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In order to write an expose on how cheer-leading demeans women, a reporter for a college newspaper (Jo Johnston in her only role) infiltrates the cheer-leading squad.

By 1974, Jack Hill was looking to escape being typecast as a "blaxploitation director" after making "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown" for AIP. They were pleased by the success and gave him a script called "Rape Squad", which he turned down. This film was given to him with financing attached, although he was only given a title and had to develop the script from scratch (with help from David Kidd, who ironically also re-wrote "Rape Squad").

According to co-writer / director Hill, the film had a 12-day shoot, which meant every inch of film shot ended up in the final product. They started work on the script at the end of January 1974 and the movie was in theaters by May (at other times he says February and June, but the idea remains the same). The original title of the script was "Stand Up and Holler" so actresses would not think the film was about cheerleaders.

I do love Jack Hill, and the fact he is called an "exploitation auteur" really sums him up. But this has to be one of his few misfires. The primary plot of the undercover cheerleader is not very interesting, though the booking subplot makes up for it to a point. You might expect this to be nothing more than an excuse for cheerleaders to get naked, but even in that department it is arguably tame compared to many 80s comedies. This more or less amounts to a cheesy made-for-TV movie that probably was never shown on TV.

Arrow Video offers up a deluxe 2k restored blu-ray of the film. While the movie itself is not great (sorry), the Arrow Video version is worth picking up simply for all the extras, because it's always good when we have Jack Hill doing new interviews and providing new commentary. If he hasn't already, he really ought to write a memoir, because he is full of stories about Roger Corman, Francis Ford Coppola and many others. (The disc also has a 2006 archive interview with DP Alfred Taylor, archive interview with Johnny Legend, and a Q&A with Hill, Colleen Camp and Rosanne Katon recorded at the New Beverly Cinema in 2012.)

Needing another member for the cheerleading squad at Mesa State College the cheerleaders open tryouts for anyone who might be interested. As it so happens a student by the name of "Kate Corie" (Jo Johnston) auditions and is accepted even though the head cheerleader "Mary Ann Putnam" (Colleen Camp) is jealous of her for flirting with her boyfriend "Buck Larsen" (Ron Hajak) who happens to be the star quarterback. What nobody knows however is that Kate only wants to join the squad to dig up some dirt for her journalism term paper. And in the course of her work she discovers a lot more than people fully realize. Anyway, rather than divulge any more of the plot and risk spoiling the movie for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this particular film had a reputation for being somewhat sleazy when it first came out. However, while it certainly had some nudity and scenes of a sexual nature, it wasn't nearly as graphic as I had initially thought back then. Likewise, although it was definitely a low-budget drive-in type of movie that one would find back in the mid-70's, it had a fairly interesting plot which managed to keep my attention for the most part. At any rate, while it certainly wasn't a blockbuster film by any means it wasn't that terribly bad either. Accordingly, I give it an average rating.

Perhaps Tarantino has started the trend of justifying the legitimate place for trash-films in serious movie history. Jack Hill is definitely a one-of-a-kind filmmaker, an obvious maverick who managed to squeeze as many entertaining moments as he could out of his tight budgets (the fact that Roger Corman fired him more than once shows that Hill was a handful, but never seemed to let up). SWITCHBLADE SISTERS is a hoot, as is FOXY BROWN and THE BIG BIRD CAGE. This film, THE SWINGING CHEERLEADERS, while not as good as other Hill films, has some of the touches that made his previous films successful.

The cast is great. Hill was good at finding attractive women to embody his screen characters, and the knockouts here include Colleen Camp and Cheryl (Rainbeaux) Smith. The plot is some silliness about a female reporter infiltrating the cheerleadering squad at Mesa University to get the scoop. Her boyfriend turns out to be a real jerk, and the eventual outcome is a confrontation with the snooty Camp and some pretty ridiculous bad guys.

The film copies some of Corman's nurses movies (political conscious, making sure the token African-American character is there.)Yet, the film also seems to be parodying these more serious-minded New World pictures. SWINGING CHEERLEADERS is fun, and a reminder of what drive-in films were like (most exploitation films nowadays are not this fun).

Jack Hill---the man, the movies...

