The Cheaters

Contrary to the utterly misleading hyperbole of the previous reviewer on IMDb, THE CHEATERS is hardly shocking, consisting of routine MOS porn loops featuring Keith Erickson and Rick Cassidy, framed by an extremely lame attempt at pre-MST3K commentary humor. I'm confident it either put Adult Cinema audiences to sleep in the '70s or convinced them after a reel or two that it was time to exit.

The loop carrier format is perhaps the cheapest of porn strategies. It means that 90% of the footage is merely scavenged or "found" footage, consisting of already used stag loops. For THE CHEATERS, a ridiculous mirroring intro is filmed featuring Mark van Heller as a hapless projectionist and three young jerks sitting in a small screening room pretending to be a storefront theater. They didn't bother to dress the set -it looks like they simply used a screening room where one would watch dailies.

They're watching a movie of a guy raping a girl, pretty much generic porn footage with zero impact. The sound dies and the trio complains mightily to van Heller. Later on there are picture problems, so it becomes a "Blame the Projectionist" mini-drama.

Eventually he gets it together and we watch a poorly lit lengthy sequence of Rick Cassidy having sex with a girl to the accompaniment of Iron Butterfly's "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida". A buxom girl is humped as the old instrumental hit "Honky Tonk" plays, with "Glory of Love" accompanying the money shot.

Keith Erickson, in long mutton chops as sideburns mode, is involved in an orgy with two girls handling the fellatio. The first closeup of the film is reserved for deep throat action on Keith, leading to his usual copious cum shot.

Cassidy returns in a gang bang, and the film ends arbitrarily. Though the opening credits give thanks to a couple of biker gangs called The Falcons and The Diablos, the film's purported synopsis and biker genre slotting are spurious.

The gimmick here, which is used only sporadically, is to have the three hecklers not only disparaging the film they're watching (a la the boys from MST3K a couple of decades later), but also simulating the downside of watching movies with an unruly audience.

At one point, strictly in voice-over, a verbal argument breaks out between a guy sitting down front who wants to watch his porn and masturbate in peace, and one of the motormouth hecklers. It's not amusing but all too real -how many times have I been attempting to sit through a film, particularly a less than great one, and had to put up with yapping from fellow patrons. One learns at an early age that any attempt to "shush!" exacerbates the problem and can even lead to violence.

The only thing potentially shocking about THE CHEATERS is its demonstration of the contempt many pornographers held for their audience. Its cover story of low-life hecklers who keep complaining "I paid $5 for this?" is a direct insult to the moviegoers who provided them with a livelihood, and the mediocre porn content here was indeed not worth the $5 (or whatever) charged.