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Sep 03, 2024 Web Exclusive By Austin Trunick

Canadian International have been doing admirable work in restoring and re-issuing the early films by Larry Kent, Canada’s first indie maverick. From some of the stories included on their recent disc release of The Bitter Ash (1963), Kent was already moving on from that film by the time its surrounding controversies mucked up its chance at a wider release. His follow-up, Sweet Substitute (1964), is more polished by every measure–not only with a more professional look and sound, but actual commercial viability. Released stateside under the title “Caressed” and marketed like an arthouse skin flick, Sweet Substitute found success that would help boost Kent early in his career.

Tom (Bob Howay) is at the head of his class: a bright student with plans to attend university and become a high school teacher. His father, a hard-workin’, blue-collar man, offers to buy his son a used car–but only if he wins a highly competitive scholarship. Not only would the vehicle help him get to and from school, but he’s convinced that driving will help land him dates with girls. While the scholarship is well within his reach, the beautiful young women roaming the streets and beaches of Vancouver have made it hard for him to focus on his studies. That’s because Tom is, for lack of a better term, horny as f*ck, and more than willing to risk everything for some exploratory action between the sheets.

Elsewhere, while Tom ‘n’ the Boys are chasing skirts, Elaine (Angela Gann) endures sluggish secretarial work in her first year out of high school. She’s a former classmate of Tom’s, and he’s madly in love with her. She’s also seeking a bit of upward mobility, and hooking up with the bright-futured Tom might be her ticket up the class ladder (her mother, in a grave voice, warns her not to make the same mistake she did in marrying an auto mechanic). While she and Tom get along swimmingly, she’s saving herself for marriage–and Tom soon finds himself torn between this lovely, aspiring housewife and his platonic study buddy, Kathy (Carol Pastinsky), who shares his curiosity and intelligence but has some progressive ideas about a woman’s role in the world which Tom finds frankly unbecoming for a young lady in the early 1960s.

Sweet Substitute feels ahead of its time–like a dramatic spin on the teen sex comedies that would explode in the late ‘70s and throughout the 1980s. Think of it as a semi-somber Lemon Popsicle movie and you’ll start seeing all sorts of parallels with that series, or with its American remake, The Last American Virgin (1983). There’s even a scene where the quartet of braying, teenage horndogs line up to take turns with a friendly floozy, only for her father to return home early and send them fleeing for their lives–this has to be among the most reliable tropes from VHS-era teen sex coms. A word of warning, however: if you thought the ending of The Last American Virgin was a real punch in the gut, just wait until you see what the final minutes of Sweet Substitute have in store for you.

The leap Kent and company made from Bitter Ash to Sweet Substitute is downright astounding. Where the former had an endearingly rough, nouvelle vague-ish presentation that can be chalked up to inexperience and lack of budget as much as its non-conformist, hepcat style, Sweet Substitute is closer on par with the prudent, low-budget professionalism displayed in many of the contemporary Corman productions (sync sound and ample lighting go a long, long way). Both films are charming in their own ways, but few would blindly guess the same young filmmaker made both of these in such a short span of time.

Canadian International Pictures’ Blu-ray of Sweet Substitute is quite lovely, with new artwork that corresponds to their release of Bitter Ash. (Let’s hope this means they’ll give us a matching edition of 1965’s When Tomorrow Dies to complete the set.) The restored picture also looks excellent, and allows viewers to admire some cool period details visible in the street scenes–like Tom and Elaine briefly stopping to admire a Beatles-themed window display, filmed only a few short months after their Ed Sullivan appearance. The bonus features are also quite plentiful, with both new and archival interviews with Kent and others, a commentary track, additional footage that went into the dirtier, American cut of the film, a booklet essay (plus comic strip), and more.

(www.canadian-international.com)