DELUXE SWEET

Overindulge and you'll start to feel a little queasy.

Above you see more art from Italian illustrator Averado Ciriello, whose effort here was for the cult farce Candy, known in Italy as Candy e il suo pazzo mondo—“Candy and her crazy world.” The cast of this, first of all, is tremendous. In addition to Aulin, featured are Richard Burton, Charles Aznavour, Marlon Brando, James Coburn, John Huston, Ringo Starr, Walter Matthau, Elsa Martinelli, Sugar Ray Robinson, Anita Pallenberg, Florinda Bolkan, Marilù Tolo, and Nicoletta Machiavelli. That’s unreal.

The film is a sort of coming of age tale that spirals off into various weird realities, with Aulin becoming a passenger on a military plane, getting a front row seat in an operating theatre attended by the black tie set, and other imaginings from screenwriter Buck Henry, based on Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg’s 1958 source novel. That sounds like it has potential, but the movie goes wide of the mark, with Aulin’s voice seemingly dubbed, Walter Matthau as a military crank wearily channelling Buck Turgidson, Ringo Starr playing a Mexican, accent and all, and Brando as a bindi laden guru who travels the land inside a semi-trailer layered with shells and broken mirror glass.

These characters are all supposed to be part of a satire about female sexuality and men, but its deeper meaning has been lost across the decades, and its humor is deflated by stagy overacting that stopped working for film audiences probably the very year the film was released. For such a movie to remain worthwhile it has to remain relevant, but its take on male-female relations has aged poorly. A man doesn’t have to be outwardly weird to be predatory. We’ve all learned that by now, hopefully.

The movie is long, too—a full two hours before Aulin finally trods through the final highly symbolic set piece and possibly into a realm of cosmic mysticism. Candy is one those films that supporters will say is over the heads of detractors, but not according to Hoffenberg—he considered his own co-creation half joke and half junk. Those qualities certainly filtered into the film. Candy premiered this week in the U.S. in 1968 and finally reached Italy today in 1970.

Femme Fatale Image

ABOUT

SEARCH PULP INTERNATIONAL

PULP INTL.
HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1954—First Church of Scientology Established

The first Scientology church, based on the writings of science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, is established in Los Angeles, California. Since then, the city has become home to the largest concentration of Scientologists in the world, and its ranks include high-profile adherents such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

1933—Blaine Act Passes

The Blaine Act, a congressional bill sponsored by Wisconsin senator John J. Blaine, is passed by the U.S. Senate and officially repeals the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, aka the Volstead Act, aka Prohibition. The repeal is formally adopted as the 21st Amendment to the Constitution on December 5, 1933.

1947—Voice of America Begins Broadcasting into U.S.S.R.

The state radio channel known as Voice of America and controlled by the U.S. State Department, begins broadcasting into the Soviet Union in Russian with the intent of countering Soviet radio programming directed against American leaders and policies. The Soviet Union responds by initiating electronic jamming of VOA broadcasts.

1937—Carothers Patents Nylon

Wallace H. Carothers, an American chemist, inventor and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont Corporation, receives a patent for a silk substitute fabric called nylon. Carothers was a depressive who for years carried a cyanide capsule on a watch chain in case he wanted to commit suicide, but his genius helped produce other polymers such as neoprene and polyester. He eventually did take cyanide—not in pill form, but dissolved in lemon juice—resulting in his death in late 1937.

1933—Franklin Roosevelt Survives Assassination Attempt

In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to shoot President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but is restrained by a crowd and, in the course of firing five wild shots, hits five people, including Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds three weeks later. Zangara is quickly tried and sentenced to eighty years in jail for attempted murder, but is later convicted of murder when Cermak dies. Zangara is sentenced to death and executed in Florida’s electric chair.

Unknown artist produces lurid cover for Indian true crime magazine Nutan Kahaniyan.
Cover art by Roswell Keller for the 1948 Pocket Books edition of Ramona Stewart's Desert Town.

VINTAGE ADVERTISING

Things you'd love to buy but can't anymore

Vintage Ad Image

Around the web