{"id":3931,"date":"2024-09-10T21:08:17","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T21:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3931"},"modified":"2024-10-13T18:20:26","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T22:20:26","slug":"the-swinging-cheerleaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/10\/the-swinging-cheerleaders\/","title":{"rendered":"The Swinging Cheerleaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Swinging Cheerleaders <\/strong>(1974)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Centaur Pictures\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 91 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (nudity, sexual content, language, drugs, some violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jack Hill\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jane Witherspoon (Jack Hill) and Betty Conklin (David Kidd)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: William Loose\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Alfred Taylor\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 1974 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jo Johnston, Rainbeaux Smith, Colleen Camp, Rosanne Katon, Ron Hajak, Ric Carrott, Jason Sommers, Ian Sander, George Wallace, Jack Denton, John Quade, Bob Minor, Mae Mercer, Dion Lane.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ll always remember The Swinging Cheerleaders<\/strong> as one of the first \u201cdirty movies\u201d I watched when we got Cinemax. I use the term in quotes because it\u2019s not strictly a teen T&A exploitationer. It has a few topless college girls strewn throughout, but they don\u2019t engage in the same kinds of silly hijinks as the girls in The Cheerleaders, the 1973 sexploitation comedy to which it\u2019s a de facto sequel. Director Jack Hill (Switchblade Sisters) aims a little higher and largely succeeds.<\/p>\n

\u00a0So what makes The Swinging Cheerleaders<\/strong> different from other cheersploitation titles? For one thing, it has an actual plot. Interested in writing an article on how cheerleading exploits women, university newspaper journalist Kate (Johnston) infiltrates the squad by way of a successful try-out. She immediately makes an enemy of stuck-up squad leader Mary Ann (Camp, Police Academy 2) who becomes jealous when her quarterback boyfriend Buck (Hajak) puts the moves on the new girl. She becomes friends with fellow cheerleaders Andrea (Smith, The Pom Pom Girls) and Lisa (Katon, Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy) and decides to drop the article. She then uncovers a point-shaving scheme involving the football coach (Denton, Little Cigars), the dean (Wallace, Radar Men from the Moon) and statistics professor Thorpe (Sommers, Detroit 9000). Of course, she plans to expose the whole thing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Another reason The Swinging Cheerleaders<\/strong> stands out is that it develops its characters beyond the number of times they take off their clothes and get busy. Instead of depicting Kate as a humorless feminist bitch, it shows her as an intelligent woman with strong views capable of change when her perceptions are challenged. Kate develops a real kinship with Andrea and Lisa, one that\u2019s threatened when her vindictive ex Ron (Sander, God\u2019s Gun) decides to make trouble.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Kate\u2019s story isn\u2019t the only one told. The girls get storylines of their own too. Lisa is sexually involved with Thorpe who keeps promising to divorce his wife so they can be together. Yeah, we know how this tale ends. Andrea struggles with her virginity. Her boyfriend Ross (Carrott, Mother, Jugs & Speed) keeps pressuring her to go all the way. She wants to, but she\u2019s afraid. Sadly, this leads to the movie\u2019s sole unsavory plot point, an off-camera gang rape. Then there\u2019s Buck who initially clashes with Kate over his sexist attitude towards the opposite sex. After a heart-to-heart, they start developing feelings for each other which naturally doesn\u2019t go down well with Mary Ann (the corrupt dean\u2019s daughter, btw). The point is Buck changes in no longer seeing women solely as sex objects. Normally, this defeats the purpose of a T&A comedy but The Swinging Cheerleaders<\/strong> isn\u2019t your usual T&A comedy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One more way in which The Swinging Cheerleaders<\/strong> distinguishes itself is the quality of the acting. It\u2019s better than usual for the cheerleader genre. Johnston, in her only role EVER, is very good as Kate. I don\u2019t know what became of her, but she might have been a successful actress had she continued in the film industry. Smith, who tragically died in \u201902, doesn\u2019t do herself any favors with her flat line readings. She\u2019s easy on the eyes however; it does help. Camp isn\u2019t given a lot to do other than act bitchy towards Kate. Katon has some strong scenes as a girl na\u00efve enough to believe her married lover will uproot his entire life for her. None of it is Oscar-level acting, but it is<\/em> acting, the kind that involves more than big boobs and a hot bod.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What you\u2019ve been reading are adult Movie Guy\u2019s thoughts on The Swinging Cheerleaders<\/strong>. They differ somewhat from those of 15YO Movie Guy. First, you need to understand my mindset the night I saw it for the first time (October \u201983). I was riding high on the success of sneaking downstairs to the basement without waking the parentals. They slept soundly that night so I got to see the whole thing in one sitting. I\u2019m sure all of this factored into my total enjoyment of The Swinging Cheerleaders <\/strong>back then. And why wouldn\u2019t I enjoy it? It\u2019s an R-rated comedy with nudity, sex and hot babes. What teenage boy doesn\u2019t like these things? I liked the kidnapping subplot at the end where members of the football team help the cheerleaders rescue Buck.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Okay, you\u2019re talking to adult Movie Guy again. High aspirations notwithstanding, The Swinging Cheerleaders<\/strong> is still strictly cheap drive-in fare. It has its flaws. The football scenes are obviously stock footage although it\u2019s cool they found a match for the green uniforms worn by the team in the movie. It\u2019s tamer than the usual cheersploitation flick. The abrupt ending at the big game is disappointing. But I\u2019m willing to overlook it all because I really like The Swinging Cheerleaders<\/strong>. It\u2019s funny but also tells an interesting story. Can the same be said of most teen T&A comedies? That\u2019s a big NO!\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Swinging Cheerleaders (1974)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Centaur Pictures\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 91 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (nudity, sexual content, language, drugs, some violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jack Hill\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jane Witherspoon (Jack Hill) and Betty Conklin (David Kidd)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: William Loose\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Alfred Taylor\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 1974 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jo Johnston, Rainbeaux Smith, Colleen Camp, Rosanne Katon, Ron Hajak, Ric Carrott, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/The-Swinging-Cheerleaders-P.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3931"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5584,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3931\/revisions\/5584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}