Sweet Sugar

Thanks to a friend I used to work with at a local video store, we had weekend contests to see who could find the Most Gawd-Awful Movie to play on the monitors...something so bad that it would stop the customers in their tracks from shock and disbelief. He thought he'd won with this hysterically bad gem, starring the amply endowed Phyllis (VEGA$) Davis as a horny free spirit, who gets spirited away to a prison/sugar cane colony in the middle of God-knows-where, after the local 'policia' frame her on a phony drug charge.

Covering all the bases, from mad-scientist flicks, women-in-prison movies, Seventies soft-core porn and badly made action flicks shot overseas on the cheap, it even throws in a little blackexploitation vibe with the faaaabulous presence of Ella Edwards. Cliff Osmond and Angus Duncan commit thespian thievery every chance they get, and Duncan seems to have popped in a set of steel dentures, as he gives every scene he's in a good going-over, like a fresh pack of Wrigley's.

The surefire way to know if you will love or hate this movie, is to find it under its original title and not any of the other name-changed versions. Because SWEET SUGAR may be the only version that contains that howler of a theme song, which sounds like the L.A. band X going on a HUGE acid-and-tequila bender in some South-of-the-Border dive bar, crossed with The Mamas and The Papas on Zoloft. If the priceless opening number doesn't do it for ya, you either need to switch to an actual film that has some tangible artistic value, or do what we did, and continue the quest to find the All-Time Worst Film on the shelf.

(In case you're wondering, BTW, I won the Contest after picking BLOOD ORGY OF THE SHE-DEVILS.)

Sweet Sugar (1972)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Sugar (Phyllis Davis) is a prostitute that plays by her own rules but she's set-up for a drug charge and sent to work in the fields cutting cane. She strikes up a friendship-rivalry with Simone (Ella Edwards) and it doesn't take long for them to realize Dr. John (Angus Duncan) is a sexual psychopath.

SWEET SUGAR is yet another exploitation film that takes place inside a prison and features a lot of beautiful women being abused by a lot of not-so-beautiful men and of course there's the wicked leader calling all of the shots. There were so many different WIP (women in prison) movies being made during this period that you really needed to have something that set your film apart from the others. When you look at the genre as a whole, it would get much more darker and more brutal when various European director's starting making films like BARBED WIRE DOLLS.

How does SWEET SUGAR stand up? Sadly, it's a pretty boring affair and unless you're a completest for the genre then you can just stay away from this. The biggest problem with this movie is that it wants to play the game of a WIP movie but there's no indication that the screenplay or direction knew what to do. On a technical level the film looks nice and it's better made than a lot in the genre but the biggest issue is that it's downright boring and this is never a good thing for an exploitation movie.

The screenplay offers up a checklist of things that you might find in a film like this but there's nothing entertaining about it. Everything on display here has been done better in movies made before this and after it so you're basically just watching a watered down version of something you've seen too many times. There's nothing erotic about the sex scenes. There's nothing overly graphic with the violence. Yeah, there's a couple lesbians kissing and there are some beautiful women naked but everything going on around them is just boring.

Director Michel Levesque directed WEREWOLVES ON WHEELS the year before and I wasn't overly fond of that film either. The movie is just way too boring for its own good and it just doesn't stand out in a crowded genre.

Quality-wise "Sweet Sugar" is standard Women-In-Prison (though the setting is not exactly a prison, but a sugar cane plantation) fare, but it does make an effort to distinguish itself from the pack by mixing broad comedy (the heroine is injected with a drug that turns her on so much that she causes the machine she is connected to to explode!), sadistic violence (including involuntary cannibalism!), supernatural elements (one of the male prisoners knows voodoo and talks to "the spirits"), and just plain weirdness (coming mostly in the form of "the doctor", a creepy nutcase who like to perform "experiments" on the girls just for kicks). Phyllis Davis and Ella Edwards are both strong and attractive heroines, though not quite at the level of, say, Pam Grier and Margaret Markov. The film looks rather good, but it does not flow very well from scene to scene, and the sexy parts as well as the action parts are too short to satisfy. Worth a look for Phyllis and Ella. (**)

One of a slew of Women In Prison (WIP) exploitation flicks hurriedly lensed after Jack Hill's hugely successful "The Big Doll House" mopped up at the box office for Roger Corman. This one's fairly typical of the subgenre, delivering the WIP formula of nudity and sadism in well measured doses.

It's only notable features are an early writing effort by Stephanie "Terminal Island" Rothman and a truly over-the-top performance by Angus Duncan. He plays Dr. John, the demented warden of the sugar cane plantation to which Phyllis Davis is sentenced, with a hammy verve rarely seen today.

Also slightly notable is the 'cat tossing' scene which, IMOHO, wins the all-time award for "Worst Abuse of an Animal to Set Up A Stupid Visual Pun." Otherwise, "Sweet Sugar" is pretty much every WIP flick you've ever seen.

This used to be a regular on USA Up All Night, back when Gilbert and Rhonda were still hosting. Phyllis Davis is really gorgeous in a Russ Meyer kind of way (if you don't know what I mean, go rent a Russ Meyer film and you'll understand). It's supposed to be an action film, and is along the same lines as "Chained Fury" and "Reform School Girls". Closeups of breasts, simulated sex, etc. The acting is pretty bad, but combined with a ridiculous plot and the sexual innuendo it makes for an unintentionally hilarious film. If you've got a Saturday evening with nothing to do, invite a few pals over and rent this. You'll be laughing in no time...