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After a long hot summer, it's back to school for the students of Rosedale High, where an impending football game against arch rivals Hardin leads to a series of high-spirited pranks carried out by Rosedale's star players Jesse and Johnnie (Michael Mullins and Robert Carradine) and members of the sexy cheer-leading squad, the feisty pom pom shakers including lovely brunette Laurie (Jennifer Ashley) and pretty blonde Sally (Lisa Reeves).

The Pom Pom Girls is a fairly typical slice of 70s teenage drive-in fodder, full of hot girls and hunky guys whose lives mainly revolve around their cars and who they're canoodling with in the back seat. It's clichéd and predictable stuff but achieves a certain lackadaisical charm thanks to an amiable cast and a suitably inconsequential approach to its plot—as the viewer, we have no idea where we're being taken, but we're still happy to go along for the ride.

"The Pom Pom Girls" is more about the two guys on the football team (one being the great Robert Carradine, always a blast to watch) and the antics they lead the girls into, whether it's making out, stealing a fire truck, causing grief for the rival school, and other assorted tomfoolery. Unlike many other movies of the type, this one is actually interesting and fun to watch, and even the cheesy early 70's music they chose for the movie is decent and adds to the atmosphere. And the girls are rather pretty as well. And for car lovers there's a lot of cool old cars to see, especially Carradine's '55 Chevy (there always seems to be a '55 Chevy in so many of these films). Definitely a good showcase of when life was more carefree and a lot less complicated. Nice to even have it on DVD, although a widescreen release would have been better than fullscreen.

"American Graffiti" styled high school comedy-drama concerns a couple of knockabout gridion players (Carradine and Mullins) wooing the affections of a pair of lusty young cheerleaders (Ashley and Reeves), much to the chagrin of Reeve's jilted ex-boyfriend (Adler) who eventually challenges Carradine to a game of chicken (a la Harrison Ford). In between, there's plenty of sex, misdemeanors and practical joking to make up the school day.

Seemingly endless array of practical jokes is punctuated by heavy-petting with Susie Player getting the most exposure as the hamburger joint waitress, while the pretty Jennifer Ashley (who had a relatively brief but memorable filmography in the mid-70's through early-80's) has her moment or two sans blouse. She's given little else to do, and that's no different to the rest of the cast in a film that contains very little dialogue. Bill Adler is an interesting specimen, playing a tough-talking cuckold whose bravado is only skin deep. He at least manages to evoke some sympathy whereas Carradine simply comes off looking like an arrogant twerp. Film buffs might also recognise Rainbeaux Smith in a frivolous minor role as one of the cheerleaders.

Vintage cars with enhanced mufflers, obscure mid-70's soundtrack, over-the-top food fights and a couple of genuine laughs (Mullins is caught leaving Ashley's house the morning after by her dad who invites him back inside for breakfast, and, the cheerleader auditions) liven proceedings, but the pace is terminal and the content lacking. Vaguely nostalgic, but essentially it's a show about nothing.

THE POM POM GIRLS is your typical high school sex comedy: a group of young, sex-mad students are after various girls on the cheerleading team, while at the same time determined to have a good time. Their hijinks include stealing public vehicles and generally causing a nuisance, much to the consternation of the authorities.

There's little to distinguish this from the usual Crown International Pictures fare: there's the requisite nudity, limited to a couple of exploitational stripping/dressing sequences; the lowbrow humour; the occasional familiar face (this time around it's Robert Carradine) to make it feel like a 'proper' film. But at the same time, it has the usual problems of a Crown picture, namely poor scripting, an almost entire absence of funny jokes, poor acting, and a general forgettable atmosphere. It's not one to waste your time with - unless you were there and you're looking for a nostalgia kick.

