Les cheeries font des ravages

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.

After joining a local high school's cheerleading squad, a teenage girl (Stephanie Fondue) vows to lose her virginity to the right guy, but all her good-hearted attempts backfire. Meanwhile, her fellow cheerleaders come up with a plan to help their high school's football team to victory: sleep with the opposing team on the night before their most important game so that the opposition will be too worn out to play.

Suffering from heavy-handed script and incredibly amateurish performances, this silly teen sexploitation romp is good for a few laughs and dishes plenty of T&A to satisfy any jaded fan. My evaluation: ** out of ****.

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.

Comments like the one above from the movie should give you an idea of the campy, 1970's-specific fun you'll find here.

One thing not mentioned by the previous reviewers is how much certain scenes in this movie remind one of the sexploitation-comedy master, Russ Meyer. The cheerleading coach and one of her students riding naked on a stationary bike together. The football coach in his office in nothing but jockstrap and cap, continually blowing his whistle at one of the female students who's wearing nothing but shoulder pads. A friend and I kept noting during the viewing how much some of these scenes could've come straight out of Russ's classic, "Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens".

All Russ Meyer fans owe it to themselves to find a copy of this one, and anyone looking for a good 70's sex comedy should check it out.