Plot

In a tiny county in Appalachia, handsome young El Camino-driving Eddie Joe Rodgers excels at brewing "hooch", the traditional moonshine. The Old-Timers begin to stew as Eddie Joe's charm and savvy moves in on their customers. Old Bill, a fellow brewer and owner of the local country store, goes out of bounds and conspires with Mafiosi from New York carpetbagging down South in order to racket the market and Eddie Joe's business, threatening everyone's livelihood. The local Sheriff's protection is uncertain for Eddie Joe, the only person refusing to pay him to look the other way. Meanwhile, Eddie Joe two-times Ginnie and Jamie Sue, the Sheriff's and Old Bill's daughters...A "hicksploitation" recipe for comedic mountain mayhem written and directed by Edward Mann which has brewed into an American cult classic. "It's illegal...it's immoral...and it's so damned good!"—Anonymous

Hooch is an inexpensive regional exploitation action-comedy (hicksploitation) about a small county in the Appalachians and its many moonshine-brewing inhabitants, who are all struggling to make a living. The older "brewers" are pissed off at the success of handsome young upstart Eddie Joe (Gil Gerard, later to be the star of the TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century), who is charmingly stealing their regular customers. Meanwhile, the owner of the country store (also a moonshiner) conspires with a trio of carpetbagging Mafioso who want to take over the moonshine business in that county as an extension of their Northern business ventures. The store owner's daughter seduces Eddie Joe, whose steady girl is actually a very childlike, prudish yet buxom youth choir director and Sunday School teacher at the local Baptist church, whose uncle, the local sheriff, has a vendetta against Eddie Joe, because he's the only moonshiner in the county who refuses to bribe the lawman to look the other way. (written by Anne Heller, cfood@sbcglobal.net)