The Cheerleaders (1973)

What a waste of my time!!!

Memorable, crazy movie

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Blistering performances.

Jeannie (the improbably named "Stephanie Fondue") wants to be come a cheerleader and luckily for her, there is an opening. (The first of many openings featured in this film.) She wants to become a cheerleader because she is a virgin (this is improbable) and no teenage boys will have sex with her (this is even more improbable). Luckily for her, she's friends with most of the cheerleader squad, so they help her, and besides that, the head cheerleader wants their new member to be a virgin. (???) Then lots of stuff happens, mostly involving girls getting naked. I don't like this film despite the truly heroic amount of nudity in it for a couple of reasons. First, almost all of the nudity involves people groping at each other with an improbably feral intensity while unflattering body parts occupy the middle of the frame. If you have never seen sex before and watch this film, you will come out of the experience convinced that it's a truly unpleasant experience. Second, the film has a less coherent narrative than "Un Chien Andalou". While many of the actresses in this film seem to have been around the block far too many times for comfort, Ms. Fondue is a real cutey and the highlight of the film. This is the only film she ever made. It turns out she is really Enid Finnbogason from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Small world!

It's Fall, which means football season as well as back-to-school. It also means cheerleaders for both whether in high school or college. So I'm reviewing movies featuring high school cheerleaders for the occasion starting with this one which was a drive-in staple for '73. A personal note: during my high school years, I had a massive crush on one as I saw her blossom from 5th grade on up but I never got anywhere with her though I had some fond memories of dancing with her and occasionally talking to her. Anyway, this was quite a sexy movie to watch back in the late '80s when I rented the VHS tape from Blockbuster. I just saw it again on YouTube and saw one scene there that I remember was cut for the VHS one. It was the scene where the red-headed girl was having sex with the hamburger stand boy as this version was allowed to play to the end on YT as opposed to the one from Blockbuster which only briefly played the beginning of that scene. While I'm not surprised this was originally rated X, I was surprised this was really allowed at Blockbuster as they didn't allow such rated films there! (This one did have the 18+ classification on the label so children weren't allowed to rent this without an adult present) Nice twist having the janitor being some kind of loan shark for the class pimp (I think that's what he's supposed to be, I don't know). I'm guessing some of the girls didn't use their real names when appearing in this since they're credited as Stephanie Fondue, Jovita Bush, and Denise Dillaway! (I guess two of those names are real, I don't know.) Anyway, this was quite silly and very unbelievable concerning the plot but, hey, it's a nice fantasy for any male who'd love to make it with a cheerleader...

You've gotta love Seventies soft-core. Before Internet or home video, you had to make actual movies to get this stuff out. Not great production value, but shot on film instead of videotape. No shortage of nudity or simulated sex. And the girls... Stephanie Fondue and a couple of others were cute but not gorgeous. Denise Dillaway and Jovita Bush were beautiful. Nowadays women in this sort of film would all have triple-D mounds of silicon, toned muscular limbs, and washboard abs. These gals look so much better with natural boobies, large or not, round hineys and soft bellies. Women as God made them. You can tell this was made some time ago, due to the non-PC scenarios of these teen-age high school students constantly having sex with adult men, including coaches at their school, and friends' fathers. A huge no-no nowadays. Anyway, worth checking out if you know what you're in for; silly campy dialog, marginal acting, and ridiculous situations calling for seriously slutty cheerleaders.

This film was a precursor to the teen sex comedy genre that would become popular a decade later. However, the difference between this film and the latter films is that at least the kids that were in those films would go on to become some of the finest actors that would ever grace the silver and small screens. These bimbos probably think The Actors Studio is an apartment house in west Hollywood. Also, I'm surprised that this film didn't get an X instead of an R. I guess, the fact that no genitalia was shown saved it because there were enough bare breasts in this turkey to make even Russ Meyer blush.