"Lipstick" is what might be described as a glamour film about rape. Its victim is a beautiful, hugely successful photographers' model, played by Margaux Hemingway, in real life a beautiful, hugely successful photographers' model who also happens to be Ernest's granddaughter.

The rapist (Chris Sarandon) is a young man who composes avant-garde music and worships the works of another avant-garde composer, identified in the film as Sean Gage. Sean Gage? I'm sure that's what he says, though why "Lipstick" hesitates to drop the name of John Cage, I've no idea.

It's certainly not because "Lipstick" is too discreet. It is, however, anti-intellectual in the ways that B movies always have been. The message of "Lipstick," if I read it right, is less about the physical and legal vulnerability of women than about the sexual hang-ups of eccentric young men who compose music with synthesizers and laser beams. The movie's subliminal message: Bring back the clavichord.

"Lipstick," which opened yesterday at the Loews State 2 and Loews Cine Theaters, was written by David Rayfiel and directed by Lamont Johnson ("The Groundstar Conspiracy," "The Last American Hero"), a shrewd, knowledgeable but not very interesting director, who is touted for his fearless way with controversial subjects. "Lipstick" is occasionally violent and crude, and about as controversial as the March of Dimes.

The film appears to take rape seriously, though — the kind of rape in which the victim, who hasn't been permanently injured, must overcome the prejudices of a society that always suspects that such a rape victim got what she asked for. The only time "Lipstick" is believable is during the trial sequence when Anne Bancroft, appearing as the ferociously determined lawyer for the victim, presents the case not only for Miss Hemingway, but also for all women. It's almost like a training film, but it is effective.

For a little while, anyway. "Lipstick's" heart belongs to an earlier, simpler time. It's no accident, I think, that the heroine is presented as a good Roman Catholic with a priest for a brother. We thus know she is a good girl. Neither is it an accident that the rapist is a composer of what the movie clearly believes to be crackpot music, and that the climactic sequence—a second, even more vicious rape — occurs in a modern glass and steel building that, in a film like this, could be the architectural equivalent to "Sean Gage" music.

Mr. Johnson treats Miss Hemingway very gingerly. She's not much of an actress yet, and there are times he seems to be protecting her by cutting away to other actors, when one would expect the camera to stay on her. Mr. Sarandon, who won an Oscar nomination for his small but effective role in "Dog Day Afternoon," does as well as can be expected with the role of the rapist.

The revelation of "Lipstick" is another Hemingway, first name Mariel, Margaux's 14-year-old sister, who plays her sister in the film. As the chief witness to the events within the movie, and its ultimate victim, she gives an immensely moving, utterly unaffected performance that shows up everything else as a calculated swindle.

The Cast
LIPSTICK, directed by Lamont Johnson; screenplay by David Rayfiel; produced by Freddie Fields; director of photography, Bill Butler; music, Michael Polnareff; editor, Marion Rothman; a Dino De Laurentils presentation, distributed by Paramount Pictures. Running time: 90 minutes. At Loews State 2 Theater, Broadway at 45th Street, and Loews Cine Theater, Third Avenue near 86th Street. This film has been rated R.
Chris McCormick . . . . . Margaux Hemingway
Carla Bondi . . . . . Anne Bancroft
Gordon Stuart . . . . . Chris Sarandon
Steve Edison . . . . . Perry King
Nathan Cartright . . . . . Robin Gammell
Martin McCormick . . . . . John Bennett Perry
Kathy McCormick . . . . . Mariel Hemingway
Francesco . . . . . Francesco
Sister Margaret . . . . . Meg Wylie
Sister Monica . . . . . Inga Swenson