Malibu Express

1985 film by Andy Sidaris

Malibu Express is a 1985 American action film starring Darby Hinton, Sybil Danning, Lori Sutton, and Art Metrano. It was directed, written, and produced by Andy Sidaris and is the first installment in the Triple B series. The film features 1980s Playboy Playmates Kimberly McArthur, Barbara Edwards, Lorraine Michaels, and Lynda Wiesmeier in its cast, as well. In it, Danning "cinched her image as B budget bad girl". Regis and Joy Philbin cameo as talk show hosts.

A wealthy playboy/private investigator named Cody Abilene is hired by a government intelligence operative to investigate a lead into who is selling computer technology to the Russians. While investigating rich socialites, amorous naked vixens, and an ex con with a penchant for blackmail, and keeping it all from his sexy lady cop friend Beverly Mcafee, Cody puts himself in the crosshairs of the traitorous tech spies who will gladly kill to stay in business. The scope of the conspiracy is revealed after Cody and Beverly make love at a suspect's beach house, only to find a pair of hitmen gunning for them as they get dressed. Gunplay, car chases, and races ensue.

Exteriors were shot in Beverly Hills, around Los Angeles such as Sunset Boulevard, Willow Springs Raceway and the Mojave Desert.

The film's music was composed by Henry Strzelecki, with Ronny Light producing the soundtrack which featured Strzelecki on bass, Bucky Barrett and Tommy Jones on guitar, Bobby Thompson playing guitar and banjo, Weldon Myrick playing guitar and Dobro, Barry Walsh on piano, Dale Morris on fiddle, Terry McMillan on harmonica and percussion, and Kenny Buttrey on drums.

The film was first released in March 1985, then on DVD in 2002. It then appeared in two DVD collections, Andy Sidaris Collection, Vol. 1 (of six discs) in 2003, and Triple B Collection, Vol. 1 in 2005.

Malibu Express is described as a "routine erotic spy tale" by Eleanor Mannikka of All Movie Guide. The Video Movie Guide 2001 rated the movie with a single "turkey", amazed that the movie got an "R" rating, "since it's clearly soft porn". TV Guide gave the film two stars. Barbara Edwards' appearance in the hero's shower is cited as "one of the hottest topless lesbian shower scenes in the long and hot tradition of lesbian shower scenes".

The material from the film was reworked from a previous Sidaris film, Stacey (1973). The role of Stacey Hanson (Anne Randall) was divided into two new characters: private detective protagonist Cody Abilene (Darby Hinton) and his girlfriend June Khnockers (Lynda Wiesmeier). The openings of both films depict their respective female race car drivers in the finish of a practice race. Both films then have them getting out of uniform. Stacey is the protagonist, though, while June serves mostly as the source of a recurring joke in her film: "Knockers with an "h"?". June can still reliably drive a high performance race car, but Cody performs most of Stacey's functions in the film. The discreet homosexual nephew John (John Alderman) turns into Stuart (Michael A. Anderson), a drag queen, in the second film. In both films, the detective follows the character into a gay bar. The difference is that in the first film, John wears regular clothes, while in the second, Stuart is in full drag. Cody laughs while dictating notes into a recorder, but still admits that Stuart has great legs. Stuart is more of a cartoonish gay stereotype than John. The youthful niece Pamela (Cristina Raines) turns into the bit older niece Liza (Lorraine Michaels) in the second film. Liza has her own sex scene with the houseboy Shane (Brett Clark). The difference in age was probably decided to allow this sex scene and more nudity than would be acceptable from a teenager. The second film adds a character with no counterpart in the original: Contessa Luciana (Sybil Danning). Contessa has a romantic night with Cody, before he moves into his next assignment. The relationship to the family is unspecified, but she turns out to have murdered Shane. She is beyond the reach of the law and suffers no ill consequences for her murder.