It's hard to know what to make of The Pom Pom Girls. Though the producers of this flick clearly knew what they were doing when they cooked up that moniker to lure in their target young male audience, the title has very little to do with the movie they actually made. There are indeed cheerleaders in this film, but most of them are essentially used for set dressing while the bulk of the proceedings fixate upon the shenanigans carried out by two of the football players they're on hand to cheer for. Obviously crafted on a grindhouse budget and with that mindset, The Pom Pom Girls further confounds expectations by eschewing the anticipated exploitation elements to devote most of its run-time to a series of tepid vignettes that aren't connected with any real story to speak of, then abruptly swerving into a fairly straight teen drama in the the third act (reportedly, 80 seconds of nudity and language were excised from the original R-rated cut to earn the film a wider PG release, which is the version that most commonly circulates now). The end result is a movie that is roughly half decent and half pointless, which makes delivering a firm recommendation somewhat of a challenge.

The centerpieces of the action here are Johnny and Jesse, two best friends gearing up for their upcoming high school gridiron season. They spend most of this caper wandering from one misadventure to the next with little rhyme or reason: driving around, eating burgers at the local hangout, making out with various girls, defacing the cars at their rival school, having food fights, urinating out of their classroom windows, then stealing a fire truck and nearly murdering the town Sheriff with it (you know, normal teenage stuff). Though presented in a light-hearted way, their antics are more hm-amusing than sincerely ha-ha-humorous, which leaves the comedy quotient here severely lacking. The tenor of the film shifts for the better when the duo finally couples up with Laurie and Sally, the main Pom Pom Girls they've been casually chasing from the start. Suddenly, actual storylines begin taking shape: Johnny contends with the increasingly volatile machinations of his gal's jealous ex-boyfriend, as Jesse struggles to kick his habit of bedding a bevy of lasses in the back of his van and commit to just one while also butting heads with the team's despotic coach. From this point forward, PPG remains a far cry from the nuanced character studies in Dazed And Confused, but the narrative at least finds some sense of purpose and the last 30 minutes are a vast improvement because of it.

It's interesting to see a pre-Revenge Of The Nerds Robert Carradine tackle the leading man role, particularly because his Johnny is pretty much the same soon-to-be iconic goofball minus the glasses and few braincells. Only here, that mien results in him being a popular football player who's impressively successful with the ladies (who knew a change of clothes and a pair of spectacles could make a young man's social fortunes plummet so drastically?). TV cop show stalwart Michael Mullins does a capable job of bringing Jesse to life, while the spotlit Jennifer Ashley and Lisa Reeves are both attractive and likeable enough to distinguish themselves as the clear stand-outs among their fellow Pom Poms.

However, the most engrossing elements in this effort are an accidental product of its era. This is a thoroughly '70s film, and since it's singularly focused on youth culture a lot of the best aspects of that decade play prominent roles. The small town where the action takes place is straight out of a simpler time, while notable features like the bustling carhop, roads with no traffic, and wide open plots of waterfront sand without another beachgoer in sight offer glimpses of a world which sadly does not exist anymore. The classic cars and vintage clothes are all authentic in a way that no modern period piece could ever faithfully duplicate, and even without the benefit of a purse large enough to license popular contemporary songs for the soundtrack, all of the needfully obscure music used in the film sets the tone very well.

In the end, you can't sincerely fault The Pom Pom Girls for not being what it appears to be, since what it really is has more than enough charms to justify the 85-minutes you'll spend with it. If you're so inclined, give it a look for the beautiful girls, good tunes, and a vivid snapshot of high school in the 1970's. Anyone likely to be interested in a B-grade relic like this has undoubtedly invested much more energy for a much more meager payoff than that.

THE POM POM GIRLS was a huge sleeper hit in it's day and it's easy to see why. Thousands of stoned kids across the land with beer in hand at the drive-in, watching this documentary-like fun fest on being a high school kid in the mid-70's. What a wonderful life these kids have! Drive around drinking or high, get the girl, have sex where ever you want, and not worry about any diseases or repercussions whatsoever. And football. You get to play a lot of football.

I love this film. If you tried to make a movie like this today, you couldn't do it without some killjoy saying you couldn't have them drinking and driving. But kids do that. Some die and a majority don't. These kids are not repressed sexually. They are free to make love to whoever they choose and don't worry about death and condoms. They seem to be having fun and enjoying life, and that's why this film really couldn't be made today, because it shows people, teens especially, enjoying life in an innocent, yet rebellious, drug-addled, highly sexual way. Nobody dies, nobody gets hurt, and they do everything they were told they shouldn't do. It's a social time capsule for an extremely fun and liberated time.

