Moonshine County Express

Take some gorgeous gals, good 'ol boys, creepy villains, fast car chases, and throw in some gratuitous sex scenes. Put it all together, and you have another classic Roger Corman 70s B movie. Corman churned-out these low-budget films like mad, back then. And Moonshine County Express is a fast-and furious tale, of moonshiners in the backwoods of the south. The plot revolves around the three luscious Hammer sisters (played by Susan Howard, Claudia Jennings, and Mareen McCormick). Their father was a legendary moonshiner. And he gets brutally murdered by the local thugs, in a moonshine war.

After their father is murdered by Starkey, the local crime kingpin, the Hammer sisters are determined to beat Starkey at his own game. The sisters discover a huge stash of pure bootleg liquor, stored away in a secret hiding place. They've inherited it from their father. And they plan on selling it right under Starkey's nose, and making a fortune. But Starkey proves to be a formidable foe, who'll stop at nothing to shut-down the Hammer sister's liquor business.

This film boasts a talented cast of actors. Especially William Conrad, as the cigar-chomping, nefarious Starkey. John Saxon co-stars as the wily, ace moonshine runner, JB. Saxon has a tumultuous, eclectic chemistry with co-star, Susan Howard. Susan plays the eldest sister, Dot Hammer. Most of the time, Dot can't decide whether to kiss JB, or strangle him.

Claudia Jennings, was known as the queen of 70s drive-in movies. Claudia plays the stalwart Betty Hammer, who defends her family with gusto, from Starkey and his thugs. Claudia's only in a supporting role though. So she never gets to become the center of attention, like she does in her films where she's the main character. Maureen McCormick, known to most as Marcia from the Brady Bunch, is Sissy Hammer, the youngest sister. Maureen doesn't shine as brightly as the rest of the cast. That's mainly because her role as Sissy, isn't very well-developed.

This move was part of a sub-genre of 70s B movies, that featured good 'ol boys and gals in the sticks, as the main protagonists. These films always seemed to have the hero(s) running from either the law, the bad guys, or both, in souped-up muscle cars on dirt roads. Other 70s movies of this ilk, included Moonrunners (which spawned the TV show, the Dukes Of Hazzard), Smokey and The Bandit, Gator, etc. Moonshine County Express, is a top-tier film of this genre. So you'll enjoy it, if these kinds of films are your cup of corn-squeezins.

A passable action film about three close sisters: Dot (Susan Howard), Betty (Claudia Jennings), and Sissy (Maureen McCormick) attempting to solve the murder of their moonshiner father. Since Dot is the leader and mouthpiece of the trio, she enlists the help of local moonshine hot-rodder J. B. Johnson (John Saxon). They suspect local crime boss Jack Starkey (William Conrad) was responsible for their father's death as he refused to give into Starkey's offer. Morgan Woodward plays Starkey's henchman and Jeff Corey is the seemingly good-guy preacher who is often seen swilling vodka from a bottle. Some decent car chases are thrown in and the performances are good for a standard story.

The moonshiner father of three women is killed by a rival bootlegging syndicate, and the three daughters carry on the family business. In this movie are Susan Howard from Petrocelli and Dallas, Maureen McCormick from The Brady Bunch, and Claudia Jennings from some rather trashy movies. John Saxon plays J. B. Johnson, a hot rodder who, Dot says, is interested in only cars and women and goes as fast as he can with both of them. J. B. teaches Dot how to run shine in a nice hot Mustang, but she drives it into a body of water. J. B. drives a Dodge Challenger. It seems a rival runner drove a '70 Roadrunner with an "auxillary fuel tank" for hauling shine. And there was a hypocritical preacher who was really out to make money on shine. Well, the law enforcement is on the lookout, and if one shine business doesn't go out of business, the other one will.

As soon as the first banjo tunes start playing, which is after mere seconds already, you can tell "Moonshine County Express" will become a jolly good and very entertaining slice of hixploitation cinema! Coming from the great Roger Corman's inexhaustible production shed, this obviously isn't a very artistic or intellectual film, but it more than delivers in terms of excitement, kicks, and pure old-fashioned fun.

Modest moonshiner "Pa" Hammer is put out of business - quite brutally, I may add - by his ruthless competitor Jack Starkey and his sadist henchman Sweetwater. Pa left a neat little inheritance for his ravishing three daughters, however, namely a secret stash of authentic and highly qualitative prohibition whiskey. When the girls gradually take over more and more of Starkey's terrain, they need the protection of macho racecar driver JB Johnson.

First of all, have you seen the phenomenal cast "Moonshine County Express" brings together?!? Seeing all these names together in one film must be every avid B-movie fanatic's wet dream. Susan Howard, Claudia Jennings, and Maureen McCormick star as the Hammer sisters. With three multi-talented and feistily ravishing actresses like these, director Gus Trikonis naturally needed an extended male cast to keep a proper balance! Mission accomplished, though, with John Saxon, William Conrad, Len Lesser, Albert Salmi, and Dub Taylor. Furthermore, there are exhilarating car chases aplenty, brutal kills, and effective hillbilly-humor (like when Saxon messes with the Sheriff's costume)

I have seen a John Saxon Film recently, was not MSCE (Moonshine County Express), but kept thinking about this film that I foundly remember from the 70s when I seen him recently. I came to IMDB to do a search to see if I could find the name of the film(found it here) to see about buying it on DVD, but to no avail, not even on VHS! That is awful :-( Couple fun things about the film, Three pretty sisters, One of them always using dynamite to blow up things, I think it was Maureen McCormick, and Claudia Jennnings being the brains of the three I think. John Saxon drives a muscle car, a cherry red Dodge Challenger, a real sweet car. A buddy of mine used to own one down the street from me at the time I seen this back in the late 70s. Hopefully, this gem will come out on DVD soon. If you like this film, you may also like "Duel", Steven Spielbergs first film.