For adolescent boys with limited outlets, this may be a chance to get an eyeful of T&A. Anyone looking for a clever comedy, this isn't it. Totally High School, reminiscent of 70's "Mr. Microphone" cruising for "chicks". Were these cheesy tease-movies really necessary? A few episodes of "Charlie's Angels" or "Bay Watch" would be a better time investment. "Swinging Cheerleaders" looks and sounds as though it was "created" as they went along. Devoid of plot or memorable lines, this film is flat as dead Pepsi (or should I say TAB?). I give minimal crdit for the camp-quality and the occasional ha-ha scene. Serious or experienced film buffs need not waste their time.

The commercial success of this lead to Jack Hill getting to make the much more fun,though maybe even more poorly made and much worse acted, Switchblade Sisters right after this. So something good, or well, better came out of this film getting made.

The budget for this films is just too low to even have the cheerleaders do any full routine. The credit sequence of them is all you get to see, though you get to see those same shots and same stock footage football footage over and over again. Very little T and A for a plot that is a set up for a porn movie that never takes place. Smith was pregnant when she made the film and one fan of hers told me the appeal is that her breasts are huge. Well they are and her armpits are unshaved. Can humor still be found in her being excited about being gang banged as a way to lose her virginity? That's up to you. Why bring this up? Well that's about all that's worth noting. This is an exploitation film without much exploitation and by the time this was made the stakes were pretty high on exploitation. This is almost like a 1950's B and W nudie movie only it's in color and made almost 20 years after that was the style for these things.

The girls give decent performances, considering the crap material, most of the male cast members are awful and it just goes no where for a long time. Only real highlight is a confrontation scene with the wife of a teacher who confronts one of the cheerleaders and threaten's to "carve her name into one of the cheerleaders tits so when she flops them out for him he'll know she knows." Or words to that effect. What the movie needs is more outrageousness like this, the plot is too thin to be taken seriously but sort of is and really it just seems like the story is on life support until it can finally quietly die.

Flatly made by the usually flat director Hill. He can't be blamed for the lack of money that is heavily in evidence, but shows no real imagination in getting around those problems the way other better directors of the era did.

The film is dated but not enough so for it to be fun on that level either,though perhaps the way it depicts men is actually more dated than the way it depicts women. Look elsewhere for something entertainingly trashy not here.

"The Swinging Cheerleaders" may not be one of cult filmmaker Jack Hills' best, but it's still a solidly engaging film of its type. It probably won't be nearly trashy enough for some people, but for others it should prove to be an agreeable way to spend just over an hour and a half.

Hill and David Kidd wrote the story (using female pseudonyms), about the cheerleading squad for a college football team. Their newest recruit is an uptight gal named Kate (Jo Johnston), who initially is only becoming a cheerleader so she can get inside information for an expose that she wants to write. Among other story threads, the coach (Jack Denton), an alumnus (George Wallace), and a stats professor (Jason Sommers) are lured by the prospect of big winnings and begin to bet on the outcomes of the games.

Once again, Hill does understand that there are requirements for this sort of entertainment, and some of the lovely young ladies do take off their tops. The yarn that he and Kidd spin here is actually pretty straightforward and enjoyable, and things never, ever get overly serious. Not that characters come out unscathed, however, as the virginal Andrea (ever adorable Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith) is taken advantage of by lowlife guys, to use one example.

The performances are uniformly solid from the whole cast. Of the main cheerleader performers, sexy blonde Colleen Camp (playing the catty Mary Ann) went on to what is easily the most notable mainstream career of any of them. Future Playboy Playmate Rosanne Katon rounds out this foursome. Ron Hajak and Ric Carrott are fine as personable jocks Buck and Ross, Ian Sander is perfectly odious as creepy and arrogant campus radical Ron, John Quade and stunt coordinator Bob Minor are good as nasty security guards Belski and Ryan, and Mae Mercer is memorable as Professor Thorpes' scary wife.

An amiable if somewhat mild example of 70s sleaze.

Seven out of 10.

This film is what made-for-cable movies were in the Eighties. I suppose it played in drive-ins and maybe the "midnight movie" in theaters. The budget was obviously minimal, so it's hard to blame the director. The acting was mostly pretty bad, especially ALL of the male characters. The one unexpected bright spot was the lead actress, Jo Johnston, who was winsome and engaging. Unfortunately, she never seemed to have acted again.

