Cotton Candy

This is surely no piece of great cinema, but it is incredibly kooky and anyone who likes lamb-chop sideburns and bad, bad pop music will love this one. That is, if you ever see it. Seems like maybe Ron "Opie" Howard has locked this one up in a vault, because I have not seen it aired since they used to play it on the 2 O'clock Movie on WBBM in Chicago over and over and over back in the 80's. If you like bad stuff, ie the Love Boat, Robbie Benson movies and anything made by Aaron Spelling, you'll love this.

I saw cotton candy when I was just a kid, and never forgot it. It may be a bit cheesy by today's standards, but I think the naivete just adds to the innocent magic of the film. Although the movie has been locked away since Disney aquired it and hasn't seen the light of day, this film will always be a special part of my youth, and just thinking about it all these years later still manages to make me smile. From the melodramatic performances of the Howards to the fully overblown character of Torbin Biqette, this film was what most movies of today just aren't anymore...FUN!

"Cotton Candy" is typical of most 1970s juvenile movies: bad clothes, bad hair and a typical plot. Ron Howard's first attempt at directing fared well, and this story of B.M.O.C. vs. regular Joe to get the girl is predictable. "CC" was filmed in Dallas in June, 1977 at Town East Mall and Lake Highlands High School to enormous local fanfare (remember that this is before "Dallas" and the Ewing family gave the town an identity!) Unfortunately, "CC" is not available on tape; it rarely is shown but will most likely pop up on an independent TV station's "Afternoon Movie" or the like. Great piece of history for Dallasites, but not much else there for a moviegoer seeking an intriguing story.

I attended Lake Highlands in '84-'86 and some of the staff extras in the Movie were still working when I went through. I still love to watch the movie because of the nostalgia when I see all my old haunts. The school still hasn't changed much and I can place almost all the scenes of the school. I was lucky enough to get a decent VHS recording off of it back in 84 and I still drag it out every few months to watch it commercial free. It's just not in good enough shape to try to transfer it to disc. I'm hoping they release Skyward on DVD eventually as well. Another film right here in Dallas...mostly Mesquite this time though. Man, Bette Davis. Some high power acting for such a small film and director (at the time).

My friend and I watched this cheesy movie because we were 14 and had our own band together. My Dad was watching it with us, and being the experienced professional singer he was, he was pointing out the importance of vocal harmonies. We listened and related to the shaky starts and ruined rehearsals...but I was most interested in the drums, as they were the popular Vistalite series made by Ludwig. I had my own set of them, the same era too, only mine were not the spiral pattern like those used in the film; they were "smoke" black (thus, my kit was cooler). We realized it was a bit of a stupid movie, but we were early high-schoolers and inspired by anything we could catch on TV that involved bands (of course MTV changed that soon after). I loved Smith in American Graffiti but he was MORE of a dork in this one. We howled laughing when he resents his nosy old neighbor complaining about the noise and says disgustedly, "rinky-DINK!" We knew WE would have said something far worse! Corny music, some fair acting, but a pleasant film. But I always wondered...was "I Shot The Sheriff" the only damn song Rapid Fire even knew? I couldn't figure out why they had FANS, when they knew only one song and were lousy at it to boot!