Some of these pictures and descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching the film.
This is a psychedelic sex farce about a childlike teenage girl from outer space who is harassed by old men who don't understand that "no" means "no." It features several well-known movie stars including Richard Burton, Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau, James Coburn, Charles Aznavour, and even Ringo Star, all of whom were no doubt embarassed that they were in it.
It's a movie that gets to have it both ways - it satirizes the sexual exploitation of a teenage girl while at the same time it sexually exploits a teenage actress who appears in the nude for our entertainment. Ewa Aulin, who played candy, said that the movie "...is a moral lesson about a pure, childlike girl, who is taken advantage of by selfish, amoral people. She just wants to make people happy. If everyone were like Candy, the world would be a better place." I say if every movie had a snake scene, the world would be a better place, and fortunately, a snake appears briefly at the very end of this one.
The Snake Cameo
The first man we see harass Candy Christian is the celebrity poet MacPhisto (Richard Burton) who has a cult following of high school students and is a pretentious drunk. He gives a poetry reading at Candy's high school, then tries to rape her in his limousine. He disappears for the rest of the movie until we see him at the very end, in a strange non-sequitor scene in which Candy just walks through green fields full of people sitting and waving banners as if they're at a festival. She even walks by a huge mirror in which we can see the crew filming her. We also see some of the characters we saw earlier in the movie, including a guru played by Marlon Brando and MacPhisto (Richard Burton.) MacPhisto is laughing and, for no apparent reason, holding a snake around his neck and playing with it. In his earlier appearance, we never saw him laugh or act natural, but here he looks like he's enjoying himself, which makes me wonder if this scene was improvised. Candy then continues walking and finally gets zapped back to whatever place she came from.
The snake looks dead. It's either a dead snake or more likely a rubber snake prop.