The film that got the whole 70's drive-in exploitation soft-core cheerleader comedy genre ball rolling -- and boy what an endearingly dippy start! The plot, such as it is, revolves around the five highly active and naughty cheerleader squad members of Amorosa High School in California who help a sweet virginal sixth new member get her cherry popped. (Interestingly enough, a majority of 70's cheerleader pictures take place in California, thereby suggesting that the Golden State was a veritable hotbed of blithely brash'n'brazen anything-goes hedonistic activity.) As usual, it's not the story that really counts; what makes this blissfully braindead affair so worthwhile are the following things: A) a nonstop barrage of eye-popping gratuitous nudity, B) an incessantly lewd'n'crude sense of humor (I loved the toe sucking gag),C) tirelessly moronic dialogue ("You look like a hag from the rag bag"),and D) an upbeat, spirited, lighthearted air that ensures that this inane beaut is a quick, peppy and most satisfying diversion.

Stephanie Fondue, Denise Dillaway, Jovita Bush, Sandy Evans, Brandy Woods and Kim Stanton are all quite cute, shapely, sexy and appealing as our titular hot young honeys -- and they happily doff their duds a lot, too. The sex scenes happen at regular intervals of roughly ten minutes and take place in an amusing assortment of unlikely places: a car wash, a fast food joint, the driver's seat of a moving school bus (!),even on somebody's front lawn. The technical credits are strictly so-so: the acting is generally flat and dreadful (top thespic honors go to Patrick Wright for his deliciously hammy turn as the lecherous macho dude football coach),plus both Paul Glicker's adequate direction and Richard Lerner's basic, scratchy cinematography (the constant use of wipes and freeze frames is lovably primitive) are merely passable at best. However, David Herman comes through loud and clear with an infectiously zippy score which alternates between eardrum-splitting fuzztone-drenched acid rock and zesty bubblegum pop slop (the too-goofy-for-words catchy theme song "I Like What You're Doing to Me" won't get out of your head for a week). Too cheerfully dopey to hate, "The Cheerleaders" rates as a very agreeable and enjoyable beginning for the admittedly slight, but always entertaining 70's cheerleader movie sub-genre.

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...

I'm actually surprised that films like "Porky's" and "American Pie" are so popular and notorious while there also exist movies like this! Watch "The Cheerleaders" ONCE and you're guaranteed to have a new 'standard' – if you can call it that – for insignificant sexploitation comedies. This is a shamelessly gratuitous and incredibly indecent comedy that makes you wonder (with great sadness) why this sort of stuff never happened to you in high-school. I never got attacked on the school bus by a horny redhead because she wanted to show her friend how to grab a guy's attention. None of my sister's hot friends never walked into my room half naked and requesting if I needed any help with masturbation, neither. What went wrong during my adolescent years?!? Anyway, the plot of "The Cheerleaders" is relatively unimportant. The girls of the Amorosa high school cheerleader team take their duties very seriously. They spend most of their days, not with studying of course, but with pom-pom practice and hanging out at the local diner to pick up hunky guys to have meaningless sex with. Young Jeannie dreams of joining the cheerleader club, as she's the last virgin in school and being a cheerleader reputedly helps to get laid. I guess losing your virginity can be the biggest and most essential mission for an intelligent and beautiful young high school girl… You can guess how the rest of the movie evolves. Jeannie narrowly has sex numerous times, but something always prevents it from happening at the very last moment, like peeping tom daddies or exploding water beds. But have no pity for poor Jeannie, as there's a great mission awaiting her on the days of the football team's most important game. The main reason why "The Cheerleaders" was (and still is) such an genuine drive-in crowd pleaser is because the film is a 100% unpretentious and ecstatic piece of entertainment. You know how this sort of films usually look like they feature a lot of playful sex and sleazy footage but eventually don't offer all that much? Well, "The Cheerleaders" completely isn't like that. There is a lot of sex, varying from sort-core to slightly-harder-core, and a whole lot of downright raunchy insinuations. All the cheerleaders look irresistibly ravishing – except for the tall blond lesbian wench who actually looked more like a transvestite – and they spend their entire screen time wearing either a very enticing cheerleader outfit or … nothing at all. The redhead is the crazy one (she has sex with the bus driver on the job),the brunette is the kinky one (sex with the coach amidst his playing tactics),the black girl is the gorgeous one and Jeannie is the one with "enough wool to knit a sweater with" ; if you know what I mean. If you ain't convinced yet, I don't know what will.