Friday, May 15, 2015

Quick Reviews: The Killer Likes Candy

The folks over in Italy love Crime.  To be more exact, they love Crime Films.  They love them so much that even when we make them- like The Godfather Series- we have to go to Italy!  That brings us to a rare Crime Film that also happens to have a silly title...
This guy is an Assassin.  Naturally, he's German and, of course, he was a Nazi.  Thank you, 60s.
This (the guy on the right) is our Hero.  Naturally, he was in Jack the Giant Killer (the 60s one).

Wait- why is that natural?!?
Kerwin is in Town to save this fictitious General from a fictitious Nazi Assassin.  Someone on the inside is to blame, which explains why our hero is certainly targeted in...

Wait!  Where the hell is this place?!?  More importantly, why haven't I been there yet?!?
Through rather easy means, our 2 Heroes find the guy who the Nazi was hired through.  Things don't end well for him.  Let's just say that he emulated a man from a future Pink Floyd Album Cover.
They eventually cover the Ringleader as the target goes in for surgery for his heart issue.  The assassin manipulates the anesthesiologist to nearly kill him (see the next Poor Bastards of Cinema), but this fails.
This all leads to a fun and loud finale at a Quarry (where else would you hide?) that leads to the villain doing the 'falling from a great height' cliche.  In the End, both Kerwin and his doofy sidekick get the respective girl(s).  The End.
Sugar-like fluff about murder, politics and crime!  This one is not all that great.  It doesn't really aim to be.  This is a Spy Film that is more about Fight Scenes (many superfluous ones here!) than Intrigue.  The Mystery aspect is not all that special.  There are also no Gadgets or that kind of stuff.  This came after Bond (Dr. No, at least), but not at the point where Bond was a huge phenomenon.  I'm sure that if this Film would have been made a few years later, Kerwin would have flown a Bi-Plane that once fit in a Backpack or something.  Roger Moore is still the tops, but Kerwin does good here.  I like that at many points he yells at his sidekick (of many, MANY Italian Films like Cannibal Ferox!) for hanging out with ladies instead of working, but then jaunts off later to roll around on the beach From Here to Eternity-style.  Classy.  The fights are fun, but the real Star is the Music.  It is upbeat, quirky and jazzy.  This is one of those Films that BEGS to be owned on Vinyl by all you Hipsters out there.  Alot of people find the Soundtrack to be unrelated or distracting, but I love it.  In the End, The Killer Likes Candy is dated (they use the Ice Bullet idea), silly (the fight in a Meat Packing Plant) and absurd (a master Assassin leaves candy wrappers behind?!?).  It falls somewhere between pure camp like Flint and stuff like the Bond Films.  It is *this* close...
Not the best Transfer (see how pale it all is), but the Film is still fun.  It is nothing super-great, but fun in the vein of the In Like Flint or OSS 117 (originally with Kerwin too!) Films.

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