Cheerleaders have been a staple of American culture and sexuality since the 1950s, with nubile young girls in croptops, short skirts and pompoms performing acrobatic routines as the face of whatever sporting team they represent. This October, I went to my third NFL game at Wembley and, just as on TV, the cheerleaders at the game were incredibly attractive, athletically gifted and trained, so I can easily see their appeal.

There were three Cheerleaders films in the 1970s: The Cheerleaders, Revenge of the Cheerleaders and The Swinging Cheerleaders which were released by Anchor Bay in the US in 2003. Several years ago, two of these, The Cheerleaders and Revenge of the Cheerleaders, were released on DVD by Arrow Films in The Cheerleaders Box Set and are now re-released in the 'erotic' section of the ArrowDrome label.

The first I heard of The Cheerleaders was when the trailer appeared on the Grindhouse Trailer Classics 2 disc, accompanied by all sorts of weird and wonderful films as Don’t Answer the Phone, Sister Street Fighter and The Black Gestapo. In the midst of all these violent and bizarre exploitation films, the trailer for The Cheerleaders seemed a little incongruous, but seemed fairly sleazy and amusing, perfect for a 'Grindhouse' movie.

The Cheerleaders begins with two of the senior and more 'outgoing' girls looking for a new member of the team – one that won’t end up in the maternity ward – and, upon learning that Jeannie, a loner girl is, shock-horror, a virgin, they conspire to get her on the team with her chastity as a wager between the two girls. If she keeps it for the season, one of them must sleep with the perverted old janitor and if she loses it then the other has to sleep with Norm, the braindead equipment manager. Whatever happens to Jeannie, one of the senior cheerleaders is in for an experience she won't forget in a hurry!

Now, this isn’t much of a story and is particularly strange considering these aren’t even college girls, they’re still at high school so the third act involves an orgy an Jeannie’s house where the cheerleaders sleep with the whole football team, knackering them out and ensuring that they can’t play properly the next day. The ingenious solution is to find the opposing team’s roster and sleep their way through that as well! The age situation was more or less tackled in the US where the film was released under the title The 18 year old Schoolgirls but, in terms of age, this really isn't that different to more contemporary films like American Pie.

Strangely, the film seems quite progressive as it depicts statutory rape of men by women, with many of the men and high school football players almost forced into sex against their will. It clearly shows women as predatory sexual animals, content to use their bodies to achieve their own ends no matter who they must screw for the good of their football team and, when (inevitably) Jeannie loses her virginity for the good of the team, it isn't at 'the right time with the right person', but at a time which suits her and on her own grounds and is treated as a cause for celebration, not only for her but also for the the cheerleaders.

Richard Lerner, the Director of Photography on the first Cheerleaders film, revisited the franchise three years later with an even flimsier script. The film revolves around the out-of-control cheerleading squad at Aloha High, whose behaviour has drawn the attention of the school board who consider the only solution to be a merger with the preppy Lincoln Vocational, their arch-rivals.

What happens from here on in doesn’t really follow a coherent narrative, but a series of tenuously related scenes such as the school inspectors getting high on spiked spaghetti sauce, a ridiculously foamy shower and a Scooby-Doo-like chase scene around a huge model dinosaur. It also includes one of David Hasselhoff’s first screen appearances – his first feature film – as the star basketball player and I can imagine the shower scenes in which he’s involved will get some attention and playback for novelty value.

The subplot about members of the school board trying to line their pockets by manipulating the merger in order to get rich from a property deal is almost neither here nor there until late in the third act when the cheerleaders realise what has really been going on and are determined to keep the two schools separate and ensure there is no property deal.

Having now watched the two films, is it worthy of the company it has on the Grindhouse Trailer Classics DVD? As there is practically no attempt at good taste, reasonable acting (Stephanie Fondue, who plays Jeannie was a nude model at the time) or a script that gives a damn about good story-telling, but plenty of naked jailbait and some pretty uncomfortable scenes, played for laughs, but basically showing attempted rape and statutory rape in various guises. This may be looking back at a different era with a more cynical eye, but what else are you to make of Jeannie’s initiation where she has to take a shower in the boys’ locker room and the football players know exactly what’s going on (“New cheerleader” one says to another with a wink) and she just about escapes from a gang rape.

