The Killer Likes Candy (1968)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Pair of action / adventure films, one from the 70's, the other from the 60's. I bought this DVD for the film The Killer Likes Candy, a 1968 Euro-made film starring Kerwin Mathews. He plays a CIA spy type hired to protect a Middle-Eastern potentate. Beyond that it doesn't make much sense except that the title refers to an assassin that has a sweet tooth. The transfer is pretty good quality but it could use re-mastering which it will probably not get. In quality it matches the RareFlix DVD, except that the RareFlix has an unpleasant trailer one has to sit through before one can see the film. The Code Red DVD has some extras, including trailers. If this is your preferred genre, either version will do.

For those who like their pasta cheesy: a 60s French-Italian-German pulp thriller filmed at the tail end of the Euro spy craze (1964-1968), and loaded with warped camera angles and great bongo-driven muzak that kicks in at totally inappropriate moments. Top agent OSS117 `Angel Face" (Kerwin Matthews) is assigned to protect a Eurasian monarch from a ruthless assassin, a glassy-eyed ex-Gestapo officer who leaves a candy wrapper at the scene of every hit. Damn, these spaghetti merchants keep finding novel settings for their genre punchups - this time round a karate fight at a meatworks (one guy gets covered in a bucket of pig's blood!) and ending in a shootout amidst a truckload of crumbling skeletons in the Rome catacombs.

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...