Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart, The (1970)

For a time in the 1960s, Hollywood studios thought that all they had to do to tempt kids from the TV was to pack movies with “shocking” sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.

But the moguls learned that even the undiscerning youth market would not accept films without substance.

A youthful Don Johnson plays disaffected college student Stanley, whose experiments with casual sex, drugs, and alternative lifestyles form the basis of Leonard Horn’s film. Stanley is a Beverly Hills brat living in a New York City hovel while studying at Columbia and making underground movies on the side.

At first, Stanley’s problem is that he feels undersexed, compelling him to masturbate regularly. Later, his problem is that he feels oversexed, since he transitions from a monogamous relationship with the girl of his dreams to a threesome with two drugged-out hippie chicks. He also gets an insecure girl drunk, talks her into pleasuring herself while he films her, and sleeps with her while she’s inebriated. Nice guy.

The hippie philosophy, the music, and the fashions are now pleasantly nostalgic, but Stanley’s aimless odyssey does seem to go on forever.

Stanley Sweetheart
Don Johnson
Shayne/Barbara
Linda Gillin
Danny
Michael Greer
Cathy
Dianne Hull
Fran
Holly Near
Andrea
Victoria Racimo
Dr Arthur Osgood/Man in café
Brandon Maggart

Director
Leonard Horn