This movie doesn't have much of a plot at all, but maybe only "The Van" is more of a time capsule for the 1970's teenager. It makes me laugh how today's so-called critics will praise a movie like "Dazed and Confused" as a masterpiece and laugh at "The Pom Pom Girls" and consider it cheesy and dated. "Dazed and Confused" (while I love that film) is basically a bigger budget remake of "The Pom Pom Girls". The vibe and lack of plot of the two movies are very similar. If you enjoy "Dazed and Confused" you will surely love "The Pom Pom Girls". And don't be misled by the title...there's very little to do with Pom Pom Girls here unfortunately. It's actually more about guys. Overall this is a fun movie that is very much of its time and portrays what it was really like to be a teenager in the carefree crazy 1970's.

Does this even qualify as a "movie"? It's a series of barely connected scenes of teenagers doing random activities to a soft-rock soundtrack. It's more like a music video or a Coke ad than a feature-length film. I just watched all seven hours of this movie and can remember only one character's name. Jesse. He's the one with the curly dark hair. Like all his friends, he's a jerk, plain and simple. He's constantly lying, whining, cheating, getting into fights, and guilting his idiot girlfriend into doing things she doesn't want to do.

Not one of the teenagers in this movie leads a normal high-school life. They are all belligerent and petty. They antagonize their teachers and coaches. They face no consequences for their nonstop shenanigans. You'd think that at least football would be important to the football players, especially considering the movie's title, but nope; in their first game, they immediately brawl with the opposing team.

All this would be fine if the movie was directed with madcap energy, like countless other tacky but fun horny teenager movies. Instead, Pom Pom Girls plods from scene to scene with no connective tissue or reason to care what happens to these people. At one point, some of the teens visit a motocross track and watch bemused for at least four minutes. We watch along with them. Look at those motorcycles go. Wow. Then the teens decide to rent motorcycles. They ride for a few minutes. Look at the fun they're having. The next scene involves Jesse deciding to go to the beach. What a plot!

You'd think that with a name like Pom Pom Girls, this movie would do at least one thing right. It's a 1970s exploitation film, after all. But nope. The few "sexy" scenes are ineptly paced and uncomfortable. Even the de rigueur locker room scene is off-putting; we watch in complete, creepy silence while several of the cheerleaders remove their tops and bottoms, and then one asks another to feel her breast to see whether she has a lump. Hot hot hot!

...1976 saw two particularly notable depictions of high school life on the big screen. The one released later in the year, CARRIE, was a nightmare; the earlier release, THE POM POM GIRLS, was the dreamy ideal (at least to most high schoolers of the period). Interestingly, the dream has aged somewhat better than the nightmare, even if CARRIE is much more frequently run on cable nowadays. In a departure from the Crown International Pictures drive-in norm of the period, the young ladies aren't subjected to any hideously sexist hijinks (can't say that for THE VAN or VAN NUYS BLVD.), there seems to be genuine respect and friendship between the boys and girls, and what happens in this movie (except for the fire truck prank) actually seem plausible. There's even an airy quality to the soundtrack music, lifted from the previous year's debut album by Cotton Lloyd & Christian (including Michael Lloyd, whose record productions for The Osmonds these high schoolers obviously grew up on), that's surprisingly refreshing. Even James Gammon, playing a head football coach over a decade before MAJOR LEAGUE, seems rooted in the period. If you were part of the American Class of '76, this is your picture...

