The Candy Snatchers
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: B- Film: C+
One of the interesting offshoots of the counterculture
movement was the media doing everything they could to portray it as outright
criminal and behind most of the awful events going on at the time. Of course, this was a great distraction from
the Vietnam fiasco, but it made for some crazy film and TV production that had
producers trying to cash in on the shock value of the likes of Charles Manson
and the Patty Hearst abduction. I
remember seeing Guerdon Trueblood’s The Candy Snatchers around the time
of its release or soon after. The
abduction of the title character (Susan Sennet) seemed like any other TV movie
or after school special warning us of the danger of strangers.
However, the language, darkness of the situation and
outright exploitation that producers hoped would make this a hit kicked in and
it was another film altogether. As far
as a film on kidnapping is concerned, it is not that good, with a script that
seems drawn out. People were more
vulnerable then at a time when they were more trusting, making this slow
moving, but the mixed acting is also an issue.
There is a rape scene, but as bad as that is, it too is not as striking
or even making as much of a point as similar scenes in Stanley Kubrick’s A
Clockwork Orange or Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs did. At the time, between the XXX films and crime
drama cycle, these scenes were much more common until the regressive 1980s and I
Spit On Your Grave in 1980 put an end to their commonness for the most
part.
In echoes of past Hearst cases, the kidnapping is for
money including the threat of sending a cut ear as evidence of having the child
and that they are serious about violence or killing the child if the ransom is
not met. Despite the colorfulness, free
form of the filmmaking and competent writing, Candy Snatchers never
comes together in any way that has a point.
Throw in a blonde autistic 6-year-old boy who has to bear witness to the
craziness and does not speak and you have a film that just wanted to throw in
anything different and shocking just to get attention. Most productions that do this now are beyond
desperate, but at this time, it actually made financial sense since that kind
of thing was so new. Until this DVD,
the film was mostly forgotten.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image has great color
for a film from 1973 that was an independent production, as handled by the
underrated Consolidated Film Industries.
Bob Maxwell, who also shot Melvin Van Peebles’ Sweet Sweetback’s Baad
Asssss Song a few years earlier, shot this film. It becomes claustrophobic and the sexual violence and abduction
are creepy without overdoing the fancy camera shots. The sound is here in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and Mono mixes,
with the Stereo having a slight edge in fidelity.
Extras are impressive in their number, including a poster
and lobby cards inside the DVD case, audio commentary on the film by cast
members, half-hour featurette on the women of the film, several trailers for
other films from Subversive on DVD, an R & PG trailer for this film, text
bio information and a stills section.
Even though the film may only be so good, Subversive gives it the best
treatment possible and that is more than enough to see this disc for mixed
reasons.
- Nicholas Sheffo
