‘Candy’: the Marlon Brando movie that should be erased from his filmography
When we think of iconic cinematic figures like Marlon Brando, we think of incredible performances in their best movies, in this case, titles like A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, The Godfather, and Apocalypse Now. Yet, very few actors have a practically perfect resumé, and Brando is no exception. He might have won Oscars and regularly gets hailed as one of Hollywood’s greatest stars, but Brando made his fair share of bad decisions.
You’d think that someone as acclaimed as Brando wouldn’t have ever had to resort to a role that many would consider ‘beneath him’, but even the most successful people make bad decisions, and Candy was certainly one of them. Out of all of Brando’s movies, Candy remains one of his most shameless decisions, and we can’t think of any other reason why the actor would take on the role besides a quick cash grab. While it’s not the only film that Brando might’ve wished to erase from his career (we’re looking at you, The Island of Dr Moreau), the actor’s decision to star in Candy was truly questionable.
It’s not like the movie had a promising plot or a good director attached to it that would tempt Brando—instead, his close friend Christian Marquand was taking the helm. Marquand had only directed one film before, but for Candy, he managed to gather a rather star-studded cast, which included Brando, Ringo Starr, Richard Burton, and John Huston.
It seems as though Brando’s part in the film was nothing more than a favour to a friend and a quick route to a cheque. While Brando was sometimes accused of lacking integrity during the later years of his career, it might be surprising for some to discover that as early as the 1960s, he was agreeing to parts in movies that he was clearly not passionate about.
Candy was a sex farce that claimed to satirise pornography, yet the movie’s whole plot focuses on a beautiful and blonde young girl who is pursued by countless men as though she is nothing more than an object. While it’s all well and good attempting to satirise pornographic depictions of women, if you then fall into the same trap, can you really say you’ve successfully achieved your aims? Ewa Aulin played the titular character when she was just 18, while the men, mostly several decades her senior, try to seduce her in various scenes that range from comical to downright uncomfortable.
Brando’s character, Grindl, picks up a hitchhiking Candy in one sequence, where he subsequently tries to have sex with her. To play Grindl, a man pretending to be an Indian guru, Brando donned dark makeup and a long wig—something that would never fly today. Considering the fact that Brando was an advocate for black civil rights—even participating in The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom—and protested the depiction of Indigenous people in Hollywood at the Oscars, it’s strange that he would agree to perform while wearing brownface.
Evidently, Brando’s appearance in Candy was a negative highlight of his career, and it sticks out like a sore thumb among the rest of his filmography. With many bad reviews to its name, the film is much better left in the past, existing now only as a relic of a changing America—a time when many people quickly cashed in on the supposed liberation of female sexuality.
