{"id":4674,"date":"2012-04-18T12:10:38","date_gmt":"2012-04-18T16:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4674"},"modified":"2017-12-09T01:20:23","modified_gmt":"2017-12-09T06:20:23","slug":"dvd-the-killer-likes-candy-un-killer-per-sua-maesta-1968","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4674","title":{"rendered":"DVD: The Killer Likes Candy \/ Un killer per sua maest\u00e0 (1968)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to: <\/strong>Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>J to L<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Good\/ DVD Transfer: Panned & Scanned\/ DVD Extras: Standard<\/p>\n

Label: Code Red\/ Region: 0 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: August 16, 2011<\/p>\n

Genre: Crime \/ Thriller<\/p>\n

Synopsis: An American bodyguard stationed in Rome must protect a Middle Eastern ruler from a determined sniper.<\/p>\n

Special Features: Bonus Code Red Trailers<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

In classic Franco-Italian-German co-production style, The Killer Likes Candy<\/strong> \/ Un killer per sua maest\u00e0<\/strong> is a blend of international stars, co-directors, and co-writers, with source material stemming from a novel by Adam Saint Moore, but this m\u00e9lange never knows what it wants to be: A spy spoof? A detective film? Political thriller?<\/p>\n

Who knows, and the problems are easily glaring in this not particularly complicated tale of a hitman trying to assassinate the leader of an unnamed middle eastern country. Mark (Three Worlds of Gulliver<\/a>\u2019s<\/strong> Kerwin Matthews) is the lone American apparently put in charge of protecting bigwig Faoud (Lukas Ammann), but after a close call from hired sniper Oscar Snell (Sorcerer<\/strong>\u2019s Bruno Cremer) in Venice, he sticks around on principle rather than duty, but in spite of the ruler\u2019s near-death, Mark and his Italian colleague Costa (Venantino Venantini) are never given extra men to boost their security presence.<\/p>\n

Yes, two men are all the U.S. and Italy can afford, yet the candy-munching Snell still can\u2019t kill his mark because Mark is always in the way, so Snell\u2019s employer sends a separate team of goons, led by ex-muscleman Gordon Mitchell, to kill the fly-in-the-curried pasta (er, Mark). They even have the nerve to attempt a kill when Mark is trying to woo Faoud\u2019s hot doctor \/ anesthesiologist Sylva (Marilu Tolo), a big-eyed, big-eye browed babe who changes wigs and attire according to the type of environment. Sometimes she\u2019s poofy-haired, other times she sports a gamine short cut, but Mark never seems to notice what her mood is.<\/p>\n

Most of the action seems to take place over a day or three, which means Mark\u2019s roll in the beach sand with Sylva happens pretty fast, and Snell eventually realizes the key to neutralizing Mark and killing his mark (Faoud) is by manipulating Sylva, so he kills her father and abducts her mom in the hope Sylva will give Faoud excess ether during an open heart surgery.<\/p>\n

It would be interesting to know how French director co-writer Maurice Cloche and Italian director Federico Chentrens \/ aka Richard Owens in the English dub version worked out the scenes, or whether one took over the other\u2019s work due to budget issues, schedule problems, or ineptitude. Most of the action scenes are really well choreographed, and there\u2019s a zippy chase through a bizarre monument garden around the middle (plus the elaborate finale in a marble quarry), but their gravitas is singularly destroyed by Gianni Marchetti\u2019s tongue-in-cheek score, and the constant re-tracking and splicing of cues to create wall-to-wall loops of musical monotony.<\/p>\n

Marchetti\u2019s main theme shifts between eerie and breezy moods, with Edda Del\u2019Orso\u2019s gorgeous vocals propelling the haunting melody, but for combat scenes Marchetti uses mixed chorus, like a capella jazz voices and bursts of string & light percussion. It belongs in a Franco-Italian James Bond spoof, but Mathews and Cremer playing their roles straight just add to the confusion, and Venantini\u2019s deliberate pratfalls make one wonder if each director was trying to make his own version of the story \u2013 one a spoof, the other a hard thriller – with the editor left piecing tonally opposite scenes into a movie. It may be that Marchetti wrote his score after being pulled in either direction by each filmmaker, with no one arbitrating any of the creative decisions into a balanced film.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s evident is the filmmakers had a script bearing a few main set-pieces, but rather than craft a taut thriller, much of the film has Mark constantly leaving his post for no reason save for a chase or fight scene, after which he returns to chew out Costa. Mathews seems to be having fun playing a Bondian hero, while Tolo is just the eye candy (which is what she\u2019s often asked to be).<\/p>\n

The Rome locations are nice, but perhaps the final insult lies in the film currently available in a panned & scanned English dub version converted from an old Video Treasures PAL master, with visible speed-up. Killer was shot in 2.35:1, so perhaps there is a widescreen version floating around in France, Italy, or Germany.<\/p>\n

Candy is the second and lesser feature in Code Red\u2019s double-bill DVD, with Stoney<\/strong> \/ Surabaya Conspiracy<\/strong><\/a> [M<\/a>] (1969) a more satisfying work. It\u2019s still a fun package of C-grade exploitation fodder, but it is a bit jarring to see a vintage panned & scanned transfer, phony camera movements mechanically roving back & forth to cover character actions.<\/p>\n

Code Red also includes a few bonus trailers, and the is part of the label\u2019s themed double-bill series, replacing the prior Rare Flix edition which grouped the (reportedly) same transfer of Killer<\/strong>, with the utterly unrelated Molly and the Ghost <\/strong>(1991) and Run Like Hell <\/strong>(1995).<\/p>\n

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Postscript<\/strong><\/p>\n

Occasional director Frederico Chentrens also directed Playgirl 70<\/strong> (1969), whereas Maurice Cloche had enjoyed a steady directorial career during the fifties, perhaps notable for the sexploitive trilogy comprised of Girl Merchants <\/strong>(157), Girls of the Night<\/strong> (1958), and Women\u2019s Prison<\/strong> (1958).<\/p>\n

Tolo\u2019s other credits include Roy Colt and Winchester Jack<\/a> <\/strong>(1970), Bluebeard<\/a><\/strong> (1972), Dario Argento\u2019s Door into Darkness <\/strong>(1973) and The Five Days<\/strong> (1973), and Women\u2019s Prison<\/strong> (1974).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2012 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— \u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Amazon Links & KQEK.com’s Media Store:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/a> —– Amazon.com<\/a> —– Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0J to L<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to: Home \/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews \/ J to L . Film: Good\/ DVD Transfer: Panned & Scanned\/ DVD Extras: Standard Label: Code Red\/ Region: 0 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: August 16, 2011 Genre: Crime \/ Thriller Synopsis: An American bodyguard stationed in Rome must protect a Middle Eastern ruler from a determined sniper. Special Features: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[1224,1219,1223,1220,1221,1218,1222],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1do","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4674"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17119,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4674\/revisions\/17119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}