July 25, 2017
Let’s talk politics tonight. Just a little. No Donald the
Hutt, I promise. Instead, let’s talk other celebrities running for office. I’ve
seen Fred Grandy from Love Boat end up in the US Senate, along with Sonny Bono.
I’ve seen Ronald Reagan in the White House. I’ve seen Al Franken go from
Saturday Night Live to grilling a certain unnamed orange president’s cabinet
appointees like a cook at a busy Waffle House. But, despite all those guys, the
one I would have voted for in a New York minute was Kurt Russell as Rudy Russo
in Used Cars.
Rudy Russo is a used car sales man, working for a very nice
guy named Luke Fuchs, played by Jack Warden. Rudy needs money for a run at the
State Senate, so he asks Luke for $10,000 to get into the election. Luke agrees
to lend him the money, but, before he can actually give it to him, Luke’s
brother, Roy L. Fuchs, also played by Warden, arranges an “accident” to get
Luke’s bad heart to finally give up on him. It seems Roy L., who is Luke’s main
competition in the used car business has his lot directly across the highway
from Luke. Roy L. has found out that the new interstate is going in, and the
mayor has forewarned Roy L. that it will be cutting right through his property.
Roy L. needs Luke out of the way so he can inherit Luke’s car lot and move his
much more successful business onto Luke’s property, so he can catch all the
interstate traffic.
Rudy and his co-workers find Luke’s dead body, and, to keep
Roy L. from taking over, they hide the body and tell Roy L. that Luke went off
on a fishing trip. When Luke’s estranged daughter shows up, though, things go
from panic to manic. She finds out the truth, and fires Rudy and his friends.
She tries to make the lot a go of it, but Roy L. steps in and has her first
commercial edited to become a case of false advertising. It is up to Rudy and
his pals to save the car lot and put Roy L. out of business.
This movie was written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, the
duo who would later go on to write Back To the Future. It was also directed by
Zemeckis, only his second feature as a director after I Wanna Hold Your Hand. Steven
Spielberg acted as the executive producer for both films, and has since been
very cooperative with Zemeckis productions. I say that, though, to say this –
this is as far removed from a stereotypical Spielberg movie as you can get. It
is rude, crude, vulgar, and it is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen.
Russell was just breaking the final ties to his Disney film
career when he made Used Cars. And Russell makes the most of it here. He ain’t
squeaky clean Dexter Riley anymore, folks. He smokes, he is foul-mouthed, he is
conniving, he is greedy as hell, and he will do whatever it takes to get this
$50,000 to bribe his way into the State Senate election, even if it takes
hijacking a Presidential Address broadcast for one of the most outrageous used
car ads in television history. One great moment comes as he works the lot at
opening time, going from customer to customer, introducing himself after asking
the customer their name. When he learns their name, he immediately adopts a
last name to match the ethnicity of the customer. In one 60-second period, he
changes his own last name to O’Brien, Garcia, and, the best, after meeting an
African-American couple, Rudy Russo becomes Rudy Washington Carver.
Besides Jack Warden being superb as Roy L. and his dead
brother Luke, the rest of the supporting cast is top-notch. Frank McHugh, who
was one of the homeless guys living in Cannery Row, is hysterical as Jim the
Mechanic, a crude, foul-mouthed, but lovable goof. Deborah Harmon, as Luke’s
estranged daughter, Barbara, is fun to watch as she struggles to stay honest in
one of the most dishonest careers known to man. Look for Laverne and Shirley’s “Lenny
and Squiggy” as Freddie and Eddie, the two guys who help Rudy hijack the
airwaves for the most politically incorrect TV commercials ever made. And look
for Al Lewis, Grandpa Munster himself, as the judge who has to decide if Barbara’s
lame attempt at advertising is a ‘blatant claim of false advertising ever.”
While I love Kurt Russell in this movie, he almost has the
film stolen from him by the amazing Gerrit Graham. Graham plays Jeff, the most
incredibly superstitious car salesman on the planet. He carries a key chain
with a hundred good luck charms on it. He thinks red cars are the ultimate
jinx. He plans his life around luck. One of his best scenes in the movie occurs
after Jeff, Rudy, and Jim have been fired by Barbara. Rudy is still short on
his political bribe money, so Jeff gives him a hot tip on a football game, one based on his crazy superstitions. Rudy bets everything he has against the
team, knowing Jeff’s losing record at picking winners. This time, though, Jeff
seems to have chosen the winning team. As Jeff, Rudy, and Jim watch the game in
a bar, and watch Rudy’s chances at becoming a senator slowly fade away, it
occurs to Jim that, in order for Rudy to win, Jeff has to lose. Graham proceeds
to do every “bad luck” thing he can do to change the outcome of the game’s last
thirty seconds. As he runs around the bar, opening umbrellas, turning over salt
shakers, and trying to crawl under a ladder, sure enough, his team begins to
play horribly. Graham is so insanely funny in this scene, it almost eclipses
his triumph over his own fear at the end of the movie. And no, I will not spoil
it for you. You will be glad I didn’t…
Find Used Cars and watch it. Seeing Russell enter his badass
phase is fun, and you cannot help but laugh yourself silly at some of the
ridiculous jokes. It’s a great way to spend two hours. And, as Rudy loves to
say, trust me…
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