Stacey
occupies a (very) minor place in film history, because it’s the first example
of low-budget director Andy Sidaris’ signature style. During the ’80s and ’90s,
Sidaris made a slew of ridiculous action movies starring Penthouse and Playboy
models, correctly assuming that the combination of guns and gazongas would
score with the home-video crowd. All the elements of Sidaris’ exploitative
formula can be found in his debut feature, Stacey.
Presented as a hard-boiled detective story, complete with cynical past-tense
narration, Stacey concerns Stacey
Hanson (Anne Randall), a private eye who happens to be a buxom blonde. Hired by
a rich old woman, Stacey is charged with investigating the woman’s potential
heirs to see if any of them deserves an inheritance. Naturally, each of these
folks is up to something. John (John Alderman) is gay but closeted, so his
horny wife, Tish (Anitra Ford), finds pleasure in bed with a handyman, who
takes pictures of their trysts for purposes of blackmail. Meanwhile, Pamela
(Cristina Raines) is involved with a Manson-style sex cult. This being a
Sidaris film, most scenes require Stacey to wear skimpy clothes—or nothing at
all—in order to track down clues. Somewhat improbably, Stacey is also a racecar
driver, which leads to the silly finale during which she steers a racecar down
a rural road while being chased with a helicopter. Even more typical of the film
(and of Sidaris’ juvenile aesthetic) is the scene in which a killer stalks
Stacy while she showers—only to discover that she’s waiting for him behind the
curtain with a gun. The ladies in Stacey
are attractive, and the film contains a fair measure of action, so it’s no
surprise to learn that Roger Corman’s New World Pictures released Stacey—Sidaris delivers the trashy goods.
Nonetheless, Stacey is boring, episodic, and stupid, ideal only for the most
lascivious of viewers.
Stacey:
LAME
1 comment:
I rented Sidaris’ first 4 films from my video store back in the 90s and made copies of them. Been enjoying them several times since. Don’t know why I didn’t continue (job inconsistency the most likely reason), but it’s okay, as I JUST ordered the “Guns, Girls & G-Strings” box set on DVD.
It’s a toss-up as to which was my favorite, “SEVEN” or “MALIBU EXPRESS”. Just re-watched “STACEY” tonight, and it remains a FUN film from start to finish. The copy I have has always been fuzzy– picture and sound– which made the film seem amateurish, compared to the later films. Was the film like that, or was it just a seriously-INFERIOR videotape transfer?
I never connected until tonight that the LONG climactic action sequence involving a shoot-out, a car chase, a helicopter, and another chase and shoot-out on foot parallels the one seen in “SHAFT’S BIG SCORE” the previous year! (Perhaps Sidaris didn’t have the budget to actually blow up the helicopter this time– heh.)
I was researching these films this week, and suddenly found out the first 3 films had been co-financed by A- Roger Corman (New World Pictures), B- Samuel Z. Arkoff (American International Pictures) and, C- Hugh Hefner, respectively. However, Hefner argued over the content, then sold his half to someone else behind Sidaris’ back. Sidaris was PISSED– and so raised more money, bought back Hef’s half, and determined from then on to finance his films entirely on his own. WAY TO GO!
For whatever reason, it took until 2018 for “SEVEN” to be reissued on DVD and Blu-Ray. I wonder if Corman having sold New World, and NW then having GONE UNDER a few years later, is why “STACEY” is currently in some kind of “limbo”? SOMEBODY needs to fix that– and put out a DECENT-looking print of it, after ALL these years.
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