MVD Entertainment Group looks to have some fun on Dec. 10 with the release news this week that director Jeff Werner’s 1979 sexploitation comedy flick, Cheerleaders’ Wild Weekend — teaming Alice in Wonderland’s Kristine DeBell with Flesh Gordon’s Jason Williams — will be available as both DVD and Blu-ray editions.
What do all three of these films have in common? Tick tock. Tick tock. The answer is producer Bill Osco. He scored with his two softcore hits — combining right-up-to-the edge sex action with standard film storytelling (borrowing from the Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless classic serials and Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”
With these two hits, it seemed like a natural to team Jason Williams with Kristine DeBell and that’s exactly what Osco did. The finished film had a limited theatrical release in September of 1978 as The Great American Girl Robbery (mainly because the film distribution company was running short on cash) and that might have been the end of it.
But when you have “Flesh Gordon” and “Alice” (who had re-shot hardcore scenes and was seeing a second round of action) as your stars, you just don’t throw in the towel. Especially when you have a string of “cheerleader” movies in the ‘70s that clicked — The Swinging Cheerleaders, Revenge of the Cheerleaders, The Pom Pom Girls, Satan’s Cheerleaders, Cheerleader’s Beach Party, etc.
So The Great American Girl Robbery was re-titled and re-released as Cheerleaders’ Wild Weekend … a far superior title to be sure!
As to bonus goodies, there are two commentary options — the first with Kristine DeBell and second teaming director Jeff Werner with actor Marilyn Joi (aka: Tracy King … as “LaSalle”) and editor Gregory McClatchy.
There are also four extended video sessions with DeBell, Joi, Willams and Leon Isaac Kennedy.
