46 Years of Used Cars
Released on 11 July 1980, Used Cars should have been the film that launched Robert Zemeckis into the Hollywood stratosphere. Instead, the raucous comedy became an underappreciated box office casualty of one of the most competitive summers in Hollywood history. Arriving just weeks after The Blues Brothers and squeezed between Airplane! and Caddyshack, it struggled to find an audience despite its infectious energy and glowing preview reactions. Over the decades, however, it has steadily earned the cult following it always deserved. Looking back 45 years later, Used Cars feels like a missing piece of cinema history, a wonderfully chaotic bridge between the youthful energy of 1941 and the blockbuster brilliance that Zemeckis would soon achieve with Back to the Future.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis and co-written with Bob Gale, with Steven Spielberg and John Milius serving as executive producers, Used Cars is loud, politically incorrect, relentlessly inventive and packed with outrageous sight gags. It is the sort of comedy Hollywood simply doesn’t make anymore.
Set in sun-drenched Arizona, Used Cars follows Rudy Russo (Kurt Russell), a fast-talking, morally flexible salesman working for the struggling Fuchs Brothers Used Cars dealership. Rudy hopes to make enough money to leave the business behind and pursue a career in politics, but his plans are thrown into chaos when the kindly dealership owner, Luke Fuchs (Jack Warden), dies unexpectedly. With Luke’s crooked twin brother Roy, who owns a rival car dealership across the road, determined to seize control of the business. With a bypass due to be built through one of the warring car lots, Rudy and his eccentric colleagues hatch an increasingly outrageous series of schemes, publicity stunts and elaborate cons to keep the dealership alive.
As Rudy Russo proudly promises prospective customers, “Trust me!” It becomes the perfect slogan for a film where absolutely nobody should be trusted. And as Rudy Russo, Kurt Russell delivers his most underrated comedy performance.
Before becoming Snake Plissken, Jack Burton, Wyatt Earp and one of Hollywood’s most dependable leading men, Kurt Russell was already proving he had impeccable comic timing. His performance as Rudy Russo is wonderfully shameless, a fast-talking used car salesman whose ethics are almost non-existent but whose charm makes him impossible to dislike. Russell has often spoken fondly of the production, recalling how much freedom Robert Zemeckis allowed the cast and crew to push every joke as far as possible. Watching the film today, you can tell everyone involved was having an absolute blast.
However, it’s Jack Warden who steals the entire film. If Russell provides the energy, then the late Jack Warden provides its heart. Playing both kindly dealership owner Luke Fuchs and his greedy twin brother Roy L. Fuchs, Warden delivers one of the finest double performances in comedy cinema. The contrast between the gentle, honest Luke and the capitalist pig Roy creates much of the film’s humour, while also giving the story genuine emotional weight.
Warden sadly passed away in 2006, leaving behind one of the great character actor careers in Hollywood, appearing in classics such as 12 Angry Men, While you were Sleeping, All the President’s Men, …And Justice for All and Bullets Over Broadway. Yet Used Cars remains one of his most joyful performances.
The late Frank McRae almost walks away with every scene as Jim the mechanic, delivering his profanity-laced dialogue with infectious enthusiasm. McRae would later become instantly recognisable to audiences through films including 48 Hrs., National Lampoon’s Vacation, Licence to Kill, Last Action Hero and well… Hijack. He passed away in 2021, but his booming screen presence remains unforgettable.
Then there is Gerrit Graham, comedy’s secret weapon. His manic performance as the superstitious salesman Jeff perfectly complements Russell throughout the film. Already beloved by cult cinema fans for a number of films that help establish both Brian DePalma and Robert DeNiro, Graham is possibly best known for Phantom of the Paradise. Graham would continue building an extraordinary career across film and television, appearing in everything from Terrorvision, Police Academy 6, Soup for one, C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud and Child’s Play 2 to countless television guest roles. Although he rarely gives lengthy retrospective interviews about Used Cars, fans continue to celebrate his wonderfully unhinged performance.
One of the film’s funniest exchanges came almost by accident, with Jeff repeatedly echoing Rudy until an exasperated response produced the immortal line: “What are you, a fucking parrot?”
Deborah Harmon provides genuine warmth as Barbara Fuchs, becoming the moral centre amongst all the madness. She would later appear opposite Tom Hanks in Bachelor Party before enjoying a long television career throughout the 1980s and 1990s including the long running TV comedy Just the Ten of Us.
