SUGAR COOKIES (1973)
Article 4087 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-23-2012
Directed by Theodore Gershuny
Featuring George Shannon, Mary Woronov, Lynn Lowry
Country: USA
What it is: Erotic thriller

When a pornographer kills one of his actresses during a session of erotic games, he covers up by having the actresses’s lesbian lover provide him with an alibi. However, the lover then recruits another woman to take the place of the dead actress… but to what end?

Director Theodore Gershuny directed three films, and with this one, I have now covered all three of them. The first, FOR LOVE OR MURDER, came across as a tedious art house flick. The second, SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT was a strange little horror film that had some elements of interest. This one is probably the strangest, not to mention the most ambitious, but what do you expect when two of the producers were Oliver Stone and Lloyd Kaufman (the mastermind behind Troma films)? Given this collection of talents, it may be no surprise that the movie is a combination of exploitation and art house flick; it’s full of nudity and sex (and Mary Woronov fans will not be disappointed by this one), but it’s also slow moving and somber, though very well-acted. I’m not sure why the title was chosen for this movie; it tends to make it sound saucier and more light-hearted than it is. As for the story, it’s all right, but every plot blurb I’ve seen from this movie gives away a plot point that is supposed to be a surprise near the end of the movie, and knowing this ahead of time does decrease the satisfaction of watching it somewhat. There are other problems; for example, there’s a subplot involving the pornographer’s ex-wife and overweight son that seems to be from another movie entirely. As for whether the movie is genre or not… well, it claims to be a horror movie, but it really isn’t; the closest it comes to being one is that the pornographer isn’t particularly sane. All in all, I’m not sure how I feel about this one; I admire some touches, dislike others, and ultimately see the movie as more of an odd curiosity than anything else.