The Candy Tangerine Man

One of the more imaginative Blaxploitation films I've seen... This movie would make a good Windows theme, with dialogue where a "chalky, honkey" cue ball is blamed for the loss of a bet, and the CTM's car is a Rolls with painted-on flames and pop-up machine gun headlights (the scene where those are revealed is truly the high point of the whole movie). The whole "slum superhero" bit has been done before, but never quite as comically. If your video store doesn't at least have "The Mack" don't even bother looking for this one.

A favorite of both filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and his frequent cast member Samuel L. Jackson, "The Candy Tangerine Man" is simply primo exploitation. It stars the unfortunately little known John Daniels ("Black Shampoo") as "The Baron", a smooth as hell pimp who leads a double life. On weekends he goes home to a wife (Marilyn Joi) and kids in the suburbs! Trouble brews for The Baron when brutal mobsters insist on moving in on his territory. When his hookers take a powder, The Baron comes up with a new way to make money, but the bad guys just won't leave him alone, and he's obliged to indulge in a little old fashioned revenge.

Cult director Matt Cimber ("The Witch Who Came from the Sea") based the main character on a man he knew, who'd left school at a very early age but who was still quite savvy. This was a man who could have gone far in life had he stuck with his education. Cimber enlisted his friend, Mikel Angel (a writer and actor also known for such things as "Psychic Killer" and "Angels Die Hard") to write the script. Angel also plays the role of ruthless white mobster Vincent Di Nunzio, and served Cimber and the viewers with an amusing and fun scenario that's just full of all the sex and violence we could want.

And what glorious sex and violence it is. The sadism includes a pair of breasts being cut off (!) and a goon getting his hand mangled in a garburator. There's a respectable amount of lovely ladies here to show off the goods.

It's too bad Daniels isn't more popular. He had enough charisma and presence on screen to have been more of a star. He's ably supported by a couple of familiar faces for fans of 70s trash cinema: Ms. Joi, Richard Kennedy and George 'Buck' Flower as a pair of racist detectives who regularly hound The Baron (Kennedy really goes to town on the scenery), Tallie Cochrane as Midge, and Patrick Wright as volatile thug Big Floyd. John F. Goff appears unbilled.

The fashions and visuals are nice; the title comes from the fact that our hero pimp drives a brightly colored Rolls Royce. And there are hearty helpings of great soul music, composed by "Smoke".

This is one to seek out if you're not already aware of it.

Eight out of 10.

You got to see it to believe it. Shot in Hollywood on the strip in the middle of the sleazy, anything goes 70s, this cheaply made flick must of really packed the inner city theatres back in the day. Then again, I bet it had a one week run. Actually, its pretty hilarious. The acting is dreadful, the direction non existent, but the hair, clothes, rotten pre disco music and the general out and out sleaziness of the story are mind boggling. Sleazy, its very sleazy. Highly recomended (if you can find it)

Awesomely good little blaxploitation jewel features more stilted 70s fashion, gun violence, and pimp/whore sensationalism than possibly any other film in the subgenre.

Inner-city King-Pimp leads an exhausting double life...by day, he's your average, picket-fence suburban family man with a mild nature. Surrounded each night by beautiful hookers eager to "treat him right", he declines each shapely temptation and remains faithful to his wife(who is unaware of what his real "job" is). As reticent a character as this man may seem, his mean-streets edge comes shining through when necessary roughness is condign for maintaining order in the ghetto underbelly.

A plentitude of hard-ass action and snappy-crackling dialog make CANDY TANGERINE MAN one of blaxploitation's best...a technically on-the-ball production for a movie of its breed, but not at all lacking in glorious B-grade edginess.

Recommended 7.5/10

The plot is not bad, and to some degree, imaginative. It was funny at times, and when there was action, it wasn't badly executed at all (stunts, explosions, etc.). The main actors did a good job too (not all the side actors did, but hey, even in big money blockbusters you don't always get great acting). You also get a good dose of boobage, which, hey, I'm not going to complain.

In general though, the pacing was bad. Some dialogues were too lengthy - not badly written, it just killed the rhythm of the movie. Some of the going-ons didn't always seem like they made a whole lot of sense when they happened, etc. The camera work was also DULL (in capital letters), maybe due to budget restrictions, maybe due to the directing, maybe both. In either case - the visual part could have used some work.

In general it's a good movie if you aim to cook or clean while watching it, but if you'd have to sit down and watch it from start to finish, you'd get bored despite its qualities. Would be worth a remake with clearer action, better pacing, more imaginative camera work, etc.