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 ****

Adult film actress Alta (lovely Lynn Lowry) gets killed by sleazy sex movie producer Max Pavell (well played to the slimy hilt by George Shannon) while participating in a deadly psychological head game with the scuzzball. Alta's casting agent lesbian lover Camilla (a superbly chilly and calculating portrayal by Mary Woronov) befriends sweet and naive innocent Julie (also Lowry), an aspiring actress who's a dead ringer for the deceased Alta. Camilla cunningly plots to use Julie as a means to exact revenge on Max.Director Theodore Gershuny, who also co-wrote the daring and crafty script with Loyd Kaufman, boldly explores the dark and disturbing themes of deception, manipulation, and the dangerous power games arrogant and amoral adults play with each other simply because they can. Better still, Gershuny takes fine advantage of the New York City locations, neatly captures the lethally seductive seaminess of the 70's Big Apple porn underground milieu, and further tarts things up with a sly sense of spot-on stinging humor that pokes wickedly witty fun at pretentious smut peddlers with high-falutin' delusions of artistic grandeur (the audition sequence in which Camilla interviews a gaggle of pathetic no-talent wannabes in particular is a total riot). The ace acting from a bang-up cast helps a lot: Lowry really flexes her thespic muscles in a juicy dual role, Monique van Vooren vamps it up with venomous gusto as Max's bitchy ex-wife Helene, Ondine contributes a funny turn as catty homosexual Roderick, Daniel Sadur supplies amusing comic relief as tubby cross-dressing loser Gus, and Golden Age adult cinema favorite Jennifer Welles has a nice minor part as Max's kinky secretary. Hasse Wallin's pretty cinematography provides a sumptuous lush look. Kudos are also in order for Gershon Kingsley's eclectic, yet melodic score and the inspired use of the 60's girl group classic "Sally Go 'Round the Roses." As a tasty extra plus, both Lowry and Woronov bare their beautiful bodies with pleasing frequency. A superior soft-core erotic thriller.

A year before he founded Troma Studios, Lloyd Kaufman made the sexploitation offering "Sugar Cookies". And while the fact that "Sugar Cookies" is essentially a Troma movie before Troma is interesting from a historical viewpoint, the film itself is only slightly above average. As expected with this type of film, "Sugar Cookies" is thin on the plot. Here is the deal, a sleazy film producer kills an actress but makes it look like suicide. Her lesbian lover then goes out and seeks revenge. That's about it. As a general rule, sexploitation has aged the worst out of all the exploitation genres as it was superseded by the arrival of the porn film, thus rendering many films that would have been considered risqué during the 50's and 60's tame by the 70's. "Sugar Cookies" is a little better in this regard as it does contain a good deal of nudity as well as sex scenes, but it still comes across as being very tame. This wouldn't be as big of problem if this film wasn't so plagued with pacing issues. It really does creep along at a snail's pace at times. Still, there are a few things about "Sugar Cookies" I enjoyed. As far as the more exploitable elements go, the actresses in this movie are very hot and the sex and nudity is well done. As for more traditional elements go, "Sugar Cookies" is well acted and the script is better than I expected, In addition, the first 10 and last 10 minuets are well crafted and engaging, sadly however the rest of the film cannot live up to that, rendering the film above average at best. There certainly are worse sexploitation movies to watch, hell some of them are nearly unwatchable, but the genre also has better offerings as well.

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).