Oddly titled, this high school comedy does not focus on cheerleaders but rather two teen boys who enjoy chasing them in between football practice, driving fast cars, playing practical jokes and tormenting students at a rival school. The film's unusualness does not just stop at its title with not only very few cheerleaders but noticeably little female nudity for a high school comedy of its age (there is only one shower scene and it involves the male students). Whether the film has much to offer beyond its daringness to be different is difficult to say. Robert Carradine is always likable and fun to have on screen; co-star Michael Mullins is also great in an awkward breakfast scene, and the pair bounce well off one another. The duo find themselves in a film though where little occurs plotwise - something that results in large lulls in between memorable moments such as Carradine urinating out of a window. The characters also remain largely unchanged for all their adventures and shenanigans; this certainly is not a film like 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' or even 'Private School' in which the high school experience serves for an inner awakening. And yet, there is something quite pointed with how emotionally detached the students are in the final scene, as if nothing -- no matter how horrific or dangerous -- can shatter their intent on hedonistically living life to its fullest. The film is also smart enough to have the characters acknowledge the plot similarities to 'Rebel without a Cause', but ultimately one needs a little more than a resonating conclusion for a film to fully click.

"Johnnie" (Robert Carradine) and "Jesse" (Michael Mullins) are two immature high school football players who are constantly in trouble for one thing or another. As it so happens they somehow manage to attract two cheerleaders named "Laurie" (Jennifer Ashley) and "Sally" (Lisa Reeves) to accompany them on several of their pranks. So much for the plot-if you can call it one-as this particular movie simply showcased one childish scene after the other with no letup in between. The dialogue was basic, the humor was absent and to top it off, other than possibly Susan Player (as "Sue Ann"), none of the actresses were all that pretty. Quite frankly the best part of this movie was the end as it contained a slight amount of suspense and after that I was able put this sordid mess behind me. That said I suppose I should at least be thankful for that. Accordingly, I rate this incredibly boring film as definitely below average.

Two cheerleaders and two football players decide that their last year at Southern California's Rossdale High School is going to be different. Jennifer Ashley and Lisa Reeves team up after a fashion with Michael Mullins and Robert Carradine and do some memorable things.

A lot of this has to do with the football rivalry with the next town over. Among the things these high spirited youth do are kidnapping and steal the fire engine from the rival town.

A lot of sex scenes with nubile teens is the rest of The Pom Pom Girls.

If that's what your taste runs to.

You have been warned. The 'acting' is terrible. Dialogue is awful. What else is there to add!

Mischievous, fun-loving California adolescent hormones are in high gear in "The Pom Pom Girls" (1976) as well as in all those Annette and Frankie beach romps. Alterations here include gratuitous topless cheerleaders and bare bottomed football players having simulated mating in a van. Black-haired, straight-laced Annette and clean-cut Frankie, who never ventured beyond hand-holding and chaste kisses, are replaced by black-haired, crooked-laced Jennifer Ashley and raggedy-clothed Robert Carradine.

The pranks include spray-painting car windows of a rival team, staging a fire truck heist, running the sheriff off the road, and just generally irritating authority figures. The guys imbibe a lot of beer, wolf down burgers and fires, and challenge each other to a drag race.

This is now my fourth consecutive review of a cheerleader movie following The Cheerleaders, The Swinging Cheerleaders, and Revenge of the Cheerleaders. It's also the third in a row of a movie that features one Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith. She plays Roxanne here (though I don't remember her name ever being called in the film) and unlike the last two, she's not starring, only supporting or maybe "a glorified cameo" would be more like it since her appearances don't really have to do with the main action. The main cheerleaders featured here are Sally (Lisa Reeves) and Laurie (Jennifer Ashley). Sally is the blonde one who was once involved with Duane (Bill Adler) but then falls for one football player named Johnnie (Robert Carradine in a role much different from his later familiar one in Revenge of the Nerds!). Laurie is the brunette one who eventually warms to fellow pigskin player Jesse (Michael Mullins). Jessie himself previously liked to fool around as he does with Roxanne and a car hop girl named Sue Ann (Susan Player) before getting involved with Laurie. Unlike the other cheerleader movies I previously reviewed, the sex-while there-isn't emphasized too much. In fact, while The Cheerleaders was a sex farce through and through, The Swinging Cheerleaders went back and forth between comedy and drama, and Revenge of the Cheerleaders was a contrived chaotic mess, The Pom Pom Girls seemed more life-like in presenting the teen hijinks and seeing how some friendships and relationships develop overtime despite some still contrived moments like the football game devolving into a free-for-all fight! And, yes, some scenes do borrow from some classic movies like the "chicken run" that does have a character mention James Dean and his Rebel Without a Cause. My favorite was a food fight scene that has Carradine and Adler taking their time in Laurel-and-Hardy slow burn-like fashion. Oh, and the '70s music soundtrack sounds just like the kind of songs one would hear on AM radio in those days. It should be noted that Crown International Pictures-perhaps one of the most successful of the drive-in distributors-was responsible for this and they always made many quite enjoyable B-type movies of this genre like Malibu Beach (which also featured Susan Player) and The Van (which also featured Bill Adler). Oh, and the director of this may surprise you if you're more familiar with his suspense movies like The Stepfather or Sleeping with the Enemy: Joseph Ruben! He also co-wrote it. Actually, the ending scene may clue you in of his talents there. Anyway, I really enjoyed The Pom Pom Girls so, yeah, that's a recommendation.

