(1973)
Reviewed By-Kit Gavin Starring Mary Woronov, Lynn Lowry, Monique van Vooren and George Shannon Directed by Theodore Gershuny Released through: Troma Region 0 NTSC
Max Pavell[Shannon], an "art film director" [read softcore porn hack], whilst playing domineering mind games, involving a kinky role-play situation with a young starlet, Alta Leigh [Lowry], shoots her in the head. In order to provide Max with an alibi, Camila [Woronov], bisexual bitch and Alta’s lover, tells the police that Max was with her all evening. However Max’s wife [van Vooren] is having problems with her much younger and overweight brother, Gus, who has a fetish for dressing up in women’s nightgowns and fantasizing about sexual relations with Max. Meanwhile, Camila, is apparently seeking an actress to replace the deceased Alta, and finally finds through her auditions a young shy theatre actress called Julie Kent [Lowry again] who she gradually seduces, plays sports with, swims with, and eventually encourages to take off her clothes for her – all with Julie’s belief that this is leading to a role in a new film, to be directed by Max. Eventually Julie becomes so trusting of her relationship with Camila that the two women end up in bed together, despite Camila frightening Julie with a re-enactment of the events leading up to Alta’s death, this time with blanks in the gun. Julie falls in love with Camila so much so that she even resorts to tacit masochism to prove her love. Later, Julie, now looking a dead ringer for the dead Alta, complete with thick black curled hair, and Camilla end up in the same room and same situation as when Alta met her fate, re-enacting the situation, only to lead to a morbid and twisted conclusion.
The cast perform well in this perverse little tale. Especially the two leading actresses, Lowry in her first role, a duel role, of any real substance, having previously appeared only in a few scenes in her first feature, also for Kaufman, and as a mute in the drive in classic I Drink Your Blood. She exudes sweetness and innocence, which would become something of a trait in her early career as an actress, being unaware of her manipulation by others to their own ends. Woronov, an established actress, is splendid as the predatory Camila, and despite her apparently finding the role awkward performs professionally and really well as the butch Camila. George Shannon, despite toplining is easily overshadowed by the two leading ladies yet he plays his character well, as a slimy perverted manipulative playboy. Other supporting players roles are lmost incidental – although two of them were from the Warhol factory in New York, the eagle eyed will recognise Ondine from various Warhol factory films and Monique Van Vooren (too old to be playing Gus’ sister here) as Udo Kier’s spouse in Frankenstein (directed by Paul Morissey – another Warhol acolyte).
The film, no doubt is low budget in origin and shot fast (Lowry’s tan lines never fade) but has it’s moments of inspired directorship. It is in fact a good deal artier than it could have been, with good production values and set design (such as Max’s bizarrely furnished pad where Alta meets her death). There are moments it reaches for heights it cannot achieve, constrained by budgetary limitations, no boubt. It keeps trying to escape those origins, with gimmickry such as experimenting with soft focus, and confusion between realities, but at other times it plays like an early 70’s porno film, not least due to the plentiful (and at one point comic) nudity, mostly from the leading actresses and the occasional presence of hairy male backside, for good measure, I’m sure. Just as much, however, the film is a nice little testament to 1970’s beauty (Lowry) and kitsch (the set design, the furniture, the mood of the film). At times it plays a little slow, the film could be shorter and some of the subplot of Max’s family affairs is not really pivotal to the plot or to character development.
An introduction, which tends to drag after a while, is given by Troma’s head honcho Lloyd Kaufman (who also directed Lowry in her very first film The Battle of Love’s Return), happy with his little skin flick here, delivers some interesting factoids about the making of the film, which are expanded upon in his informal interviews with the two leading actresses – included as separate segments/extras on the dvd. Initially his introduction, although slightly exaggerating the work done on the film starts of interesting in Kaufman’s usual quirky and slightly camp style. After the first few minutes giving some background to the film (which only needs to be watched once), the discerning viewer might be advised just to jump to the next chapter (ie. the start of the feature) rather than listen pointless ramble about nothing and some very unfunny, unnecessary humor. The "behind the scenes" stuff is interesting, we learn of the original shooting title, LOVE/DEATHS. And also some of the publicity and promotional taglines which were never used, including one suggested by Kaufman’s father (who appears in the film as a lawyer). However it then descends into the bizarre and goes on for too long, cutting to some supposed lesbian Troma chicks, and finishing with Kaufman brandishing a tampon and with fake blood spitting from his mouth.
