The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart

I saw this movie in 1970 in Philadelphia when it was first released as the second part of a double feature, following Fellini Satyricon. The comment I made when I left the theater (I had graduated from high school only a few days earlier) was, "They co-opted the revolution." If that sentence makes sense to you then you'll understand my reaction. If it doesn't, I can't explain.

Peace! David

The extremely rare and often peculiar film "The Magic Garden Of Stanley Sweetheart" succeeds greatly as a cult film. It has all the ingredients for the perfect midnight movie. Based on the semi-autobiographical 60's drug n' love counterculture book by Robert T. Westbrook, it remains quite faithful to story and context. The story concerns a boy Stanley (a very young Don Johnson in his debut acting role) in his early 20's who goes to college in New York to become a film maker. He spends his time usually lost in daydreams and masturbation until he begins a relationship with classmate Cathy (well acted by Dianne Hull) who brings slight contentment and romance to his insecure life. Though through the relationship, Stanley soon finds boredom and begins an affair with her plump roommate and best friend Fran (Holly Near) while still carrying on with Cathy. The scene where he's trying to film Fran for one of his independent short films (apropriately titled "Masturbation") is at times funny, awkward, and clumsily executed. Stanley also occasionally meets up with friends Danny (well acted by Michael Greer who interestingly replaced Joe Dallesandro in the role, after Joe was fired from the set on one day of shooting!), Barbara (Linda Gillen) and Andrea (exotic Victoria Racimo) who he'll sometimes get high with. One night while Stanley and Cathy are sleeping, the uninvited three friends stop by to get Stanley and Cathy loaded. During the stoned experience you find Danny picking up on Cathy and Stanley becoming increasingly jealous. Soon however, Cathy will leave Stanley to pursue her new crush, while Stanley is left all alone to his daydreams. The "Magic Garden" refers to the place in his mind that he somehow finds solace and peace through his imagination and daydreams. The book will make this point clearer, than in the movie. At this point Stanley will fall into a hallucinagenic menage a trois with the two girlfriends Barbara and Andrea, only changing the direction of the film from light comedic romance to drug addict casualty. But these scenes are fantastic. Where else (but in the 60's) can you find such images as group sex, body painting, drugs galore, and psychedelic light shows all wrapped up with the most sugary bubblegum pop song in the world? (the song in question being "The Gingerbread Man"!) These scenes for counter culture freaks are absolutely priceless! What's really interesting is how downbeat the endings of movies were in the late 60's or early 70's. Why must every film from that era always be a casualty tale or sort? Also, another interesting aspect of the film is the hints of homosexuality in the script. Danny's leering at Don Johnson's bare chest suggests something that is never fully developed until the surprise ending which in itself has also got homosexual undertones (the sparing of the rabbits life signifying sensitivity, and the barrel of the gun signifying the phallus???). It's fitting that an actor like Joe Dallesandro (from Andy Warhol Factory and Paul Morrissey film fame) would have played the role of Danny. Because at times the film resembles some of Paul Morrissey's films in the depiction of New Yorker drop outs. Don Johnson at the time was a popular actor amongst gays, due to the exposure he received from the play "Fortune In Men's Eyes" a gay prison story directed by Sal Mineo. And one time TV show director Leonard Horn does every shot in an exploitative manner. You'll see numerous shots of Don bare chested, bare butt, or just plain nude. Also the obligatory gay pick up scene (ie: "Midnight Cowboy") in a cafe (which seems slightly out of place), where actor Brandon Maggart tries to pay Stanley for sexual services. All these scenes make for an awkwardness that the film either suffers or benefits from. (depending on your tastes?) I found myself slightly unsure of the director's intention with some of the material, which satisfied the thinking side of me, to make me want to see the film again. Was this a coming of age, sexual awareness film? A romantic comedy or drama? A drug counter culture film? I found it to be all these things. The film is by no means perfect (the acting is slightly shoddy at times), but I do think it's a tad underrated. I kept seeing these really horrible reviews of the film, but it wasn't too bad at all. It's always entertaining and interesting, and never dull. It's got a great soundtrack, (especially "Magic Mountain" by Eric Burdon and War) the clothes look great, and some of the filming is quite imaginable. It's a story that probably a lot of younger guys could and would relate to. Check out the scene when Stanley's short film called "Headless" is played for Cathy, it's a pretty funny and far out. Watch it late at night, if you can find it. It's definitely got cult movie appeal. I quite dug it myself!!!

Robert T. Westbrook adapted his own acclaimed, semi-autobiographical novel about a Columbia University student in his third year who drops out (a fashionable way of expressing yourself in 1970). The protagonist, Stanley Sweetheart (hailed by literary critics at the time as a successor to Holden Caulfield), is played in the film by a young, high-voiced Don Johnson, whose performance failed to impress Village Voice critic Molly Haskell (she remarked, "The only thing that stands out about Don Johnson is the black roots of his blond hair."). Self-assured, sex-obsessed Stanley lives off-campus in his own apartment: he makes 16mm films; he hates the noise of construction-ridden New York City; he swats at bugs on the carpet; he disgustedly wads up a letter from his woebegone mother, who wonders if he'll ever have a productive life. So far, so good (except for the Michel Legrand/Alan and Marilyn Bergman-composed opening song--some woozy thing that asks if a tree falls in a forest...). There's a lot of talk about pot smoking, decadent materialism, "being free to really be free", masturbation, getting laid, also an attempted homosexual pickup (which freaks our hero out). Westbrook and director Robert Horn want their movie to connect with the kids but not in a direct way (that might be too square). Instead, Horn and his editor give us a somewhat fragmented look at a young man's life in 1970; however, Stanley's day-to-day non-routine doesn't really require this kind of jagged treatment (for instance: when Stanley deflowers the pretty girl in his linguistics class, the moment is extra tender, followed by a bubblegum-music montage of boy-girl coupling with 'cute' nudity). It isn't much of a picture--and one that MGM apparently had no invested interest in--but Johnson is a definite presence (especially in his scenes with Holly Near as his girlfriend's roommate and Michael Greer as a former student at Juilliard). The milieu, now dated, is interesting as a time capsule (including a cameo by Candy Darling at a drug orgy); but "Magic Garden" isn't a magical character study--it's stunted by its overall narrow view of life. When kids try to act like grown-ups but realize they're really just dumb kids, the audience is apt to respond, "What else is new?" ** from ****

This could be the definitive film of Andy Warhol's New York sub-culture...and a rare one to find at that! It captures the decadence, the confusion, the drugs, the music and the 'boredom' of this underground world, and it all revolves around the character of Stanley Sweetheart. Don Johnson, in his first film role, plays this character brilliantly, capturing all of this insatiable desire for sensation in this beautifully androgynous performance. There also seems to be an underlying text of hidden homosexual desires, which Stanley continually suppresses, although he seems drawn to Danny character. It's a fascinating work of decadence and decay, and you can just feel Andy Warhol overlooking the whole world of Stanley's decline.

Freak-out anything-goes flick from 1970, does a great job of capturing east-coast hippie scene. Some of the scenes from this movie must have been very shocking to the few who saw it upon its initial release, as it pulls no punches in its depiction of nudity and sex and sex and nudity. More or less, this movie seems to have been made to reflect the emerging sexual openness and promiscuity of the time. Not much of a story line, but entertaining to watch, i would recommend it for those looking for a fix of late '60's/early '70's underground culture. A definite drug movie. Do not watch while operating heavy machinery...