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.

Who's the "hooker" dancing naked in the bar near the beginning of the movie, the one the father has an affair with? She's not in the credits on the movie, and not on IMDb either. She is smoking hot, and it's a shame there's no credit of her! We just saw this movie and it's pretty okay, i think the story and morals are about on point for today, although they slightly play up that pot makes girls explore each other. Is that really so bad of a thing? Anyway, the girl dancing who has the romps with the father is definitely a highlight of the film, for 1970, she really has it going on! Anyone know who she is, or can recognize her from any other early, or later, movie? The compilation we bought has 8 films on it, and this is one of them.

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.

The Crown-International sexploitation movie "Cindy and Donna" seems to have drifted into obscurity immediately after its theatrical release, not getting a release on VHS and only receiving a quiet DVD release a few years ago (as one movie in a pack of several.) This may have been because there are no famous stars in the cast, or it may have been because the movie was rated "X" - though it's a soft core "X" and not a hard core "X", "X" rated movies have had a hard time being released in the home video market. But there's a real obvious reason why the movie has remained obscure, and that's because it's an incredibly awful movie. There is no real plot on display here - it's just one soft core sex sequence after another with just flimsy connections with each other. While I know this may sound appealing to some horny viewers, I think even they will be quickly bored, because these sequences are not erotic and are instead incredibly boring. The only interesting thing about the sex scenes is that they carefully avoid showing lower frontal nudity - if the filmmakers wanted an "X" rating, why not show everything? Anyway, this is one obscurity that deserves its status.

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.