Cindy and Donna

This is the epitome of a drive-in smoker. Back in the day, when I was a teen we used to go to drive-in movies just for a place to hang out. Others went for some family entertainment where they could save money by charging by the carload rather than by the individuals. You usually got to see three movies. Depending on what night you went, you either got some G- rated family movies (one first run movie and two less than mediocre throw-aways), three horror or action movies (same deal) or you got the sexploitation movies that were often one step away from a hard "R" or soft porn flick. Sometimes they were sex comedies but often they were low-budget hippie chick flicks where the actors seemed to take themselves too seriously. Cindy and Donna kind of falls in to the latter. This is more than just some flirtatious fun. This really is nothing short of some classic softcore.

Cindy and Donna Weeks are two teenage half sisters who live with their dysfunctional parents ( a booze hound mother and a lecherous, infidelity-prone father). While Donna is an "experienced" girl marching toward woman-hood with a boyfriend, younger red-haired sis, Cindy is conflicted and hesitant but still curious about sex. She spies on her sister and listens to her best friend, Karen talk about sex. She also spies on her drunken father as one night he falls into bed with her half sister, his stepdaughter, Donna.

Basically there's no real plot that's worth following. It's just these three girls falling into sexual situations to the soundtrack of some "groovy" music (it's hilarious how the script has them drop these hip soundbites of the day like 'far out', 'can you dig it?' and 'I'm hip' every five or ten minutes). The editing is what you'd expect for a low-budget movie from 1970. It's choppy and the film is a little grainy in spots. But this isn't the type of movie you watch for the craftsmanship of filmmaking.

In fact, every female featured in the movie seems to be involved in the liberation of the sexual revolution with even Mrs. Weeks throwing herself at her husband's friends. The younger girls are all gorgeous and have no problem disrobing and one girl dances almost nude for a full 30-40 seconds with the camera ogling her naked body. This reminds me why this is one of my favorite periods. The mini-skirts and dresses these girls wear are so short, they can't even lift their arms without giving a show. And the drug use is in full effect. The girls all smoke pot and mom and dad are drunk-a-holics.

I bought this as part of a set of four exploitation movies. It's ironic that I watched this one last and it turned out to be the best of the set.

Innocent Cindy Weeks lives with her promiscuous half-sister Donna, their drunkard mother and Donna's lascivious father Ted. Cindy spies on Donna with boys including when a drunken Ted sneaks into Donna's room. While her parents are away, she and her friend Karen goes to the beach and hook up with a couple of guys. She smokes some pot with Karen and they make out. Cindy hooks up with Donna's guy and Donna is thrown out of his house only to be run over by a car.

This is exploitation pure and simple. There is no downplaying that fact. Debbie Osborne is very cute and also has a bit of spark in her. She's slightly more than the vacant stares from most girls of that era. Other than that, this is simple softcore porn.

Cindy Donna: The story of two horny half-sisters suffering suburban ennui in the 1970s. Virginal,15-year-old Cindy idolizes her older, sexually promiscuous half-sister, Donna. When she spies Donna banging her father (Donna's stepfather), Cindy decides that she's ready to experiment with her body and her sexuality, too. More sex (and tragedy) ensues. The staff that worked on this flick knew it was smarmy when they made it. It's good fun to watch, primarily because Cindy, played by Debbie Osborne, is insanely cute and spends a lot of her time in various stages of undress. The film also has a ridiculous, schmaltzy soundtrack that's half awe-filled, horn-ball sleaze and half after-school special. A highlight of the Drive-In Cult Classics collection.

If all you're looking for out of a movie is sex, sex, and more sex, then you might want to give the Crown International exploitation flick "Cindy and Donna" a try. It's not for people who want a really good, meaty story or lots of character development. However, it *is* for those who want to see a plethora of bare breasts, close-ups of bottoms and crotches, and a number of erotic sex scenes.

Aptly described as the saga of one teenagers' sexual awakening, it stars Debbie Osborne as the Cindy of the title, a 17 year old who doesn't have much interest in sex yet, despite the fact that her horny older sister Donna (Nancy Ison) and equally horny friend Karen (Cheryl Powell) are having it all the time. Their mother Harriet (Sue Allen) is a drunk who's saddled with a husband, Ted (Max Manning) who continuously lusts after a topless dancer named Alice (Alice Friedland). And Donna has a boyfriend, Greg (Tom Benko) who's more than a little sleazy.

While this isn't much good as a film, it's just so damn trashy that it's likely to keep a good many voyeurs watching, despite the rather slow pace. None of the acting is exactly award worthy, but it gets the job done. Osborne is reasonably appealing as Cindy. Manning is an entertaining shameless horndog and Allen chews a little scenery as the drunken mother, whose own attempt to engage in some extramarital activity doesn't go too well. Adding to the enjoyment factor are an assortment of truly cheesy pop tunes and a variable soundtrack ranging from bluegrass to rock sounds.

Overall, some devotees of 70s drive-in cult cinema should be fairly satisfied with this one.

Six out of 10.

For the information of your readers - I am the person who played the mother in Cindy and Donna. My stage name was: Suzy Allen. I never used the name Susy Allen and any information shown for Susy Allen does not apply to me. I don't know why I was not credited properly. I agree that Cindy and Donna was a terrible movie, but the stagehands and crew said I was the best actor in the movie! We spent an entire day filming one scene, with me and my "husband" driving on a freeway, with me nagging him about not taking me out often enough !! I had a lot of fun trying to be the whining, miserable wife for the movie, even though in real life I am nothing like that character. It was also very interesting for me to have to dub in some of my lines after the movie was finished. Quite a challenge to get everything right on cue.