Morals aside, The Cheerleaders is amusing if only because it is so outrageous: Jeannie is told to dress sexily by putting on some clothes she had when she was twelve and were adorning her teddy bear. (Somehow they fit very well.) There’s also the obvious joke of her boyfriend working at the Beaver Car Wash where you get a choice of Big Beaver or Little Beaver Wash. I think the best character is Jeannie's dad, a shallow lecherous man who is quite happy ogling the half naked teenager in his garden until he realises it's his daughter!

Revenge of the Cheerleaders is less funny and involving, with less nudity and less going on (if that were possible). The subplot of property dealing amongst the school board by trying to get Aloha High shut down sits uneasily with such low-brow entertainment but seeing a gangly Hoff as the star basketball player and school stud makes the film well worth a watch.

The Discs

Extra Features

The supplementary material on The Cheerleaders disc is a trailer for the film, plus a radio spot, with Revenge... containing a couple of trailers, several radio spots and a TV spot. These are all quite amusing and well worth watching/listening to, if only to see how the films were marketed.

Making up for the lack of extra material on the discs is a fine booklet in the set containing witty, informative and nostalgic writing (Pom-poms and pleated skirts: Cheerleaders in the heyday of the Teenage Sex Comedy) by Robin Bougie , an expert on all things sleazy, and a reversible sleeve, with new artwork on one side and an American poster on the other.

The two films are on separate discs which are securely housed in an Amaray with Revenge of the Cheerleaders in the 'usual place' and The Cheerleaders disc attached to a swinging insert.

The Picture

It seems unlikely these films were recorded on the best film stock available and with top of the range equipment. Additionally, they probably haven’t been cared for in the same manner as you would with a cinematic masterpiece in the past 30+ years but they are, after all, cheap exploitation skin flicks, so a bit of grain and dirt almost adds to the charm!

Unlike some 'grindhouse' films, these don't look as if the negatives have been on a spin watch with some gravel as the level of print damage is minimal and the grain is naturalistic and, thankfully hasn't been removed through an overuse of DNR, so all the fine detail is there.

The quality differs throughout the films with some scenes looking better than those that preceded (and succeed) them and some increases in grain and reduction in clarity occurs almost at random, but that’s par for the course with this sort of film. Contrast levels, colours and (perhaps most importantly) skin tones are all very good so the detail levels stay high throughout the films.

Having the films on separate discs no doubt helps ensure the discs have the best possible encoding and weren't compressed to fit on a single DVD 9. He is as if

The Sound

Like the picture, there’s nothing to write home about, which proves the Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack is doing exactly what it's been asked to do. Dialogue comes across clearly and there is no need for subtitles (which aren't there anyway) unless you are hard of hearing.

It seems the budget didn't stretch to much in the way of source music, so the action is accompanied by a bizarrely funky and almost blaxploitation soundtrack on the first film, duplicated to a lesser extent in Revenge... On paper, this sounds like a bad match that actually works very well and adds to the exploitation theme.

There isn't much in the way of complicated sound design, but there’s plenty of moaning and orgasmic outbursts which are never inappropriate and come across quite clearly and the dialogue is clear enough in both films.

Final Thoughts

Neither Cheerleaders movie will gain widespread fame or nostalgia – certainly the strange sexual politics don't help – but there probably are fans of low-brow to no-brow bawdy sex comedies who’ll get a kick out of these even if they are far less accomplished that the Porky’s movies and that’s saying something! Saying that, I don't count myself as a fan of ' low-brow to no-brow bawdy sex comedies', but I like these films – particularly the first – for what they are: unpretentious, deliberately sleazy and occasionally quite funny and, for that reason, I can see them becoming cult exploitation/sexploitation movies.

If you haven't seen them before or have seen and enjoyed the trailer, this well priced set is certainly worth picking up – the pink spine will look good when lined up with the other genre-coloured ArrowDrome titles.

The Cheerleaders Trailer

Special Features:

Bonus film: Revenge of the Cheerleaders
Trailers
TV and Radio Spots
Reversible sleeve
Booklet by Robin Bougie

Cast

Stephanie Fondue

Denise Dillaway

Jovita Bush

Brandy Woods

Clair Dia

Kimberly Hyde

Richard Meatwhistle

Jonathan Jacobs

Raoul Hoffnung

Patrick M. Wright

Crew
Director:	Paul Glickler
Writers:	Paul Glickler Richard Lerner Tad Richards Ace Baandige
Music:	David Herman
Editors:	Joseph Ancore Paul Glickler Richard Lerner
Director of Photography:	Richard Lerner