Maybe that she's the only brunette surrounded by California blondes in Crown International's high-school hangout flick THE POM POM GIRLS, Jennifer Ashley always stands out, not only in looks but attitude, with not only something to lose but a strong, built-in expression like she knows pretty much everything, and can take anything on...

Except one important aspect deliberately hidden... as football captain boyfriend Michael Mullins, best friends with cocky jokester Robert Carradine paired with gorgeous Barbie-like Lisa Reeves, is cheating with yet another blonde in carhop Susan Player, who's stunning but no competition to Ashley's central Laurie, head of the cheerleaders in her independently subdued confidence alone...

All of these girls... including other blondes Diane Lee Hart and cult favorite (and star of THE SWINGING CHEERLEADERS) Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith... shake their titular pom poms, which occurs in the opening credit beach practice sequence and then sporadically throughout (between random practical jokes played between school rivals), hardly befitting the title since there's only one big football game wherein the cheer-leading is almost superfluous...

Far less important than the REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and more recently AMERICAN GRAFFITI-inspired finale cliff-side drag-race between Carradine and the antagonistic Duane, who, wanting beautiful Reeves back as his girlfriend, is smugly played by Bill Adler (ironically Crown's roadster villain in THE VAN and hero in VAN NUYS BLVD): in what's a low-budget flick relying on character relationships over cheap exploitative aspects of the usual drive-in kind... but there's plenty of that too.

This is a rare film in that it is a 1970's teen movie that seems to have been genuinely aimed at 1970's teens (rather than drooling adult perverts). The so-called "teen sexploitation" genre would become really big in the early 1980's era of "Porky's" and "Fast Times at Ridgemont", and is still going strong today even in these censorial times. Personally though, the 80's films remind me too much of my own adolescence, and I prefer to leave the modern-day teen films to modern-day teens, but I just can't get enough of the 70's teen films though. Unfortunately, while many of these films are nominally ABOUT 70's teens, very few seem to actually be made FOR 70's teens. Take, for instance, "The Cheerleaders", the movie that started off the craze for sexy and sex-crazed high school and collegiate cheerleaders, which may be considered a classic by some, but can hardly be considered even a remotely realistic portrayal of teenage life in 70's America. The same can be said with the rest of the cheerleader films (which eventually reached their logical culmination in the hardcore classic "Debbie Does Dallas").

This film is different, however, in that it seems to be trying to capture the anarchic free spirit of the era more than just being an excuse to salivate over naked nubile bodies. It actually resembles "Dazed and Confused" (minus, of course, the self-conscious nostalgia) more than "The Cheerleaders". Of course, it's not all that realistic (the kids at one point steal a fire truck, which I think even in the 70's would have more likely been considered a serious felony than hilarious teen hijinks), and there IS some sex and nudity (naturally, with the ever-exploitable Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith in the cast).

There's no point in relating the plot because there really isn't one in these kind of movies--just a lot of random partying, sex, and wacky teen hijinks). The cast is pretty interesting. Besides Smith, there's Robert Carradine, the youngest Carradine brother, who was also in the minor cult film "Massacre at Central High" with Smith and the underrated "TAG:The Assassination Game", but is, of course, most famous for "Revenge of the Nerds". There's also Jennifer Ashley, a minor but ubiquitous drive-in queen, who even showed up in Mexican exploitation films like Rene Cardona Jr.'s sex and shark epic "Tintorera", and the luscious Susan Player who appeared in both American ("Malibu Beach") and European ("Las Adolescentes") exploitation fare. The director, Joseph Ruben, meanwhile would go on to direct "The Stepfather", one of the most cleverly subversive horror films of the Reagan era. This isn't quite as good as any of these aforementioned films (well, I guess it's better that "Tintotera"), but it's certainly worth seeing.

