County Express

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.

After their moonshiner "pa" is killed by a rival bootlegging outfit, three sexy sisters (Susan Howard, Claudia Jennings, and Maureen McCormick) band together to continue his business, which quickly brings them into conflict with same group of thugs. So they team up with a local good 'ole boy and stock-car driver/rum-runner (Jon Saxon) to fight back.

This is yet another Roger Corman produced "hicksploitation" film from the 1970's, but actually a pretty good one (despite its PG rating). Most people today will probably seek it out to see Maureen "Marcia Brady" McCormick, but I personally find it more interesting in that it features two of my favorite 1970's drive-in queens, Claudia Jennings and Candice Rialson. The PG-rating, of course, precludes both actresses' usual gratuitous nude scenes, but Jennings was actually a genuinely talented actress (a veritable Meryl Streep for someone who was once a Playboy Playmate) and she's pretty good here as the feisty, shotgun-totin' middle sister. Rialson has a smaller role as the local tart, but she's just sexy as hell even with her clothes on. The main stars though are Jon Saxon and Susan Howard, both of whom are a little too old for these kind of roles (Saxon especially), but they're both pretty good (again Saxon especially). There's also some very decent character actors in the cast including Dub Taylor as the girls' drunken and treacherous uncle and Les "Uncle Leo" Lesser as a very near-sighted store owner. Which, of course, brings us to Marcia, I mean Maureen McCormick. She's definitely cute and appealing as youngest, animal-loving sister, and the scene were she gets bound to a column and (very mildly) tortured by the bad guys might fulfill some people's more perverted "Brady Bunch"-related fantasies, but others might prefer her later film "Texas Lightning" where she has nude scenes (sort of). She does basically hold her here as an actress against thespians a little more talented than Robert Reed, Florence Henderson or Ann B. Davis.

This movie certainly has an interesting cast, and I found it to overall be a pretty decent flick.

When I started watching "Moonshine County Express" I was expecting a low budget 1970s T&A comedy. While it is low budget, there aren't that many jokes. This is a pretty straight crime drama. This movies moves fast and doesn't wear out its welcome. However, I have to admit that I found myself getting a little confused from time to time. The cast is good/not too bad. Overall, "Moonshine County Express" is an okay movie. Honorable mention: a dreamy Marcia Brady (Maureen McCormick).

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)

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.