Sweet Sugar (1972)

Wow! Such a good movie.

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Blistering performances.

SWEET SUGAR is a cheap and derivative women-in-prison movie that seems to have been released to ride a wave of similar produce. This one introduces the main character, Sugar, in a brief set-up scene in which she's arrested as part of a drugs sting and sent to a rural prison "somewhere or other" where she forms part of a chain gang. Meanwhile, the women must deal with in-fighting amongst themselves, the machinations of the cruel guards, and the sadistic experiments of a mad doctor.It all sounds very exciting and exploitational and yet it's really rather cheap and slapdash, just like Michel Levesque's other B-movie, WEREWOLVES ON WHEELS. Levesque seems interested in shooting a skin flick and a skin flick alone, so there's plenty of topless and rear nudity here but not much else in the way of suspense, tension, or violence.I didn't mind Phyllis Davis too much as the lead. She's a top-heavy starlet clearly cast for her physique rather than acting ability, but she distinguishes herself quite well and there's something about her more than the usual bimbo actress. One of the most interesting things about the production are the authentically sweaty Costa Rican locations. Bizarrely, there are hints at voodoo in the narrative too, Timothy Brown playing a hilarious priest character who seeks to help the women. This isn't a film for cat lovers either. However, the resolutely plodding narrative mainly consists of escape and capture over and over again, and the air of familiarity means that this is a film only for sympathetic lovers of the genre.

Following in the genre-setting footsteps of Jack Hill's The Big Doll House (1971), Sweet Sugar is a formulaic Women in Prison movie from Werewolves on Wheels (1971) director Michel Levesque. Busty prostitute Sugar (Phyllis Davis) is set up for marijuana possession by a corrupt politician, and is thrown into a Costa Rican prison. She is given the opportunity to be moved to the sugar plantation in exchange for a confession, where she meets the various feisty inmates, including Simone (Ella Edwards). Amongst the male guards, there is hustler Max (Albert Cole) who is trying to get his young friend Ric (James Houghton) laid, and the tyrannical and sadistic Burgos (Cliff Osmond), all overlooked by the creepy Dr. John (Angus Duncan). The girls' hopes are raised upon the arrival of voodoo priest Mojo (Timothy Brown), who uses his powers in black magic to help set them free.If you're a fan of WiP movies, then Sweet Sugar, if anything, ticks all the boxes. We have shower scenes, boobs (naturally), topless flogging, ketchup-red blood, rapey guards, a filming location where filming is cheap, torture, a sassy black chick, and explosions. Where it stands out is in the sheer insanity of certain scenes, namely Angus Duncan's ridiculously over-the-top Dr. John, who performs orgasm torture experiments on his subjects, and some drugged angry cats. Duncan camps it up so ludicrously that the mundanity of the rest of the film becomes redundant enough to get some enjoyment out of it. Davis has the chesty charm of a Russ Meyer lead (and also starred in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)), but she's no Pam Grier, and the film's quirkiness soon wears thin, as it plods from one familiar scene to the next. It's not quite as dull as most WiP movies, but it's still a pretty bad film that offers nothing new to the genre.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

If you're a fan of 70's era WIP films, this is clearly one of the best in the genre. Free-spirited, big-busted Sugar Bowman (Phyllis Davis) is framed for drug possession by one of her sleazy lovers and is then shipped off to a Costa Rican sugar cane plantation to do hard labor for a couple of years. There she meets some of barely-dressed fellow sisters-in-crime, including feisty prostitute Simone (Ella Edwards), rich-bitch-murderess-in-hiding Fara (Jacqueline Giroux) and naive underage blonde Dolores (Pamela Collins). As if the long hours, lousy pay, exhausting work and leering guards weren't bad enough, the ladies also have to deal with pervert prison camp director Dr. John's (Angus Duncan) various sadistic and degrading "experiments." One involves shooting them up with an aphrodisiac, and another involves heaving domesticated cats (given a special serum to make them rabid) at them! When the girls are pushed too far, they decide to overthrow the plantation and escape. SWEET SUGAR is a great 70s exploitation/drive-in flick that manages to amuse, entertain and basically hit all the right notes for one of these things. It's full of witty one-liners, action, violence, some mild lesbianism, whipping, obligatory topless scenes from all of the female stars, a great break-out finale featuring machine guns and explosions and an incredible theme song I just can't get out of my head. Hell, even some cannibalism, voodoo and gore are thrown in for good measure. Most of the actors give it their all and deliver fun and lively performances. Davis and Edwards are spirited heroines. Duncan is hilariously OTT as the mad scientist. There are also amusing turns by Cliff Osmond as the most sadistic guard (playing it straight to good effect) and Albert Cole as a comic hustler trying to get his dimwitted friend Ric (James Houghton) laid. Also appearing in roles are blaxploitation star Timothy Brown as Mojo, a male prisoner at an adjacent facility, and THE HILLS HAVE EYES star James Whitworth as another guard.Though released on VHS about half-a-dozen times under multiple titles (CHAIN GANG GIRLS, CAPTIVE WOMEN 3, etc.) over the years, this has become somewhat hard to find these days. I'd love to see a DVD release sometime soon.

Feisty prostitute Sugar (a winningly brash and spunky performance by statuesque brunette stunner Phyllis Davis) gets busted on a trumped-out marijuana possession charge and has to serve two years hard labor cutting sugar cane at a harsh prison plantation farm. The wicked and deranged warden Dr. John (a deliciously hammy portrayal of pure eye-rolling cackling evil by Angus Duncan) grossly mistreats the inmates by subjecting them to all kinds of twisted and inhumane medical experiments. Naturally, Sugar and several other ladies plot to escape from this dismal hellhole. Director Michel Levesque and screenwriter Don Spencer load this satisfyingly seamy potboiler with all the right trashy grindhouse stuff: we've got a constant snappy pace, a handy helping of tasty female nudity, rape, hot babes in tight tank tops and skimpy cut-off shorts, a couple of obligatory shower scenes, degradation, torture (Dr. John locks a bunch of trouble-making gals in a room with a gaggle of ferocious rabid felines!), a catfight, and a rousing last reel break-out set piece. Moreover, the cast of familiar B-movie faces have a field day with their juicy roles: Ella Edwards as the sassy Simone, Cliff Osmond as the mean and sadistic captain Burgos, Timothy Brown as affable voodoo-practicing convict Mojo, Pamela Collins as sweet, vulnerable teenager Dolores, James Whitworth as brutish guard Mario, Albert Cole as likable contraband dealer Max, and James Houghton as lovably dim-witted lunkhead Ric. Gabriel Torres' reasonably slick cinematography gives the picture an attractive bright look. Don Gere's groovy, swinging score and the funky, syncopated theme song both hit the soulful spot. A pleasingly scuzzy and spirited piece of blithely low-rent junk.