ThePomPomGirls

The Pom Pom Girls (1976)

This is one of those high school movies where everyone is beautiful and no one goes to jail for any of the destructive and dangerous pranks they play on each other. Oh god I think I just sounded like my father there for a minute. Though one has to wonder how you can vandalize cars, steal a fire engine, and wreck a police car without getting in any trouble at all. But that is what happens in this movie that revolves around a couple of friends named Johnnie and Jessie who cruise around in a vintage Chevy looking for girls. They eventually hook up with a couple of girls, fall in love, prepare for the big game, and Johnnie plays a game of chicken with the local tough guy. Yeah that is about it.

There is a whole string of movies made for the drive-in circuit that basically are beautiful people in cool cars driving around having fun. This is another of those movies and while it is better than some of the others like Van Nuys Blvd. it still isn’t that great. There really isn’t much of a plot here. Basically the movie is a series of somewhat funny situations strung together with the characters as the only thing connecting them. The movie has a food fight, incompetent teachers who let everything go, the big game, lots of girls throwing themselves at the boys, and of course a bully in a leather jacket that gets what is coming to him. There are even a few montages showing us how much fun the kids are having complete with bad 70s music playing in the background. It might sound interesting but it ends up boring.

The movie is competently made. Picture and sound are all good. The cars look sharp and there are a few stunts as the characters race around in their sweet rides. Nothing special, but I’ve been forced to sit thru so many poorly made movies I do like to give credit when there is talent behind the camera. Now if they had just something decent to shoot. The one interesting thing that I did find out about the movie while putting my review together has to do with the music. Apparently the soundtrack was made up of songs from an unsuccessful album. Back in the day when an album didn’t sell the stores would send it back to the company for a refund. These returned albums were repackaged and sent out as soundtracks for the movie. Very tricky of them, wasn’t’ it?

The version of the movie that I watched comes on the Drive-in Experience box set volume 3. There were some concession stand ads that were fun trip down memory lane. There were also a couple of trailers. One for Malibu Beach, which looks to be another one of these aimless kids having fun movies. The other was for Weekend Pass, which looks like a generic sex comedy with some sailors on a weekend pass getting into all sorts of trouble. I own a copy of Malibu Beach and might eventually check it out. I’ve never heard of Weekend Pass and based on the trailer don’t really feel the need to find a copy.

Not a great movie, but I’ve seen much worse. Still I can’t recommend it. You have been warned.

1 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer