User reviews

Mary Woronov and Lynn Lowry are usually watchable in anything and that's still true for Sugar Cookies - a sleazy sexploitation thriller without many thrills.

It's too silly and campy to be taken seriously as a sex film, but there aren't enough genuine thrills to enjoy it as a straightforward thriller. I'm still not sure what the chubby cross dressing guy had to do with anything. Was he just there for filler?

Anyway, it's about a sleazy sex film producer who kills one of his stars during a sex game and makes it look like a suicide. The star's lesbian lover searches for someone who looks just like the dead star so they can carry out some form of revenge. There are a few too twists and turns to keep us interested and the ending just sort of dribbles out, but it's always nice to see Woronov and Lowry.

If you want to know why the director's career when nowhere after SILENT NIGHT BLOODY NIGHT, here is your answer. SUGAR COOKIES means well, but it has no story. It has the idea of a story, but it is never fleshed out, never explored deeply, and never really developed. Outstanding performance by Lynn Lowry. Great to see Monique Van Vooren, an underutilized talent. The always interesting Mary Woronov doesn't appear all that comfortable in the part her husband wrote for her. A major plus: the Vinegar Syndrome transfer is outstanding.

I am amazed Lynn Lowry never became a bigger star. She is beautiful in a unique way (not "movie star" beautiful; her beauty is much more natural) and actually manages to act (and act well!) despite the dreadful roles she is usually given. This is particularly the case in Sugar Cookies. Terrible movie no matter how you look at it. Unless you look at Lynn Lowry. It was her beauty, her charm, her grace, and yes her acting that kept me engaged throughout an otherwise dreadful experience. Mary Woronov is a good actress also, and she and Lowry played off each other well. Ladies & Gentlemen - you really have to check Ms. Lowry out! Her characters are always memorable, even in small roles such as the one Paul Schrader gave her in his remake of Cat People. Alas, we never did see this once budding talent be given the proper opportunities to fully develop her craft before our eyes. This is the only tragedy regarding Sugar Cookies that is worth discussing.

In 1973, the year before Lloyd Kaufman formed Troma Studios in order to churn out his particular brand of trashy low-budget B-movies, he helped produce Sugar Cookies, an experimental sexploitation flick starring Lynn Lowry (The Crazies, Shivers) as aspiring actress Julie Kent, who is tricked by lesbian seductress Camilla (Mary Woronov) into helping avenge the murder of her lover.

Loaded with dreadfully dull dialogue, languorous scenes of supposedly emotionally intense drama, and of course, plenty of nudity, this sort of ponderous, progressive, art-house styled erotic nonsense might have gone down well with a crowd of enlightened (ie., stoned), sexually liberated hippy types several decades ago, but will seem laughably dated to a modern audience. Even connoisseurs of cult cinema keen to see unconventionally attractive amazonian cult actress Woronov and frisbee-nippled Sissy Spacek-alike Lowry strip off and get it on will probably find this film a struggle.

Unholy hybrid of psychological melodrama and soft-core nudie (with some head-scratchingly odd comedic asides added to the imbalance) has an immoral, decadent producer of 'arty' porno films playing kinky sex-and-death games with his X-rated starlet ("Get the perfume! Now load the gun!"). He goes too far and kills her, yet the coroner is apparently fooled into believing her death was a suicide (though the shooting is suspicious enough to get a middle-aged detective to start sniffing around). The filmmaker's alibi is provided by his statuesque assistant, a hedonistic bisexual vamp who lies for him but has a secret: she was in love with the dead actress, and plots her revenge. Cobbled together by writers Theodore Gershuny (who also directed, badly) and Lloyd Kaufman (who also co-produced, along with future director Oliver Stone, Ami Artzi, Garrard Glenn and Jeffrey Kapelman), this low-budget curiosity might have made for a juicy cult item if only the team had picked up the pace a bit. It's dreary instead of dangerous and tiresome instead of erotic. A subplot about the producer's young nephew trying to lose weight (and having sex with a prostitute dressed in a wig and pink see-through wrap) is just bizarre. As the assistant, Mary Woronov (Gershuny's then-wife) has amusingly diabolical eyebrows and silky chestnut hair falling passed her shoulders. She has the film's best directed and edited sequence, a quick series of auditions for a new skin-flick. Woronov is required to strip like the other actors but, unlike Lynn Lowry (continuously naked in a dual role), she isn't degraded by the camera; she's so assured an actress that towering over the C-grade material (literally) comes naturally for her. *1/2 from ****

