Blaxploitation films have been criticized for glorifying criminal behavior and perpetuating negative stereotypes, but the genre seldom gets credit for addressing issues and concerns relevant to the overlooked pimp-and-player demographic. The plight of the commuting suburban pimp, for example, was wholly overlooked by filmdom until 1975's The Candy Tangerine Man. John Daniels (Black Shampoo) plays the titular antihero, a ghetto-fabulous inner-city pimp during the week and a loving suburban dad and husband on weekends. Alas, Daniels faces stiff competition on the professional front from a flamboyant pimp whose smooth-talking charisma inspires such unsolicited testimonials as, "Oh, he's so beautiful! My Dusty, he's a sweet mack!" from his stable of feather-and-bandanna-bedecked women of leisure. Daniels may be a pimp, but he's also a gentleman, and when he spies an insufficiently turned-out prostitute in his rival's stable, he wins her in a game of pool, then drives her to the Greyhound station. After handing her a wad of cash, Daniels tells her, in a voice resonating with paternal concern and pimpish bravado, "You find your way back to New Mexico. You find yourself some Indian or wetback, have yourself a couple dozen kids. Then maybe someday, you can come back and thank me." Daniels' rival understandably takes umbrage at his humanitarian endeavors, taking advantage of his competitor's part-time pimping to steal his hoes while he's out of town. Deprived of his livelihood, Daniels attempts to make money the only other way he knows how: by laundering negotiable bonds through a geeky white bank president with a weakness for water sports and strippers. After his seemingly foolproof plan goes awry due to double-crossing from a shady business associate, Daniels goes looking for revenge, stealing back his ill-gotten gains, killing a handful of lowlifes, and learning firsthand just how decidedly non-easy pimping really is.
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