearly defined but he seems to be the Christians' Mexican gardener (could he have been the inspiration for FAWLTY TOWERS' Manuel?); Elsa Martinelli is Aulin's promiscuous aunt; Walter Matthau the general commandeering a paratrooping outfit; James Coburn a celebrated surgeon; Anita Pallenberg his jealous nurse/lover; John Huston a colleague/rival of Coburn's; Charles Aznavour a hunchback criminal with a penchant for magic tricks (climbing and moving along walls or literally diving into a mirror just like in a Jean Cocteau film); Marlon Brando as an Indian guru who practices his meditation aboard a truck rambling throughout America; also in the cast as a couple of Starr's whip-wielding sisters were Euro-Cult favorites Florinda Bolkan and Marilu' Tolo.The film is most notorious perhaps for being one of Brando's weirdest acting choices during his lean years; then again, it seems that his presence was pivotal in securing the film its backing (he was friends with director/former actor Marquand who, unsurprisingly, never again stepped behind the camera); still, the best and lengthiest 'episode' is the one featuring Coburn, Pallenberg and Huston (in which Astin and Martinelli also turn up) – while Enrico Maria Salerno was hilarious as an obsessive cine-verite' film-maker who, when asked a question by a police officer, replies: "Who directed it?" and later even films himself as he is passing out!
Unfortunately, my experience with the film was further marred by the fact that the audio on the copy I watched went badly out-of-synch around the 90-minute mark (thus including Brando's entire segment)...and no matter what I tried – usually, playing the same scene over again would fix the problem – I couldn't get it to work properly!.
No wonder so many famous people wanted to do this movie: Brando, Richard Burton, Ringo Starr, Coburn...
As someone else here said, Candy shows how men are devious and conniving creatures who will try every dirty trick in the book to get into the pants of an attractive young girl.I only wish I could know what Kubrick thought of this film.
Star studded cast with Ringo Starr( a young man nearing the Priesthood), Richard Burton (as a larger than life drunken poet), Marlon Brando (as horny Maharishee/Bhagwan style guru), and many other crazed characters.
This film is downright embarassing from the inept direction all the way down to the wasting of great actors like Matthau,Burton, and Brando to name but a few.
'Candy' is a terrible waste of real talent, much like Preminger's stinker of the same year, 'Skidoo'.The only thing that got me through the film is the fantastic body of the young Ms. Aulin.
However, the sight of such talents as Richard Burton, James Coburn, Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau and John Astin making complete fools of themselves with a terribly unfunny script by Buck Henry is not a pleasant thing to behold, and it is hardly 'great'..
I didn't laugh so much this time around but then I don't laugh as much as I used to -- at anything.But look at that cast: Burton, Huston, Brando, Aznavour, Coburn, Pallenberg, Matthau, among others.
Now as far as this movie is concerned it certainly had its share of major actors to include Marlon Brando (as the Eastern mystic named "Grindl"), Richard Burton ("MacPhisto"), Walter Matthau ("General R.
Ewa Aulin plays the title role, a not-so-bright sexpot who happens to continually be in the wrong place at the wrong time, encountering one sex fiend after another, from Mexican gardener Ringo Starr(!) to military man Walter Matthau to creepy poet Richard Burton.
No. The movie offers a series of comic bits, each featuring more or less great actors, encountering Candy: Richard Burton as the poet McPhisto, Ringo Starr as the Mexican gardener Emmanuel, James Coburn as the surgeon Dr. Krankheit, Walter Matthau as General Smight, Charles Aznavour as the hunchback, and Marlon Brando as the guru Grindl.