In order to get an expose, an aspiring reporter (Jo Johnston), joins the cheerleading squad only to learn not to pre-judge people. Of the 3 movies in Anchor Bay's Cheerleader set (the Cheerleaders, Revenge of the Cheerleaders, & the swinging Cheerleaders), this one feels most like a movie. Yea, nearly all the cheerleaders shed their clothes at one point or another, but there's a little helping of social commentary to go with the exploitation. It's a bit easy to see that this is a Jack Hill directed picture and it's better because of it.

My Grade: B-

DVD Extras: Commentary; 2 TV spots, Jack Hill Bio

The last time I saw this movie was in 1991 on USA "Up All Night" and I haven't seen it since. I first saw it in 1983 on cable when I was 12 years old,I had to sneak downstairs in the middle of the night to watch it,because it was a "dirty movie". Those were the days. It may be cheesy as hell,but I like it. I noticed that Colleen Camp is in this,and no, there are no nude shots of her. One thing I've wondered about this is what type of movie this is: Comedy? Drama? Action? I think it's all three. I miss this movie and I wish it was available on VHS. I see SWITCHBLADE SISTERS is! Why isn't this one?! SWINGING CHEERLEADERS is way better than SWITCHBLADE SISTERS!

It's amazing how this movie made me realize how fond I actually was of the first movie "The Cheerleaders". It was trash but really entertaining and fun trash. I just can't say the same about this sequel.

I just never really had any fun with this movie. It doesn't really has comedy in it, or at least not of the funny kind. It just isn't as fun or clever written as the first movie. As a matter of fact, you could even say that this movie is bit overwritten, as strange as that perhaps might sound. With that I mean, is that the movie takes itself and its story a bit too serious. This movie didn't needed to have a main plot line in it! It should had been about silly teenagers, doing silly teenagers stuff, all sex related.

But you can't even really call this a sexploitation flick. Really, it has far too little sex and nudity in it for that. Like I said, it's just too heavy on its story, which does not suit the genre at all.

Another reason why I really wasn't taken by this movie was because it was lacking some good, or likable enough, characters in it. This is something the first movie did really right! Every character had a very distinctive personality and was often very likable because of that. In this movie I still can't tell you who is who in it. All I remember is that one of the guy's name was Bucky Larson.

It's not exactly the worst movie I have ever seen, also not within its genre but it's still a very lacking- and a just not fun enough movie. Just stick with the original!

4/10

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A feminist reporter (Jo Johnston) who wants to write an exposé on how cheerleading degrades women decides to infiltrate the cheerleading squad. Once accepted, she realizes that the cheerleaders aren't bad and finds out that the football games are rigged. She also falls for the team's quarterback (Ron Hajek), and this does not sit well with his girlfriend - the head cheerleader (Colleen Camp).

Semi follow-up to 1973's "The Cheerleaders" is a disappointment. Too many subplots, amateurish performances and writing ruin this loser. Directed by Jack Hill ("Coffy," "Foxy Brown"). My evaluation: * out of ****.

As opposed to the original film in this series, this follow up definitely is less of a raunchy silly sexploitation comedy and more of a thoughtful drama. With an entirely new cast, there are the occasional silliness but nothing is really humorous. The acting is noticeably more serious, better overall and more drama is included. The women characters have more morals, are more mature and aren't as sex craved. A lot more realism where this takes place with college level students opposed to high schoolers in the original.

Even though, this is a lot less wild and explicit which may slightly be bizarre considering this is college and not high school. There is more focus on a plot and less focus on scenes of skin and soft core-like scenes for the sake of it.

The ending of the film ends rather ubruptly with the football game still being played yet we simply see the credits roll. We then hear an announcer mentioning the game but not speaking on its conclusion. Which was rather bizarre that they didn't conclude the actual game finishing that was presented earlier in being very important.

As a film overall, it's better than the original since the tone is more serious and realistic. Not nearly as raunchy which can see why people prefer the original. Still nothing really special. One time watch.

The movie started well but coming down to the ending it was rushed and storylines felt incomplete except for Lisa and the teacher. They could have written what happened to all the characters at the end.

