Stacey (1973) User Reviews

Stacey, you're a fine girl

[Chase_Witherspoon · 5/10 · 3 December 2005]

Superwoman in detective guise, the inimitable Stacey solves family murder caper involving adultery and a large inheritance. The lovely Stacey (played by ex Playboy pin-up Anne Randall), is hired by wealthy matriarch Marjorie Bennett to unravel web of lies and deceit spun by her entourage of sleazy servants and randy relatives, all vying for inheritance honours. Stacey and her sidekick (Alan Landers) soon discover an elaborate (and equally confusing) plot to frame certain members of the family for the murder of a blackmailing minion.

Tacky dialogue, shaky photography, disjointed editing, overbearing music and frequent over-dubbed scene fillers, are mildly compensated by lots (and lots more) bare flesh, coupled with the odd stroke of humour (Stacey's pyjama top reads "Fondle With Care", and is promptly torn off by her eager male companion, revealing a Superman blouse). The cast is diverse with veterans John Alderman and James Westmoreland whilst Stewart Moss appears uncredited in a major supporting role.

Fans of the sexploitation genre will be more than a little disappointed, despite the vast array of motifs, as this film plays like a montage of fast cars and wild women, without continuity or an effective climax and resolution. Randall is aptly cast and gets good support from Anitra Ford and Cristina Raines, especially if you mute the volume. Whilst it's easy to be enamoured by the lusty Randall, you're likely to be left dazed and confused by the last hour and twenty. But that's okay, you can just watch her again ... "Stacey", that is ...

A Private Detective Investigating Blackmail and Murder

[Uriah43 · 5/10 · 9 December 2020]

As an elderly and exceedingly rich widow, "Florence Chambers" (Marjorie Bennett) is concerned about which members of her family are deserving of her inheritance and to that end hires a private detective by the name of "Stacey Hanson" (Anne Randall) to live in her mansion so that she can observe all of them first hand. It's during this time that she discovers that Florence's son "John Chambers" (John Alderman) is gay and that his wife "Tish Chambers" (Anitra Ford) seems to be having an affair with one of the servants named "Frank" (James Westermoreland). What she doesn't know is that Frank is in debt to a vicious loan shark and plans to blackmail Tish in order to get enough money to pay his debt. So when Frank is brutally stabbed to death it now falls upon Stacey to figure out who was behind the murder-and this puts her life in immediate jeopardy as well. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an okay film which had various amounts of action and intrigue along with several beautiful actresses like Cristina Raines (as "Pamela Chambers") along with the aforementioned Anne Randall and Anitra Ford to brighten the scenery. On the flip side, however, both the acting and the script could have clearly used some improvement and as a result I have rated this film accordingly. Average.

Sidaris starts here (well, after a racing doc)

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 12 May 2019]

Before he made Stacey, Andy Sidaris was known as a pioneer in the world of sports television, directing thousands of hours worth of football, basketball, Olympic games and special events for ABC's Wide World of Sports. He eventually won seven Emmy Awards, but is perhaps best known for his invention of the "honey shot," where he'd zoom in on the cleavage of female audience members and cheerleaders.

After helping make Monday Night Football into a ratings powerhouse and working on shows like Kojak and Gemini Man, Sidaris moved into making his own movies by partnering with Roger Corman, raising half the funds for his debut film, Stacey. This is not truly his first film, as that would be The Racing Scene, a documentary about actor James Garner's racing team.

Stacey Hanson (Anne Randall, May 1967 Playboy Playmate of the Month) has two jobs: private eye and race car driver. Wealthy older woman Florence Chambers hires her to determine whether or not her three family members are worthy of being in her will: the secretly gay John, his adulterous wife Tish (Anitra Ford from Messiah of Evil!) and Pamela (Cristina Raines from The Sentinel!), who is in a Manson-esque cult.

Meanwhile, houseboy Frank, who has been sleeping with and blackmailing everyone in the family, has been killed and no one is safe. This is the movie that I learned that none of Sidaris' heroes and heroines knows how to shoot a gun, yet the villains are easily able to shoot everyone around them resulting in spectacular crimson geysers of gore.

If this all seems rather close to a later Sidaris film, Malibu Express, that's because other than a few characters, they're largely the same film. The sad fact that I can logically discuss Andy Sidaris films and know enough facts about them that I can drop at will either makes me feel like I'm doing the right thing or ponder where it all went wrong. There's a thin line between madness and genius. The films of Andy Sidaris make me confront that head on.

Whereas the later films of Sidaris postulate a shared universe of L.E.T.H.A.L. Ladies and various drug dealing enemies that eventually become friends, this is a self-contained affair. But as he'd move on from doing TV - he was still working on shows like The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries and ABC's Monday Night Football - Andy was ready to embrace the world of film completely. Yet one thing never changed: Sidaris loved showing off gorgeous women, but don't write off his films as simple exploitation. His women are always capable, empowered and intelligent.

