The Candy Tangerine Man

Year releasted: 1975

by Nathan Rabin
November 29th, 2000

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.