Young and successful Hayley Mills is the subject of the May 1965 issue of the sensationalizing gossip magazine
Whisper. Within the article the magazine asks the question if Hayley will be chosen to star in the film adaptation of the satirical psychedelic sex romp
Candy, based on the 1958 novel by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg. I can't tell if this is Hayley Mills' representatives planting a story for the publicity, producers doing the same and pushing for her to be considered for the role or if this article is just using her name to create wagging tongues because of her fresh-faced innocent image. Personally, I'm glad Hayley never appeared in the film that resulted. Many films of the 1960s and 1970s suffered from the excesses and egos of the makers, resulting in movies which appeared to have been created in sputtering fits of drug-fueled mania.
The article itself has a few nice publicity shots that I have not seen elsewhere and even with the inexpensive black and white reproduction values of the era are still nice to look at.
I'm not familiar how straight the book told a story but the film was bonkers and all over the place.
Candy is now one of those productions that is considered a "cult classic" though I am in the camp of those who think the term is applied too broadly for many bad efforts. Fresh off several dramas and comedies, Hayley Mills was undoubtedly searching for a more adult role at the time as a year later in 1966 she appeared as a newlywed experiencing marital problems in
The Family Way.
Admittedly, at the time audiences had a hard time accepting the grown up actress in a dramatic role with a mature theme. People were too used to Hayley as a star of Disney and being cast in other roles as the adorable cute one, forgetting her earlier strong work in
Tiger Bay and
Whistle Down the Wind. Yet as an inoffensive comedy/drama about a troubled couple the choice of
The Family Way was superior than if she appeared in a disjointed bizarre sex farce like
Candy. Experiencing the trailer for
Candy I cringe to think what that movie as it was made would have done to her career.
Yes, it was definitely for the best someone else got the role.
i'm not able to read the scans from the article, but it might be helpful to understand the origin of the candy project.
ReplyDeleteterry southern, who adapted dr strangelove for stanley kubrick, was tasked by kubrick to come up with art "artful" adult film project. kubrick had some ideas, and southern had some ideas, and in the end they didn't quite mesh. (kubrick later found what he was looking for, for better or worse, with "eyes wide shut" some years later).
anyway, southern and his co-writer published the book "candy" and kubrick was still expressing interest probably around the time hayley was being considered. the movie that was eventually made is nowhere near what kubrick would have attempted, and i suspect it would have been a very different film with both mills and kubrick involved.
Thanks for the info! Yes, one would hope that it would be radically different than what eventually happened. An EWS in 1966 would have been interesting. The scans are bigger with a right-click or here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlanod/8676978542/in/photostream
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