The Killer Likes Candy (1968)

One of my all time favorites.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Taking part in the Grindhouse/"Cult" and Italian challenges on ICM,I've been keeping a look out on times when the two can be crossed. Seeing the likeable Stoney last night,I decided to unwrap the second feature on Code Red's DVD.View on the film:Treating it to none of the care they gave the Stoney transfer, Code Red slap on an old VHS print to disc,that includes moments where the tape has been chewed up. Done as the Euro Spy genre was fading out, the writers adaptation of Adam Saint Moore's novel targets crossing Euro Spy with the Thriller. Sweetening the intro of the killer, the writers move to make CIA agent Mark Stone a hard-nosed assassin determined to protect the king gives the flick an Italian Crime edge. Once the candy has been eaten, the writers sadly let the somewhat off-beat mood melt away for dry gang fights between Stone and the would-be killers. Chewing up the candy killer, co-directors Federico Chentrens & Maurice Cloche (who also co-wrote) give the sniper killer targeting a documentary rawness, which whimpers into shoot-outs that offer litter on screen candy.

This Italian/French/West German co-production could just as easily have been a cop thriller but for the element of Mark Stone (Kerwin Matthews) being a U.S. government agent. Locations in Venice and Rome keep things visually interesting, the cast is filled with recognizable faces, and the score by Gianni Marchetti is appropriately jazzy.Stone's assignment is to guard the life of a king so we can have his oil. Sound familiar? By the way, at the beginning of the film, the killer uses an ice bullet in his first attempt to kill the king. This little trick was used two years earlier in the Ernesto Gastaldi-scripted Ring Around the World. The plot may be simple but Matthews makes for a good hero and The Killer Likes Candy has enough going for it to make it worth seeking out.

This shoddy Italian crime film perfectly captures the feel of a five cent pulp novel: some detectives with a cool names (James Steele? I can't remember...) protects a middle east king from being murdered by political opponents. The evil doers have hired the world's number one hit man for the job, a perfectionist loner who for some reason eats candy all the time. The ingredients for the film are the following: 1) a lot of fighting 2) a lot of badly written "tough" dialouge 3) a little bit of conspiracy 4) a little bit of sex, and 5) an awesome easy listening soundtrack complete with "ba-di-ba-daba-da" choruses. The running gag is that the happy-go-lucky/comical relief detective time after time tries to get it on with a cute nurse, but always gets interrupted by the I'm-a-serious-motherf**ker detective. The Killer Likes Candy is OK pulp, I guess, but I must admit I was getting a little bit bored near the end. Never the less, I can think of far worse ways to have spent 90 minutes of my life.5/10 - for the soundtrack, dear...

This is the most stupid movie I have seen. Is's about a hired murderer who eats candy while killing people, and always leaves a piece of the candy-paper behind. And the music.... Well, you have to see and hear it to believe it. I can't put words on it. The name of the movie says it all: The Killer likes candy!!! See it if you have the chance.