Alta Leigh (Lynn Lowry) is a young actress killed by creepy film producer Max Pavell (George Shannon) during a "game". Max's associate Camila Stone (Mary Woronov) agrees to alibi for him while searching for a suitable replacement for Alta. After a while, she seems to find just the right person: Julie Kent (Ms. Lowry again), who's a dead ringer for Alta. Eventually the naive Julie finds that these new people in her life are more than a little twisted, and begins to get scared. While this is going on, there are subplots such as the sexual misadventures of Gus (Daniel Sador), the younger brother of Max's ex-wife Helene (Monique van Vooren).

"Sugar Cookies" will likely be too slow and psychological for some tastes, but it's interesting and stands as a sharp contrast to the later productions of co-writer / executive producer Lloyd Kaufmans' Troma Studios. It's actually an intoxicating and moody mix of exploitation and art. Some of the music is rather nice, and everything is gorgeously shot by cinematographer Hasse Wallin. The story ultimately evolves into a practically two character drama as the bisexual Camila gets to know Julie and seduces her. If nothing else, this film is a solid vehicle for the charms of sexy cult actresses Woronov and Lowry (the latter receiving an "introducing" credit here); their admirers will appreciate how much flesh the two ladies bare, and absolutely love the steamy scenes with them later on in the film.

Woronov was married to the co-writer / director Theodore Gershuny at the time; he actually wrote the part of Camila with his wife in mind, and also around this time they (and Kaufman) worked on the horror film "Silent Night, Bloody Night". The editor Dov Hoenig went on to bigger and better things, cutting films such as "Thief" and "Heat" for Michael Mann as well as "The Crow" and "Under Siege".

Definitely recommended to those people interested in the artifacts of NYC's "underground" film scene of the period.

Seven out of 10.

The 2 lead females are stunningly sexy. The eroticism between Lynn and Mary is realistic and hot. Both of these women's acting is quality.. There is a gorgeousness to this film---for example the plush interiors and the tasteful stylish clothes the characters wear. The plot seems to come at the very beginning and at the end. Mainly what we have in between is Lynn and Mary becoming friends and lovers. There is a comic character---an overweight young guy---but his parts do not fit in very well with the rest of the movie. Nevertheless, whatever comic relief he provides helps to off-set the serious, heavy mood.

Starting off, here's a synopsis: Porno queen Alta Lee (Lynn Lowry) is murdered by her pornographer lover Max (George Shannon) in a game of sexual Russian roulette. Alta's other lover, icy lesbian casting agent Camila Stone (Mary Woronov), provides an alibi for Max. But Camila has an agenda of her own, and a plan involving the seduction of innocent actress Julie (Lynn again) in a web of sexual mind games. When the lookalikes' identities are sufficiently blurred, the stage is set for vengeance as passionate as the most heated carnal encounter.

Though this movie is quite obscure and never got much attention, I find it to be a sexy, suspenseful gem. Cult goddess Woronov has one of her best-ever roles, and she and sexy-innocent Lowry play off each other well. The unsettling music provided by Gershon Kingsley, plus two original songs ("All-American Boy," "You Say You've Never Let Me Down") and the Jaynetts' "Sally, Go 'Round the Roses" compose a memorable soundtrack. Theodore Gershuny's direction is sharp, with everything photographed in muted earth tones that perfectly suggest unsavory business bubbling under society's upper crust. With tons of great New York atmosphere, Ondine (Woronov's friend and fellow Warholite) giving a great performance in a small role, and exotic Monique Van Vooren as Max's ex-wife in a comic sub-plot. This sub-plot, though amusing, looks like it belongs in another movie altogether. However, I'm not complaining, as the film is smooth even as it changes gears and is a hell of a lot more interesting that the erotic-thriller garbage currently being cranked out.

