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Released by: Troma
Released on: 6/29/2004
Director: Theodore Gershuny
Cast: Lynn Lowry, Mary Woronov, George Shannon
Year: 1973
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The Movie:
Team up two seventies cult movie hotties and pair them off as 'the kind of ladies who like ladies' in a sleazy and semi-twisted revenge tale revolving around an adult filmmaker and you're getting close to the heart and soul of Theodore Gershuny's Sugar Cookies, co-written by Gurshuny and Troma head honcho Lloyd Kaufman.
A sleaze merchant named Max (George Shannon) is doing the hokey pokey with an adult film actress named Alta (Lynn Lowry) when things get a little out of hand in the kink department and he ends up shooting her in the head. Alta had a lesbian lover in the form of Camilla (Mary Woronov) who has also been playing around with Max on the side. Camilla tells the police that Max was with her the entire night, essentially letting him off the hook for any involvement in Alta's death.
Max has some explaining to do to his wife (Monique Van Vooren) about the whole affair, and she's understandably unhappy about the way things have turned out. Meanwhile Camilla is auditioning new actresses to bring into the industry and comes across a woman who might as well be Alta's long lost twin sister, Julie (also played by Lynn Lowry). Camilla takes Julie under her wing and brings her into the world of nude modeling, filmmaking, and girl on girl hi-jinks. Camilla has other, hidden agendas on her mind however, and Julie just might be the puppet in her ultimate plan for revenge on Max. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, after all.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Troma's fullframe transfer is one of their better efforts. There is some mild print damage and a fine coat of grain covering the entire affair but colors remain reasonably well defined and there's a nice level of detail present throughout the movie. Black levels do tend to get a tad muddy in a few scenes and there is some mild edge enhancement but there aren't any issues with mpeg compression. Flesh tones look lifelike and natural and the overall quality of this transfer is quite decent.
The English Dolby Digital Mono track is fine with only a few scenes containing some mild hiss in the background. Dialogue is clean and consistent and the background music and sound effects levels are mixed properly into the soundscape.
The two best extras on this release are the candid interviews that Kaufman conducts with the two female leads, Mary Woronov and Lynn Lowry. Woronov relates her experiences and hesitations in front of the camera given the subject material and outright denies Kaufman's odd insinuations of real life lesbianism on her part. Lowry relates here, as she has in other print interviews, how she wasn't really too keen on the idea of shedding it all for the camera so often in the film and both have interesting anecdotes about the films director, Theodore Gurshuny. There's also an introduction from Lloyd, as there seems to be for all Troma releases - thankfully here he's a little more serious and actually has some interesting information to relate about the film on the disc rather than just goofing off in his usual style. Rounding out the extra features are the film's theatrical trailer, the Purple Pam music video that has found its way onto all the recent Troma discs, and two Troma public service announcements.
The Final Word:
Sleazy and compelling, Sugar Cookies is sexy, steamy and intriguing and while Troma's DVD isn't the most amazing on a technical level, it's currently the best way to catch this unsung gem.