I had this movie confused with another one called "The Cheerleaders," which was basically a raunchy exploit flick that looked like a hardcore movie, with the hardcore cut out. But "The Swinging Cheerleaders" is surprising in that it has a plot; several interlacing dramatic stories actually, and it's truly a fun movie. And the "Raincoat crowd" will be disappointed in the fact that this is VERY tame in the sex department. I searched this out because I'm a devoted Cheryl Rainbeaux Smith fan, and she is her usual sweet, beautiful self here, as the last cheerleader to lose her virginity, which she does in a sad way. Yes there is actually some good drama here to accompany the comic elements, and it's all really tasteful. So check out this early 70's time capsule; it's one of the good ones. I'm excited to see the sequel. "Revenge of the Cheerleaders."

So I sat down to watch this expecting a waste of 90 minutes of my life. Surprisingly I found myself actually enjoying this seedy little mid seventies sexsploitation piece.

The plot is nothing to speak of - journalism major decides to do a piece on swinging cheerleaders and their jock boyfriends.

Where the film surprises is in it's scripting - surprisingly liberated considering this was 1974 and somewhat witty with a bevy of interesting performances from a game cast, this turned out to be far more entertaining than expected.

Fun seventies drive-in fair and somewhat more layered than you may think. A solid six out of ten.

Those familiar with this series will probably expect this installment to be more of the same, mindless slapstick, sex jokes and wall to wall T&A and sex..especially if you happened to see "Revenge of the Cheerleaders" first, which is pretty worthless junk. But this one, rather than going the expected route, offers some fairly compelling drama, and very little nudity and NO sex at all. Of course it isn't deep, but some serious issues are dealt with, such as loyalty among friends, jealousy, rape, (in the movie's saddest part with Cheryl Smith) as well as the damaging effects that can arise from casual affairs. Self-proclaimed feminist Kate initially joins the cheerleading squad to secretly do research for a term paper about the sexism and objectification of women involved in being a cheerleader. She thinks she won't be able to relate to such silly girls, but to her surprise she strikes up genuine friendships with them and changes her mind about writing the article, but they find out anyway, which leads to some dramatic situations. Meanwhile each girl has her own story; Cheryl Smith's Andrea is a virgin, afraid to go all the way with her boyfriend. He eventually becomes frustrated and leaves her, and that causes her to do something very stupid and self destructive. Lisa is having an affair with her math teacher, but she doesn't stop to think of what it is doing to the guy's wife, who confronts Lisa in the film's most dramatic scene. Finally Mary Ann (Colleen Camp) has her delusions shattered when she finds out her father is not the great guy she thinks he is. At the center of it all is the illegal gambling ring involving the team coach and a couple faculty members, in which they are rigging the football games in hoping of becoming rich on a crooked betting scheme. Maybe the fact that Jack Hill is at the helm is the reason that this one is so much more polished and respectable than the other 'Cheerleader' movies, with it's glossy production values and cast that is very beautiful rather than cheap and slutty looking like in the other movies, but this is quite a fun movie that is more intelligent than most of the films of this genre. And for fans of the Great Cheryl Rainbeaoux Smith, this is a must-see film, as she is so good in it, and is quite believable as the virgin who is afraid of sex. Out of the series I can only recommend this one and "The Pom Pom Girls." The rest of them are pretty bad.

Okay, this is my second cheerleader movie in a row I'm reviewing having previously commented on The Cheerleaders. In this one, Jo Johnson is Kate, an aspiring reporter who joins the college cheer team to expose them for their sexual hijinks but ends up finding out about a corrupt fix involving the football games. Ms. Johnson is quite a sexy brunette here surrounded by a blonde Colleen Camp as Mary Ann, another blonde Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith as Andrea, and a female of color Rosanne Katon as Lisa. Yes, there's some sex scenes with the requisite nudity and some funny lines and sequences but there's also some nice dramatic ones concerning much of the plot I mentioned. If I hadn't read the credits on Wikipedia and this site, I would have been fooled this was actually written by two women but it's actually two men as one of them is really director Jack Hill (as "Jane Witherspoon"!). Still, it sometimes felt like there was a feminist spin in some of the scenes and I liked the way the tone changed partly on a dime. So on that note, I recommend The Swinging Cheerleaders.

Not too bad with a lot of familiar faces. My favorite of course being the nurse from Clue. Colleen Camp.