Sugar Cookies (1973)
7/10
Fans of Mary Woronov and Lynn Lowry should dig this one.
17 August 2014
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.
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