The Cheerleaders

Cum and huddle.

If you were to introduce someone to the sexploitation genre  I think today's entry would definitely be the proper choice. The Cheerleaders, (UK theatrical title: The 18 Year Old Schoolgirls) is a 1973 comedy film directed by Paul Glickler and starring Stephanie Fondue and Denise Dillaway. The film's success spawned a series of sequels during the 1970's.

The film courted controversy due to its plot and subject matter: the titular cheerleaders are seen seducing, amongst others, the football coach, a female gym coach, and the school bus driver. There was also female on male rape when the cheerleaders kidnap and then have sex with the members of the opposing football team the night before the big game. In areas where the age of consent was 18 at the time, or where the laws on consent prohibited under-18s having sex with over-18s, there was controversy over statutory rape.

Re-releases of the film have been renamed as "The Eighteen Year Old Schoolgirls" in some regions, presumably so as to remove at least part of that particular controversy, as the exact age of the girls was never stated within the film.

Yeah, right.

I see where this is going.

The plot was--well, let's be serious here--nonexistent, but the campy nature of the movie won me over. I immediately thought of "Night Calls: The Movie" and its sequel when I watched this film. Then again, it reminded me of "Debbie Does Dallas", without the real sex scenes.

The story is elementary--a group of cheerleaders....um....er, what are they doing again? I'm sorry, another one of them just had sex with a football player, or in a guy's car while the car is in the car wash, or a guy wearing nothing but a jockstrap...etc. This was what a cheerleader movie was supposed to be, guys. A bunch of horny girls having sex with anything remotely resembling a man.

The central character is a youngish looking girl looking to lose her virginity. The other girls look at her in shock. The rest of the movie follows her exploits as she looks to "make it" with a guy for the first time.

These girls like to show off.

I'll give you a free burger but...

If someone dares question the acting quality I tell you, these girls make no attempt to be actresses; in fact, I thought this was a porno when the film started (better yet, I actually thought I was watching "Debbie Does Dallas"). The guys in this flick are all looking to get laid (We all are, aren't we?), and our faithful cheerleaders happily obliged them. What was their big scheme right before the big football game? To sleep with as many players on the other team as possible in order to tire them out. If only my old high school cheerleading squad was THAT accommodating, maybe we would have won the state championship.

I watched the other Cheerleaders movies before this (..Swinging & Revenge) and expected this would be tame in comparison..boy was I in for a surprise. This movie is essentially a series of executed fantasies. Down through time most or many of us have pondered the idea of making sweet love to a cheerleader. While I found myself particularly uncomfortable watching a girl sitting up in the lap of a much older, grinning-from-ear-to-ear bus driver(..missing some teeth), as he attempts to keep from hitting cars parked in the neighborhood, or the scene where a middle-aged father gets the ride of his life, seemingly in heavenly bliss, these are obvious dreams come true, printed to celluloid. We even get a lesbian encounter between Patty(Kimberly Hyde)and her cheerleader coach. The Cheerleaders is another exploitation feature which perfectly embodies the uninhibited spirit thriving during this decade after the summer of love overflowed it's sexually free ways, spilling into the 70's. The girls seem absolutely fine in shedding their clothes at any given moment.. Especially tasteless fare, directed and acted embracing the joyous nature of love-less sex. Yeah, I enjoyed it. The camera spends a great amount of time observing the cheerleader squad's derrière, and we often get long pans up and down their bodies. The uniforms are ridiculously short (..thanks guys!) so that even when they aren't naked, they might as well be. 

Lesbian workout.

Yeehaw!

If we had to discuss the importance of The Cheerleaders, we'd had to say 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.  

Despite the frequent sex, the movie is overall light and innocent. A lot of the comedy arises from the sex scenes which is sort of unique. Usually in these films the sex scenes are played straight and/or romantic and the sthick is in the rest of the film. Here, sex is part of the sthick and because of that it mixes into the movie a whole lot better.

The burger guy gets his meat.

The heyday of pubes was the 70's.

It's also unusual to have female nudity played for laughs. The rule of thumb in these movies is that male nudity is funny (like in Porkys or Private Resort)and female nudity is sexy. In this movie, female nudity is played for laughs at least a couple times.

Slapstick, sexual slapstick, goofy premise, total reality disconnect, pre PC freedom, impossibly short cheerleader skirts, this movie has it all.

What it also has is a leading lady who's cute with a capital CUTE. Willowy Stephanie Fondue plays Jeannie, a girl who is desperate to lose her virginity but whenever she tries, something goes wrong. That's where the suspension of disbelief begins and you'll have to keep it all through the film. Especially when the cheerleaders come up with their grand plan of helping their team win by tiring out the opposing team in a... er... special way.

Shower that muffin'  girl!

Cum explosion!

This is a classic for the Joe Bob Briggs set, of which I am a part(Yes, I love the real classics, I love the high minded films but I love these type of movies too... so shoot me).

It's also full of ephemeral details like see through water beds, shag walls and pictures of teen stars in the lockers I can't recognize. It's a trip!

The girls playing the cheerleaders did not have Oscars looming over their heads but they were appealing and often showed decent comic timing.

You are most likely to find this film on video edited to an R(the earliest video release was not edited. I've seen both). The original version, while not pornographic, would no doubt get an NC-17 today. I don't know if it was originally released as an X rating, unrated or if it did indeed squeak by with an "R" rating because of the MPAA's looser latitude on sex in films back then.

Fully satisfied cum swallowing cheerleader.

So, for those of you that liked "American Pie" and all those other recent so called sexploitation movies, rent this movie and see how much more fun these type of movies were when they were less self conscious to getting a particular MPAA rating or to treading (but not crossing) "the line" and much more "Hey! This is going to be wild! Let's have fun with this!". 

Here's the movie trailer: