There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Taking part in the Grindhouse/"Cult" and Italian challenges on ICM,I've been keeping a look out on times when the two can be crossed. Seeing the likeable Stoney last night,I decided to unwrap the second feature on Code Red's DVD.View on the film:Treating it to none of the care they gave the Stoney transfer, Code Red slap on an old VHS print to disc,that includes moments where the tape has been chewed up. Done as the Euro Spy genre was fading out, the writers adaptation of Adam Saint Moore's novel targets crossing Euro Spy with the Thriller. Sweetening the intro of the killer, the writers move to make CIA agent Mark Stone a hard-nosed assassin determined to protect the king gives the flick an Italian Crime edge. Once the candy has been eaten, the writers sadly let the somewhat off-beat mood melt away for dry gang fights between Stone and the would-be killers. Chewing up the candy killer, co-directors Federico Chentrens & Maurice Cloche (who also co-wrote) give the sniper killer targeting a documentary rawness, which whimpers into shoot-outs that offer litter on screen candy.

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.

"The Killer Likes Candy" is an Italian suspense film dubbed into English. It stars the American actor Kerwin Mathews as well as a lot of Italian folks. Dubbing films into English as well as having American stars (often 2nd and 3rd tier stars) was quite common in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Not surprisingly, as a film snob I prefer subtitled films--but this wasn't possible with these movies as most of the time, the foreign star delivered their lines in English while the rest of the cast spoke Italian.This film is about an assassin. He's killed quite a few folks and has the odd habit of eating candy and leaving the wrappers when he's making a kill. Hopefully this can be used to catch him. Much of the films is from the standpoint of a guy whose assignment is to protect the dictatorial king of a fictional nation. Some of it's pretty exciting and might offend the squeamish (such as the gasoline scene) but some of it also is pretty cheesy (such as the body at the end of the film that falls to its death--it's VERY obviously a dummy). Overall, it's mildly interesting but no more. Bad edits and some HORRIBLE 1960s music make this one a bit hard to take.

"The Killer Loves Candy" ranks as an average European crime melodrama about an assassin paid to kill a head of state. Washington, D.C. troubleshooter Mark Stone is assigned to protect the King of Kafiristan while he is visiting Rome and catch the elusive assassin. During a visit to a foreign country, a king's life is jeopardized when a hit-man tries to shoot him but winds up killing the monarch's head of security. Co-directors Federico Chentrens of the Italian-French western "Judge Roy Bean" and Maurice Cloche of "FX 18, Secret Agent," working from a screenplay by Cloche, John Haggarty of "Murder in Eden" and Adam Saint Moore, have concocted an entertaining, colorful, but juvenile adventure epic that relies on the tenacity of the characters rather than any technological gadgets at their disposal. Kerwin Mathews of the "O.S.S." movies is appropriately energetic and agile as the heroic protagonist who gets quite a workout not only from protecting a foreign diplomat but also surviving attacks on himself by other bad guys. The scenery in this Italian-French-German production is suitably exotic and the never-say-die villain gives the authorities plenty of headaches as they try to track him down.Oscar Snell (Bruno Cremer of "The French Conspiracy") is a craftsman when it comes to killing, but he is having a difficult time trying to eliminate Kafiristan's monarch. Mark Stone, known to his associates by the rather unusual name 'Angel Face' is sent in to keep the king alive, but his majesty resents Stone's intrusions. When Stone and his sidekick Costa (Venantino Venantini of "Make Them Die Slowly") are summoned, they are posing as fashion photographers. Anybody who loves the Matt Helm spy franchise will know that in the Donald Hamilton novels, Matt Helm masqueraded as a photographer when he wasn't on a mission. Immediately, Stone steps in and wants to micro-manage the king's affairs. The King and his retinue, particularly his closest minister (Sieghardt Rupp of "Fistful of Dollars") don't like the pushy way that Stone takes his duties. Nevertheless, Stone proves that there is an assassin who is not going to stop trying to ice the king. Like the title indicates, the assassin loves to eat candy and leave the wrappings wherever he goes. Washington wants Stone to keep the dignitary alive because he presides over a fortune in oil in his kingdom. The familiar face of the villain, Guardino, who hired Snell is none other than Werner Peters of "The Battle of the Bulge." After Snell muffs a murder attempt on Stone, the people behind Guardino insist that Snell confine himself to the King and let others take out Stone. Toni (Gordon Mitchell of "Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops")and several hoodlums try to kill Stone. A scene in an abandoned building where Stone tricks Toni and his killers by knocking down a bunch of barrels at them is clever. By the time that they figure out that Stone is not in any of the barrels but the one rolling away, they are too late to stop him and start shooting. Trouble is that he has gotten out of that barrel, too. Eventually, Stone learns that his majesty suffers from a heart condition and Snell takes the mother of one of the doctors, anesthesiologist Sylva (Marilù Tolo of " Juliet of the Spirits") hostage and threatens to kill mom if Sylva doesn't see to it that the monarch dies in surgery. Of course, she cannot bring herself to murder the king. Later, Stone and the Rome police force plunge into the catacombs to catch Snell. The grand finale occurs over a marble quarry as Stone and Snell slug it out in a gigantic crane and Snell falls to his death. Meanwhile, Stone's sidekick Costa provides the comic relief as he is constantly being told to leave the king alone by his closest advisers. Every time that Stone walks in on Costa, Costa is with a woman or trying to physically build himself up to appear attractive.The orchestral score by Gianni Marchetti with its incessant vocals where a chorus warbles "dabba, dabba,dabba" is clearly out of place and doesn't underline the dramatic tension in any of the scenes, but it is a relic of the swinging sixties and probably reflects the inoffensive nature of this feature.