The Candy Man on AllMovie

"Everybody needs candy of one kind or another," George Sanders says in The Candy Man. Sanders, playing a character named Sidney Carter, says this soon after giving some peppermint sticks to a pair of small children. But are they just peppermint sticks? As a down-and-out drug dealer, Carter is capable of just about anything. Desperate to make some real money, he comes up with an idea that, if it works, will let him retire: kidnap the young daughter of a visiting movie star (played by Leslie Parrish). To do this, Carter hires a pot addict, promising him plenty of drugs if he will undertake the abduction. Unfortunately, before his plan can be realized, someone else kidnaps the child. Carter comes up with an alternate plan, trying to build upon this unexpected occurrence; meanwhile, Parrish's agent begins behaving in a suspicious manner, raising the possibility that perhaps he has had a hand in the kidnapping. Eventually, the child finds herself tottering dangerously from the top of a tall building and risking death before being returned to her mother's anxious arms.