You probably consider Kurt Russell to be one of Hollywood’s most versatile actors, believable in anything from stone-faced dramas to rock-em sock-em action pics. That wasn’t however always the case, however. In 1963 Russell was signed to a ten-year contract with Walt Disney, and began building a career as a stereotypical Disney kid in movies like The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The Barefoot Executive (what was with him and feet?) and The Strongest Man in the World.
By the mid-seventies the popularity of Disney’s family-friendly pablum was waning and so was Russell’s career. Work was so infrequent that the actor spent a stint playing minor league ball as an option. Just as Russell likely thought his career was ending, so too were the careers of two directors just starting. John Carpenter had gotten noticed for a small but stylish horror film called Halloween and was looking for someone to play Elvis in his TV movie biography. Russell got the part, which was just the first in a string of collaborations between the two.
Russell’s work in Elvis got him noticed by another up and coming director – Robert Zemeckis – who, along with producer Bob Gale, had a bawdy comedy in the works called Used Cars about competing car dealerships run by twin brothers – both played by Jack Warden – who fight over the rights to the dealerships which sit directly across from one another on a busy Arizona highway. This is Russell’s first opportunity to drop F-bombs with abandon and share the screen with topless strippers. Yep, it’s that kind of movie. It’s also that kind of trailer, and you should be warned that it’s NSFW despite all the R-rated language being bleeped out, as the brief T&A has not. Wait ’til you get home, M’kay?
Keep an eye open in the trailer too for David Lander and Michael McKeon who played Lenny and Squiggy on TV’s Laverne and Shirley.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/ejbC9G_Tpmo[/youtube]
Quite remarkably, you can watch the whole movie right here on YouTube
Image: YouTube