The Cheerleaders

Anybody else out there completely sick and tired of the mindless, that's not even a strong enough word, how about aggravating, sex flicks that Showtime and Cinemax pump out nowadays. Using the same 4 actresses, and the same un-interesting storyline? And I've actually come to hate the 3 effeminate actors who are in every one. It's like a non-ending, awful awful, soap opera with nudity. Soft-core cinema, has hit an all-time low. The production values are great, but the storylines and sex conjure one word - Boredom. Somehow, the modern filmmakers have managed to take the sexual appeal out of women with perfect bodies. I mean I never thought I would see the day, when a skin flick on TV late night would force an involuntary roll of the eyes and send me straight for TV Land reruns, but its really come to that. What's missing, one of the things I can nail down at least is Raunch. Yes, soft core is now politically correct if you can believe that. Almost like its women who are making these to draw in both male and female audiences, and folks it just don't work. Kudos to Showtime for digging up movies like this one. It's totally nasty and wrong, but without going hardcore, that's what's needed to push the buttons. I know there are a zillion more, because I remember them when I was a kid. I would hope they start getting some airtime. Retire the silicon sleep inducers already please, and let the producers go back to making man-hating dramas on Lifetime.

I found "The Cheerleaders" to be the best of the sexploitation films, much more entertaining than 'Flesh Gordan', 'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls', 'Fritz the Cat' The crowds really loved the picture, the laughter tended to drown out some of the following lines. Everyone left with a smile on their face. We played it to a packed house nightly. The print that we has was x-rated, though soft core. I do not believe it was a self imposed x, as the beginning of the had the MPAA X rating with the blue background preceeding the title and credits. I was operating the Star Theater in Coshocton, Ohio. We opened the film the first week of January 1974. The prosecuter saw our advance advertising and threatened to arrest us if we showed the film. I had a partner, and we first decided to 'pull' the film and got 'Lady Sings the Blues' as a backup-even changed the marquee to 'Lady Sings the Blues'. We reconsidered and called the prosecuter's bluff, showed 'The Cheerleaders', we did not get arrested. The Coshocton Tribune's lead story on 01/04/74 was 'Theater Told to Pull X Rated Feature'. We sold out in 15 minutes of opening, the film held the house record until beaten by 'The Exorcist'. We brought it back a few months later with equally good ticket sales. Why? word of mouth, it was a crowd pleaser, this was before videos, DVD's, cable was basic, the raunchy language and nudity still had shock value-especially in a small town.

The only reason I like this film is that part of it (outside shots) were done at my alma mater, Monta Vista High. In fact, when the film came out, I was too young to see it.

Our School District, anxious for the money paid for use of the school during the summer months as a setting, thought that the film was about life in high school (it was tentatively titled High School Daze) and didn't bother to read the script.

Of course, they changed the name of the school for the film, so for the Yearbook in 1973 we snuck in all sorts of references to the film that managed to slip by the faculty. I still have a copy of an ad for the film in my old yearbook.

Sometimes, it's fun to see how easily bureaucrats can be fooled.

On one hand this movie is as silly and ridiculous as so many others of its ilk. On the other, it stood apart because it went beyond the boundaries of the day's softcore films, finding a niche between them and hardcore. It reflected an "anything goes" sexual ethic of the time.

Apparently, it was too hot for many communities around the land. The local D.A. here went to a showing where he dutifully noted the number of sex acts depicted. I would have had difficulty keeping count. Nowadays it's usually seen in edited (or butchered) versions which only serve to emphasize the silliness and leave out the cheap thrills. Oh well.

This film wasn't the first to exploit the male fascination with cheerleaders but it did inspire numerous imitations and rip-offs, mostly of an inferior nature, if you can imagine that.

I've watched this film twice and I cannot think of how much more daring this film is compared to something like "American Pie". Incredibly stupid script with just horrendous attempts at acting. This film does deliver the goods. More nudity than some porn films! Could a film like this get made today? All the actress's in those late night Cinemax movies seem to have stipulations regarding their career's and I'm not sure they would do it. I tried to look up the actress's in this film and see if they went on to do anything else and a couple appeared in one or two other low budget films but none seem to make a career out of acting. I keep thinking some went into real porn under different names. Anyway, silly and fun flick really is a statement of some of the exploitation that was made in the 70's and the attitude towards nudity in film.