Les Pulpeuses

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).

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 ****

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.

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.

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.