The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart is a 1970 American film distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) about a confused college student's experiences with sex, relationships, and drugs in late 1960s New York City.
[2] Stanley Sweetheart (Don Johnson) is an aspiring filmmaker and junior at Columbia University who moved to New York City from Beverly Hills.
Finally she agrees to sleep with him and the two settle into happy domestic life for a time, but Stanley soon becomes bored with the relationship and fantasizes about Andrea.
Stanley, who by now has dropped out of college, accompanies Danny (who relates that he himself "used to go to Juilliard") to a psychedelic rock concert/ happening in a loft performance space.
[8] Warhol superstar Joe Dallesandro was originally cast as "Danny," Stanley's older, more experienced counterculture friend, but clashed with the assistant director and was fired from the film after only one day.
[6][9] Michael Greer, Johnson's real-life friend who had appeared with him in Fortune and Men's Eyes as his cellmate "Queenie," was then cast in the role.
[9][10][11] As reported by The New York Times and other newspapers in October 1969, MGM announced that Andy Warhol would make his commercial film debut in the movie, in his first-ever speaking role as a "freaked-out psychiatrist" in a hallucination orgy scene.
[12][13][14] Candy Darling was signed to appear in the "Electric Head" sequence of the film,[14] and can be seen in an uncredited brief, wordless cameo reclining on a mattress during the scene where Stanley attends an underground psychedelic performance.
The film introduced the song "Sweet Gingerbread Man", composed by Michel Legrand (music) and Alan and Marilyn Bergman (lyrics).
Released as a single to promote the soundtrack album, the song was a minor hit, reaching #16 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.
It was subsequently covered by numerous artists, including Sammy Davis Jr., Jack Jones, Bobby Sherman, Sarah Vaughan, and Australian pop singer Dave Allenby.
MGM released a soundtrack album for the film including various artists, such as Bill Medley, Eric Burdon and War, The Mike Curb Congregation, David Lucas, Crow, Angeline Butler, and Michael Greer.