The Great American Girl Robbery (1979)

User Rating:

2.1/10   

Director:

Jeff Werner

Writers:

D.W. Gilbert (writer)
Jason Williams (writer)

Release Date:

September 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Crime | Sport | Thriller

Plot:

A busload containing three cheerleading teams from 3 different schools who are heading to compete against...

Plot Keywords:

Terrorist | Female Nudity | Teenager | Hostage | American Football

Cast

Kristine DeBell	...	Debbie Williams
Jason Williams	...	Wayne Mathews
Janus Blythe	...	Afton (as Janet Blythe)
Lenka Novak	...	Jeanne
Marilyn Joi	...	LaSalle (as Tracy King)
Anthony Lewis	...	George Henderson
Lachelle Chamberlain	...	Terri (as Lachelle Price)
Janie Squire	...	Donna
Wally Ann Wharton	...	Lisa (as Ann Wharton)
Robert Houston	...	Billy Mathews
Shell Kepler	...	Marion
Elizabeth Halsey	...	Susan
Carmen Hayward	...	Betty
Leslie King	...	Sandy (as Leslie E. King)
Courtney Sands	...	Frankie

Also Known As:

Bus 17 Is Missing (USA)
Cheerleader's Naughty Weekend
Cheerleaders' Wild Weekend (USA) (video title)

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R

Movie Connections:

Edited into 42nd Street Forever, Volume 3: Exploitation Explosion (2008) (V)

Mixed Poisons

This movie seems to combine the 70's drive-in fascination with the Patty Hearst kidnapping with its fascination for sexy cheerleaders. Three squads of cheerleaders are on their way to a competition and for some reason are sharing a single school bus (even though one is a tough, inner-city squad and another is from an elite private school) when they are all kidnapped and held for ransom by a group of ex-jocks who call themselves the National American Liberation Army. There's the usual sexploitation filler--the captors and the cheerleaders kill time by having a topless beauty contest, lead Kristine DeBell has (offscreen) sex with the good guy kidnapper,and the lone female kidnapper (who is of course a lesbian) seduces one of the other girls in a bathtub. Finally, the three teams ban together to fight back, which mainly involves a long, gratuitous scene where they all strip off their underwear and fashion it into a rope which they use to trip one of the kidnappers. (Someone could have just stuck her foot out, but where's the fun in that?)

This movie is surprisingly politically incorrect. The black kidnapper is the bad guy while the handsome white kidnapper turns out to be a sympathetic good guy. Still it's refreshing to actually see a black villain for a change and he's the best actor in the movie next to Kristine DeBell. DeBell, of course, was the talented and appealing actress whose career was ruined when it was found out that she had earlier appeared in a porno movie (strangely, a similar thing happened to untalented boob-job Michelle Bauer, but that didn't stop her from going on to appear in 500 low-budget movies that were even worse than her early porno efforts--go figure). This is neither the best of the cheerleader movies (try "The Swinging Cheerleaders", "The Pom-Pom Girls", or "Satan's Cheerleaders")nor the best of the Patty Hearst/kidnapping movies (try "The Candy Snatchers", "Sweet Sugar" or "Abduction"), but if you like mixing your poisons, by all means, check it out.