Candy the Stripper

The owner of a seedy, run-down strip club in New Orleans tries to save the building from being torn down by having it declared a historical landmark. The architect who visits in order to inspect the building, not realizing that its main use is as a joint so seedy that "dive" would be a step up, falls in love with the club's headline stripper (played by former Playboy centerfold Tracy Vaccaro). This mundo cheapo comedy looks like it was shot on home video. The performances are as wooden as a forest, the dialogue is trite, the sets are cheap... I have to wonder how small this film's budget was, since it didn't look like it cost anything. On the up side, there's quite a bit of nudity, and Tracy Vaccaro still looks great ten years after doing her bit in Playboy. But unless you're a die-hard fan of Ms. Vaccaro (which I must admit, I am), this one is not worth your time.

This is a straightforward romance which is in most ways a fairly typical run of the mill B movie of its period but, since it is set in a very old building in New Orleans that is threatened with demolition unless a preservation order is made, it has an an additional appeal for anyone interested in the historic architecture of this part of what was once New France. There are also some sequences showing Mardi Gras processions and festivities in the streets that I enjoyed although they seem to be used mainly to extend the running time and have very little to do with the storyline. To provide the characteristic (for its period) nudity expected of a B movie story, the chosen scenario is a very run down strip bar operated by a typically sleazy proprietor, and the title character, played by ex-Bunny Girl Tracy Vaccaro, is a stripper of little ambition but considerable intelligence. Almost any other scenario could have been used without changing the story much. However I did find this scenario fairly believable and I would rate it somewhat higher than that of many comparable movies; unfortunately this is offset by the actual script and dialogue which are often unbelievable. Many of the sequences in the bar are rather drawn out and uninteresting, and the quality of the acting is very uneven, so overall this film never excited a great deal of enthusiasm. With a much tauter script, a shorter running time and better photography it certainly could have been a modest success.