Sugar Cookies

• Director: Theodore Gershuny
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Thriller
• Movie Type: Erotic Thriller
• Themes: Out For Revenge, Filmmaking, Dangerous Attraction
• Release Year: 1973
• Country: US
• Run Time: 89 minutes
• MPAA Rating: R

Plot

A twisted sexual power-trip game goes too far, and adult film director Max Vavell (George Shannon) causes the violent death of his leading lady, Alta Lee (Lynn Lowry). The motion picture community is convinced that she took her own life, though Max's casting agent Camilla (Mary Woronov) knows better. Camilla and Alta had been lovers in the past, so she secretly plots an elaborate revenge. After auditioning dozens of would-be actresses, Camilla discovers a perfect lookalike for Alta in the naive, inexperienced Julie (also played by Lynn Lowry). She takes the fledgling starlet under her wing, buying her clothes, giving her acting tips, and eventually seducing her. Julie falls in love and is completely dominated by the strong-willed Camilla, who dresses her in Alta's clothes and turns Max's dark fantasies against him in a deadly freak scene. Sugar Cookies was an early production credit for both Oscar-winner Oliver Stone and Troma Entertainment honcho Lloyd Kaufman, and features supporting roles from cult figures Monique van Vooren, Ondineand Jennifer Welles. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide

Review

Fans of cult goddesses Lynn Lowry and Mary Woronov will doubtlessly be excited by their relatively explicit love scenes together, but few others will find Sugar Cookies thought-provoking or titillating in any way. This dark erotic thriller is never quite as clever as it seems to think it is, leading the viewer to a foregone conclusion that is interrupted only by pointless subplots that add nothing to the story. While the bulk of the film's mid-section is taken up with long scenes of the leading ladies romping in fields and taking baths together, unfunny comic relief is provided by a fat, teenaged cross-dresser who seems to be AWOL from some other film (most likely the work of co-writer Lloyd Kaufman, who later exhibited a similar adolescent sense of humor in trash epics like The Toxic Avenger). Also puzzling is Monique van Vooren's role as Max Vavell's ex-wife, who appears in several scenes to simply sputter and fume in frustration at his insensitivity; after watching him murder a girl in cold blood in the opening scene, further development of the character's personal shortcomings is hardly necessary. Perhaps director/co-writer Theodore Gershuny had more psychosexual matters on his mind, since every heterosexual coupling in the film is punctuated with bloodshed (and in one early scene, contrasted with an autopsy), and even the lesbian relationship is no more than a vampiric power game. If there's a point to this dim view of sexual dynamics, it's lost not so much in sensationalism, but in the pedestrian plotting and haphazard structure upon which it's displayed. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide

Cast

Maureen Byrnes - Dola; Lynn Lowry - Alta/Julie; Monique Van Vooren - Helene; Jennifer Welles - Max's Secretary; Mary Woronov - Camila; George Shannon - Max

Credit

Theodore Gershuny - Director, Oliver Stone - Executive Producer

Similar Movies

Vertigo; Blow Out; Dressed to Kill; The Player

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