Campy, poorly produced Playmate cash-in

[MrVB · 12 April 1999]

The female James Bond/Derek Flint/Columbo. Poor production, script, acting. Femme-fatale attempt fails horribly. Cop out ending has nothing to do with first 88 minutes of film. No continuity to story. Tries to be a good serious film and fails. Playmate not attractive enough to divert from overall pathetic production. Don't waste your time or money.

Andy Sidaris ripped himself off!!!

[djb896328 · 4/10 · 11 March 2012]

I've just been on an Andy Sidaris bender recently, watching his 80s/90s movies, which began with his BB (boobs and bombs) classic 1985's Malibu Express. Once I learned about the existence of an even earlier movie of his, Stacey from 1973, I of course tracked down a copy and began watching it. And to my surprise, there was something awfully familiar about this movie. Basically it's Malibu Express, except, of course, 12 years earlier! He ripped himself off!

Here are the *similarities* I noticed. Both movies...

-- start with a car being raced around a track, revealing a sexy female as its driver as she unzips her racing suit and shows us her boobs -- have heroes who are private investigators living on a boat docked in a marina and who drive corvettes -- have all the action's set in and around LA and Palm Springs -- start with a visit to some rich people's mansion in which the older matriarch is confined to a wheelchair -- have a rich older lady hiring the hero to investigate some family mystery -- show some creepy dude secretly filming or photographing a woman in the bathroom or bedroom -- have a chauffeur that has dirt on the rich family he works for and is blackmailing them for money -- have a member of the rich family who is a closeted homosexual -- have a character murdered and the key to solving the murder has to do with undeveloped film...

... OK, I'm gonna stop now because if I keep listing these "similarities" I'll run out of space.

Basically, if you've seen Malibu Express then you've seen this movie. Malibu Express is an unofficial remake or rip-off of Stacey, depending on your point of view.

The main and seemingly only difference for that matter is the lovely Anne Randall. She's stunningly beautiful, gets naked (topless only) quite a few times and, to be honest, is actually pretty decent an actress in the context of an Andy Sidaris flick. You'll get more boobs from more women in Malibu Express, and that movie is funnier, but it doesn't have a girl the quality of Anne Randall in it, not even for a second.

I'd recommend Stacey only for the die hard cheesy guns 'n' girls movie buffs.

Whitesploitation?

[haildevilman · 7/10 · 25 August 2006]

Sidaris jumped on a bandwagon here. He just made everybody white instead.

Stacey, Stacey, Stacey, you are one gorgeous lady.

She's also a decent actress and played the strong feminine heroine perfectly. She wasn't aloof or self-righteous about it. And the action scenes were realistic as well. Or at least as realistic as the budget allowed.

The obvious obsession with her breasts was actually done with semi-realism as well. And showing her with her boyfriend, working and playing with him, while at the same time letting him look good, was VERY different.

A feminist heroine we can all respect.

"The Playmate Private Eye"

[profh-1 · 6/10 · 16 March 2024]

Beautiful, gorgeous female private eye "Stacey Hanson" (Anne Randall) is hired to investigate the family of aging "Florence Chambers" (Marjorie Bennett), and discovers infidelity, blackmail, murder, and worse. She and her assistant wind up the targets of paid killers (including Nicholas Giorgiade from THE UNTOUCHABLES), and it all climaxes in one VERY long, VERY fast and violent high-speed chase in the desert. Along the way, lots of nudity and other fun stuff punctuate the proceedings.

I rented Andy 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 "Girls, Guns & 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.

Anne Randell Lovely

[garyldibert · 10/10 · 19 January 2014]

TITLE: STACEY was released in theaters on April 1 1973 starring Anitra Ford, Anne Randell, and Alan Landers. The time to watch this movie is 81 minutes.

SUMMARY: Superwoman in detective guise, the inimitable Stacey solves family murder caper involving adultery and a large inheritance. The lovely Stacey (played by ex-Playboy pin-up Anne Randall), is hired by wealthy matriarch Marjorie Bennett to unravel web of lies and deceit spun by her entourage of sleazy servants and randy relatives, all vying for inheritance honors. Stacey and her sidekick (Alan Landers) soon discover elaborate (and equally confusing) plots to frame certain members of the family for the murder of a blackmailing minion. There's plenty of characters in this plot. First, the lovely and gorgeous Anitra ford who played the role of Tish Chambers. Then there was Cristine Ranies who played the role of Pamela Chambers. Then there also Matt and Luke. When Stacey gets to place of hired several members of the family who would do nothing to see the other one in trouble with the law greet her. We start with Tish who's sleeping with both Matt and Luke. However, Matt started to take pictures of him and Tish making love with a hidden camera. Tish finds out about but there's nothing she can do about it.

QUESTIONS: Who Hired Stacey? What was Stacey hired for? What did Stacey Find out about the family members? What was on the film that Stacey found?

MY THOUGHTS: If wasn't for all the nude scenes in this movie you could this movie was kind of boring. However starting with Anne Randell this movie was more than just boring. Anne was excellent in her role as Stacey and they plenty of shots of her beautiful body. Then you have Anitra Ford who was excellent in her role as Tish Chambers and they showed her beautiful body. Base on the drama, action, and shots of Anne Randell and Anitra Ford I give this movie 10 weasel stars