Sweet Substitute

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This special limited edition spot gloss slipcover is limited to 2,000 units and is only available on our website and at select indie retailers. Absolutely no major retailers will be stocking them.

From arthouse to Canuxploitation, Canadian International Pictures (CIP) is devoted to resurrecting vital, distinctive, and overlooked triumphs of Canadian cinema. This label is focused on the country’s original cinematic boom years – spanning the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s – occasionally venturing past that period (and the country’s borders) to highlight the films of Canada’s most inspired actors and filmmakers. Vinegar Syndrome’s sister company, OCN Distribution, is thrilled to be representing CIP's brand new line of home video releases!

“Larry Kent was very important to me. Those early films were so ahead of their time.” – Atom Egoyan

Busy navigating his final year of high school, brainy aspiring teacher Tom (Waiting for Caroline’s Robert Howay) is determined to land an elusive scholarship, but his hard work is constantly interrupted by his real obsession: pursuing the opposite sex. Before long, he develops a romance with former classmate Elaine (The Boy Who Could Fly’s Angela Gann), who persistently declines his sexual advances. This inspires Tom to consider other options, including his good-natured study buddy Kathy (Carol Pastinsky). But when they take their friendship to the next level, shocking complications threaten to derail Tom’s future, inspiring his friends to take drastic action.

In the wake of The Bitter Ash and the censorship battles it inspired, director Larry Kent returned with this more playful – but no less provocative – sophomore effort. An intoxicating blend of carefree sex comedy and unsparing coming-of-age drama, Sweet Substitute plays like a hedonistic reimagining of the same year’s Nobody Waved Good-bye aimed at the exploitation film market. A surprise success in the U.S. (under the title Caressed), it set the stage for Kent’s next leap forward with When Tomorrow Dies, the third and final entry in his celebrated Vancouver Trilogy.

directed by: Larry Kent
starring: Robert Howay, Angela Gann, Carol Pastinsky, Lanny Beckman, Robert Silverman
1964 / 86 min / 1.37:1 / English DTS-HD MA 2.0

Additional info:

• Region A Blu-ray
• Newly scanned and restored in 4K from the original 16mm A/B camera negatives by Canadian International Pictures with sound transferred from the original 16mm magnetic final mix 
  
• New audio commentary featuring Paul Corupe of Canuxploitation.com and film historian Jason Pichonsky
• Archival audio commentary featuring film professor David Douglas
  
• New introduction to Sweet Substitute by Larry Kent
  
• Sweet and Sour (2024, 10 min.) – New interview with Kent
  
• Not Quite Liberated (2024, 17 min.) – New interview with Douglas
  
• New audio interview with actor Lanny Beckman (2024, 6 min.)
  
• The Caressed Cut (2024, 6 min.) – All the material added to the American release of Sweet Substitute, including the notorious striptease sequence 
  
• Fantasia artist talk (2023, 81 min.) – Conversation with Kent moderated by Douglas
  
• Archival audio interview with Kent (1964, 11 min.)
  
• Booklet featuring a new Motion Picture Purgatory comic strip by Rick Trembles and an interview with graphic artist Sonja Arntzen
  
• Reversible cover artwork
  
• English SDH subtitles