Fat City

Director: John Huston

1972 / 100min / DCP

Adapting Leonard Gardner’s 1969 boxing novel of the same name, describing the dreams and desperate, dilatory delusions that proliferate at the lower rungs of the “sweet science,” onetime California lightweight hopeful—and longtime Hollywood black sheep—Huston dug deep into his bruised gut and pulled out this rueful masterpiece, one of the finest boxing films ever made, concerning a dipso has-been (Stacy Keach) and his shoddy mentorship of a never-will-be (Jeff Bridges). Clark, already a success as a fashion model, took a crash course in acting with legendary instructor Jeff Corey for this, her debut role, as Bridges’s love interest and, eventually, his reason for leaving the fight game behind.

“Candy spent the summer of 1971 in Stockton, California, ‘trying to model my way through an acting job.’ Each day was a reminder that she was out of her element, but Huston was patient with her. The cast and crew ate meals together at the Azteca, a local café with a bad reputation and good Mexican food. Huston passed around a rare tequila with a worm floating in the bottle and pushed the young actors to partake. The circuslike camaraderie of moviemaking suited her.” —Editor Sam Sweet, Tight Heads