Trivia: Sugar Cookies was originally rated X (soft-core) and released by General Film Corporation in 1973. I am the proud owner of an original one-sheet poster--lucky me! In 1977, the movie was cut for an R and re-released by Troma Team, which now offers it uncut on videotape. Mary Woronov was the wife of Theodore Gershuny at the time, and was reportedly uncomfortable performing the graphic lesbian simulated sex scenes with him leering behind the camera. She can also be seen in two of his earlier productions, Kemek (1970) and Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972).

This movie is not schlock, despite the lo fi production and its link to Troma productions. A dark fable for adults. Exploitation is a theme of Sugar Cookies, and one wonders if the cast has not fallen prey to said theme. A weird movie with enticing visuals: shadows and contrast are prominent. Definitely worth a look, especially from fans of Warhol and stylish decadence. Through all the cruelty and wickedness, a moral, albeit twisted, can be gleamed.

A very early Oliver Stone (associate-)produced film, and one of the first films in the impressive career of Lloyd Kaufman (co-founder and president of the world's only real independent film studio Troma, creator of the Toxic Avenger and, at the prestigious Amsterdam Fantastic Filmfestival, lifetime-achievement awarded filmmaker for over 30 years). Having raised the money for this film on his own, Lloyd wrote this script together with Theodore Gershuni in 1970 and in hindsight regrets having listened to advice to have Gershuni else direct the film instead of doing it himself. But back then he was still inexperienced in the business and it is probably because of decisions like these that he takes no nonsense from anyone anymore. Indeed it would have been interesting to see Lloyd's version of his own script - as one of the world's most original, daring, experimental and non-compromising directors he probably would have given it even more edge than it already has. But as it is we have the Gershuni-directed film. And weather it is due to the strong script, or the fact that he too is indeed quite a director of his own, SUGAR COOKIES is a very intelligent, highly suspenseful and well-crafted motion picture that deserves a lot more attention than it receives. The shoestring budget the small studio (this was even before Kaufman and his friend and partner for over 30 years now, Michael Herz, formed Troma) had to work with is so well handled that the film looks a lot more expensive, indeed does not have a "low budget" look at all. The story revolves around lesbian Camilla Stone (played by enigmatic Mary Woronow) and her lover who winds up dead through circumstances I won't reveal not to spoil a delightful story. This leads to a succession of plot-twists, mind games and personality reform that is loosely inspired by Hitchcock's Vertigo and at least as inventive. The atmosphere is a lot grimmer, though, and some comparisons to Nicholas Roeg's and Donald Cammell's PERFORMANCE come to mind. In this mix is a very original and inventive erotic laden thriller that keeps it quite unclear as to how it is all going to end, which, along with a splendidly interwoven sub-plot with a nod to Kaufman's earlier and unfortunately unavailable BIG GUSS WHAT'S THE FUSS, makes for a very exciting one-and-a-half-hour. Certainly one of the best films in Troma's library, and yet again one of those films that defy the curious fantasy that their catalog is one of bad taste. The DVD includes some recent interviews Kaufman conducts with Woronov and the other leading lady Lynn Lowry (later seen in George Romero's THE CRAZIES), thus giving some interesting insight in what went on during the making of this cult-favorite and a few hints of what would be different had Lloyd directed it himself. Highly recommended.

Although not a particularly good film, it is still loads better than anything Troma released in the 80's. This is the one of the first releases by Troma, a few years after the laughable "The Battle of Love's Return". Lynn Lowry plays a dual role(and cannot act in either of them) as Alta, a woman murdered by adult film-maker Max, & Julie, an actress pursued by lesbian Camila(the leggy Mary Woronov). It might have been a better film had there been better acting and if a stupid sub-plot involving Max's ex-brother-in-law had been deleted.