The film itself is presented full frame, and is showing signs of its age – not the exalted print which we are led to believe from the intro. No matter, it’s available at a great price and finally on DVD. The picture quality is not bad, slightly grainy though this is due to its low budget origins, and there are a few minor splices and jumps, and certainly don’t expect a clean print a la Criterion or Blue Underground (which is surprising as this is one of Troma’s earliest productions), but the audio has taken a slight hammering with hisses, pops, silent patches. Accompanying the film is a trailer – which is certainly post 1982, as references are made to performances made by the two actresses (eg. Eating Raoul with Mary Woronov and Cat People with Lynn Lowry) certainly well over a decade after the film was released to theaters.
Other extras include the aforementioned interviews with Lynn Lowry, who seems endearing but repeats for the most part her stock answers which she has given before, both on the I DRINK YOUR BLOOD dvd and in the nicely crafted little featurette on her career found on the DVD of THE CRAZIES by Blue Underground. Lowry is, for the most part, at ease with discussing the film and frank as to her feelings on the plentiful nudity and the lesbianism, however seems a little baffled by Kaufman’s approach. Lowry was to make SCORE for Radley Metzger shortly afterwards, where she looks lovelier (and better photographed) than here in Sugar Cookies, where she would show her braveness at participating in Sapphic scenes once again, this time with Claire Wilbur. Also interviewed is Woronov, who seems decidedly more awkward and less comfortable with Kaufman’s style and probing questions. Perhaps overstepping the mark, at one point Kaufman asks her about her lesbian experiences which she somewhat rebuffs with her dislike for tits and her fond memories of how the film was written with her in mind and her memories of the director. The interviews are shot with what seems like a handheld camera and with various Troma characters popping in and out of frame, which errs on the annoying. Given that Troma is a film production house, it is odd that they have chosen to shoot their interviews in such an amateur way.
As is usual with Troma’s releases, the rest of the extras are pretty pointless and just take up space on the DVD. Perhaps they are intended as sly humor to the presence of director Oliver Stone (PLATOON, THE DOORS) fame who acted as one of the producers on this film – by having a mock JFK gag ("The Single Chopstick Theory") and someone apparently searching for Oliver Stone. But, to be honest, this "gags" are nothing more than a waste of space and really just irritate. Continuing on the lesbian theme there is a music video featuring lesbian activity, some Troma-shorts (nothing to do with the film) some trailers and Troma over-promotional materials which have become a regular feature on these discs. I am all for extras and supplementary materials, even with a threadbare connection to the film (as are often found on Something Weird discs) – but unfortunately the ones which appear on Troma discs are rarely funny, rarely connected and can spoil the enjoyment of the film. A good opportunity might have been to have the two actresses, possibly the director and Kaufman talk about the film – surely Kaufman would have been full of behind the scenes stories as much as the actresses. Sadly this wasn’t followed up.
In short – an entertainingly sleazy cheaply made little sex/revenge movie and curio, great to see it out on DVD (one of Troma’s best films and better releases imho) available at such a low cost too, I’m far from grumbling. It really should have had the two interviews and the trailer, if nothing else, as all the other extras are unnecessary.
Story: 3 BITCH SLAPS Picture: 3 BITCH SLAPS Audio: 3 BITCH SLAPS Extras: 2 BITCH SLAPS Overall: 3 BITCH SLAPS Discuss this DVD or film in our forum.
