Entry 70: The Pom-Pom Girls (1976)

The Pom-Pom Girls (1976)

Dir: Joseph Ruben

"It was their senior year...the last chance to raise hell!"

 

Tonight, the Basement of Sleaze travels back in time to the fall of '76 to raise a little goddamn hell on the first day of school with the Pom-Pom Girls!

It's the first day of school, 1976, and the seniors at Rosedale High are already beginning to chaff under authority.  Despite it's title, this breezy, mostly plotless comedy centers around football players Jesse (Michael Mullins, a frequent 70s TV guest-star in his only major role) and Johnnie (Robert Carradine, desperately trying to ward off his future as a major nerd icon thanks to Revenge of the Nerds).  Jesse's a smooth operator who fucks anything with tits, but finds himself falling for prudish cheerleader Laurie (Jennifer Ashley, Phantom of the Paradise).  Johnnie, meanwhile, has a thing for outgoing head cheerleader/class president Sally (Lisa Reeves, Ski Lift to Death), who's already dating hotheaded drag racer Duane (Bill Adler, no relation to Steven).  After Johnnie gets caught pissing out a window and is sentenced to latrine duty, Jesse makes it his mission to get his buddy to loosen up and get laid ('cause pissing out the fucking window on your first day of school isn't loose enough).  We're then treated to a smorgasbord of teen comedy hijinks: food fights, beach frolicking, stealing a fire truck, dirt biking, messing with the JD drag racer kid, etc.  Stand up guy that he is, Jesse goes off and fucks another girl every time Laurie refuses to cut class to goof off with him, while Duane is threatening to kill Johnnie for messing with his girl...Can these two guys get their shit together, win the girls AND pull off a victory in the big game against Hardin High?  Given that this is a Crown-International release, you're goddamn right they can; Johnnie even makes a last-minute escape from a seemingly fatal drag race crash!

If you can dial your brain down for 90 minutes, this movie is relatively fun; it's filled with great 70s music, cars and fashions and features better-than-expected performances and lively direction.  On the downside, there's less nudity than expected (much of it is centered around Jesse's skeletal conquest Sue Ann, who needs to eat a goddamn sandwich) and central character Jesse is a REALLY unlikeable tossface.  Late, great exploitation movie legend Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith (one of the original members of The Runaways and star of Laserblast and Lemura) appears in a small role as cheerleader Roxanne.  Director Ruben foreshadows his career as a horror director (Dreamscape, The Stepfather) with the eerie opening shot of a football player dummy burning in effigy.  They don't make whimsically politically-incorrect films like this anymore, folks; if you're at all interested, watch it before somebody in our increasingly-sensitive society decides you can't.