“The centre-fold private eye”
Race-car driving, private detective Stacey Hanson’s most recent assignment sees her hired by the elderly, wheel-chair bound Florence Chambers who is in a quandary as to who to leave her estate to upon her future passing. Introduced into the affluent Palm Springs household as an old family friend, Stacey soon discovers that all is not quite right within the Chambers household and old Florence has every right to be concernd about who is worthy enough to inherit her assets.
Nephew John (“nice but faggy”) is the logical heir but is embroiled in a gay affair; his hot to trot wife Tish is having an affair with chauffeur/handyman Frank and niece Pamela is a pothead channelling money off to hippie guru Rodney. As well as his affair with Tish, Frank has his own secrets – an ex-con, he’s in deep debt with a mob boss and decides to turn his hand to blackmail in an attempt to clear his account!
Unfortunately for Frank his blackmail attempts fall flat and unable to settle his debts, he’s quickly rubbed out in a night time assault – but not before taking a flash-enabled snap of his assailant! After finding the undeveloped film, Stacey calls in the help of lover Bob and the pair rush off to have the film developed so as to discover the identity of Frank’s killer! Despite Bob being wounded in a shoot-out at the race track and after outrunning the hoods in a helicopter, Stacey returns to the Chambers home to unveil the murderer just as the police arrive! Of course we’ve completely forgotten about Florence’s inheritance but we’re not really bothered by then…
Anyone even remotely familiar with the works of writer/producer/director Andy Sidaris will find much in common between Stacey and his later works, despite a good decade between this and the vast majority of his oevre. Sidaris managed to cram ten films into a 13 year period, generally glossy looking crime yarns packed to the gills with beautiful women (often Playboy models), fast cars, speedboats, shootouts and usually set in glamorous locations like Hawaii or California.
At a mere 75 minutes, Stacey doesn’t hang around in letting the viewer know exactly what lies ahead – after spending the credits sequence speeding around in a race-car, Stacey strips out of her jumpsuit before the image freeze-frames over her open top and bare breasts as the film title displays. Exploitative? Damn straight! Sidaris doesn’t waste any opportunity for former Playmate of the Month (May 1967 fact fans) Anne Randall to either flash the flesh or squeeze into a tight or skimpy outfit! I’m not sure the Italian title of film, The Porno Detective is justified! The action sequences are fast and furious and generally well put together, including gun battles on a marina and at a racetrack.
Stacey often feels like a TV movie – you could easily imagine Columbo shuffling through the sets – which is unsurprising given the clearly modest budget Sidaris would have had to play with. Other than a role in Westworld (also 1973) Randall’s career during the Seventies seems to have been predominantly bit parts in numerous television shows. Sidaris also helmed the odd television episode and Anitra Ford (Tish) has a number of television credits to her name (as well as roles in Jack Hill’s The Big Bird Cage, American football/prison classic The Mean Machine & low budget horror epic Messiah of Evil).
To my knowledge Stacey is the only Sidaris film not to have had any kind of home cinema release bar on videotape in the early Eighties. I’ve seen tapes from the UK, Holland, the US, Greece and Scandinavia. Whilst worth checking out as a film of its’ time as well as the earliest example of the director’s work, a viewing of the 1985’s Malibu Express will give you the same result – the films share many similar plot points! Keep your eyes peeled for the relatively inexpensive Girls, Guns & G-Strings three disc set that includes 12 films – 10 directed by Sidaris and 2 by his son!
Rob Bewick
Below The Radar 