After listening to Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avery talk about this film on The Video Archives Podcast, I had to check it out. Ostensibly marketed as a cheerleader sexploitation flick, it's much closer to AMERICAN GRAFFITI than it is to THE SWINGING CHEERLEADERS. Yes, there is some sex, but for the most part this is a total "hang" movie, where there's no real plot and it's basically just a bunch of teens hanging out, doing stuff. And although the film is called THE POM POM GIRLS, the main characters of the film are really Robert Carradine (CANNONBALL, 1941, THE BIG RED ONE, REVENGE OF THE NERDS) and his buddy. The cheerleaders are friends of theirs, but Carradine is the wild-man ringleader. James Gammon (MAJOR LEAGUE, NASH BRIDGES), who plays the football coach, is the only real name actor outside of Carradine. Some of the cheer squad also appeared in a number of other cult flicks, but it was the girl who Carradine was crushing on in the movie, Lisa Reeves, who really stands out in the film. She's a pretty California blond, but not in an unrealistic Cheryl Tiegs kind of way. She's like the cool girl next door. That's the primary charm of the entire movie, that Carradine and his crew are like the wild kids a few grades ahead of you. But I'm kind of bummed that Reeves only has nine credits to her IMDB because she's really good in this film. I'm going to have to check out some of her other stuff. POM POM GIRLS was co-written and directed by Joseph Reuben, who'd go on to direct bigger films, including a few minor classics, DREAMSCAPE, THE STEPFATHER, and SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY. You can tell that this film was made with more care than your typical cheer-sploitation flick. Even if the story seems threadbare, you really do feel like you get to know this group of kids, and you really do care about them, which is what makes the ending, which I won't spoil here, absolutely work and makes the audience want to stand up and cheer. There's sort of a plot thread of escalating pranks with a rival school, and a bit of a feud between two guys over Reeves, and also Carradine's buddy being fed up with his football coach, but the film is mostly the guys and gals going from one wacky hijinks to the next. Cutting class, drinking beer, getting into food fights, and other assorted innocuous fun. Some of their pranks are a bit too much, breaking the film's sheen of realism, particularly when they steal a fire truck to hose down the rival high schoolers during a football practice, seemingly with zero consequences for their actions. But most of the film seems like pretty normal 70s teenager stuff, going to drive-up diners, flirting with girls, driving around in cars, and such. It's practically LICORICE PIZZA! The film is kind of a nostalgic time capsule in a lot of ways. It reminded me a lot of DAZED & CONFUSED, which is a 90s film about 70s teenagers hanging out together the last day of school, while this film is a 70s film about 70s teenagers. THE POM POM GIRLS has many of the same charms as DAZED & CONFUSED, so if you dug Linklater's film, you'll probably dig Joseph Reuben's authentic 70s teenager movie.

AI CAPSULE REVIEW: The Pom Pom Girls is a laid-back, sun-soaked hangout movie that feels like Dazed and Confused if it were actually made in the '70s, capturing real teenage energy with surprising warmth and charm. Marketed as a sexploitation flick, it turns out to be more American Graffiti than The Swinging Cheerleaders-nostalgic, aimless, and totally endearing.

I first saw The Pom Pom Girls way back in 1976, when it was first released. Having graduated from high school in 1975, it was fun to watch. It gave me a feeling of "Why wasn't I lucky enough to live in Southern California at the time?" Being able to catch it again, remastered in 2001, I enjoyed it! Sure, it may be dated, but I think that might be part of it's charm. The time capsule feel, of teen life in the 70's, was a bit nostalgic. Back when condoms were used to prevent pregnancy! If you get the chance, check it out. Especially people like myself, who were teens in the 70's.