An old moonshiner is murdered, and his still is blown sky-high. In his will, he leaves his daughters (Susan Howard, Claudia Jennings, and Maureen McCormick) his secret stash of Prohibition Era whiskey. It’s then up to the ladies to sell off the lucrative hooch before their greedy competitor (William Conrad), who also happens to be the one who murdered their pappy, gets wind of it. They then turn to a hotshot race car driver (John Saxon) to help run the shine, avoid the cops, and get revenge.
Moonshine County Express is a moderately effective hicksploitation drive-in flick that features a couple of decent car chases and/or wrecks. It’s really nothing more than an assemblage of the genre’s usual action beats and cliches, but it at least has the benefit of a great cast. Saxon is cool as a cucumber as the likeable Good Ol’ Boy romancing the foxy Howard. Conrad makes for a suitable villain for this sort of thing, and in the film’s most bizarre scene, he hires a prostitute to help him explore his fisherman fetish. While the quality overall is a bit spotty, I still maintain that any movie in which Claudia Jennings and Maureen McCormick play sexy white trash sisters is A-OK in my book.
Though directed with assurance by Gus (The Sidehackers) Trikonis, Moonshine County Express feels like a first draft in search of a polished screenplay. Someone really needed to punch up the weak one-liners and define the characters a little more sharply. While the finale is fine, it pales next to the likes of the classics of the genre. That said, I’m a sucker for a good moonshine running movie, and this one gets the job done, albeit in unremarkable fashion. If you’re like me, and you’re a fan of the genre and/or cast (there are bits by Dub Taylor, Jeff Corey, and Candice Rialson), you’ll certainly take a shine to it.
Jennings and Saxon later appeared together in David Cronenberg’s Fast Company.
AKA: Shine. AKA: County Express. AKA: Moonshine Express. AKA: Blood Whiskey.
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