Another welcome presence is the late Joe Flaherty as television station employee Sam Slaton. Already a comedy legend thanks to the groundbreaking sketch series SCTV, Flaherty brought his trademark deadpan delivery to even the film’s most absurd moments. He would go on to enjoy a long and varied career in film and television, appearing in Back to the Future Part II and numerous Christopher Guest productions. For many younger viewers, however, he will always be remembered as the heckling fan in Happy Gilmore, relentlessly taunting Adam Sandler’s title character with the unforgettable refrain, “Jackass!” Following his passing in 2024, Flaherty is remembered as one of comedy’s great character performers, and Used Cars stands as an early showcase for his understated brilliance.
One of the real pleasures of revisiting Used Cars is spotting performers who would go on to become even bigger names in the years that followed. Michael McKean and David L. Lander, already beloved by television audiences as Lenny and Squiggy from Laverne & Shirley, are hilarious as the electronics experts helping Rudy stage his increasingly ridiculous television advertisements. McKean would go on to enjoy one of the most varied careers in Hollywood, achieving cult immortality as David St. Hubbins in This Is Spinal Tap, earning acclaim for roles in Clue, The Big Picture and Best in Show, and introducing himself to a new generation of viewers with his Emmy-nominated performance as Chuck McGill in Better Call Saul.
Marc McClure, seen briefly as “Heavy Duty” Dubois, would go on to become forever associated with the Superman films as Jimmy Olsen and later appear in Back to the Future. Betty Thomas also makes a small appearance years before becoming an acclaimed television director and later directing hit films including The Brady Bunch Movie, Private Parts and Doctor Dolittle.
Australian model Cheryl Rixon appears as Margaret during one of the film’s memorable promotional sequences. Already well known internationally as a model and magazine cover star, her role here added another memorable stop in a varied entertainment career. Fans should also keep an eye out for Wendie Jo Sperber in a brief appearance. She would become one of the most recognisable comedy actresses of the decade through Bachelor Party, Back to the Future and numerous television series before her untimely passing in 2005.
No retrospective on Used Cars would be complete without mentioning Toby, the lovable dealership dog who somehow manages to steal scenes. Played by a talented canine actor named Peanuts, Toby becomes an unlikely accomplice for Luke and then Jeff and provides some of the film’s sweetest moments amid the chaos. It’s a shame Peanuts never became one of Hollywood’s famous animal stars and Used Cars remains his only outing.
Like the film itself, the production of Used Cars was equally fascinating. One of the biggest coups was persuading Jack Warden to take on the dual roles of the kindly Luke Fuchs and his unscrupulous twin brother, Roy. Warden had originally only wanted to play Roy, but Robert Zemeckis convinced him to tackle both characters. It proved to be one of the film’s masterstrokes, with Warden effortlessly creating two distinct personalities whose rivalry forms the heart of the story.
Kurt Russell now seems inseparable from Rudy Russo, but he wasn’t the only actor considered for the role. George Hamilton, who had recently finished the TV Movie Death Car on the Freeway was reportedly an early favourite, while Bill Murray’s name was also discussed during development. Elsewhere, another future comedy legend almost joined the cast, with John Candy originally cast as Sam Slaton before scheduling conflicts forced him to withdraw and he SCTV bud Joe Flaherty thankfully stepped in.
The production wasn’t afraid to embrace practical effects either. During the sequence in which Jeff opens fire on Roy’s dealership, real ammunition was used to shatter the windshields and headlights of the parked cars, giving the destruction a level of authenticity that would almost certainly be achieved digitally today. Not every gag survived intact, however. Columbia Pictures executives objected to some particularly risqué novelty glasses worn during the football-themed television commercial, resulting in portions of the sequence being reshot with spring eye glasses before the film’s release.
Although there are rumours of an extended version of Used Cars, no director’s cut is known to exist. There are, however, a handful of intriguing alternate versions. Robert Zemeckis filmed two versions of Jeff’s FBI interview following the dealership shootout. In the theatrical cut, Jeff blames Iranian students, reflecting the tensions surrounding the 1979–80 hostage crisis. Anticipating that world events could change before the film reached cinemas, Zemeckis wisely shot an alternate version naming a different group. Aside from that curiosity, only outtakes, gag reels and original trailers have surfaced on home video, with no substantial deleted scenes ever emerging.
Even the film’s music carries a little mystery. While the finished film features an energetic score by Patrick Williams, early trade reports announced that Academy Award-winning composer Ernest Gold had been hired to provide the music. Exactly what happened has never been publicly explained. Whether Gold’s score was never completed or replaced during post-production remains unclear, and the unused score was released for the film in 2012, a CD I am proud to own.
Released just one week after Airplane!, Used Cars struggled to find its audience despite strong preview screenings. It earned respectable business but nowhere near enough to become the breakout success Columbia Pictures had hoped for. Over the decades, however, home video transformed its reputation into that of a genuine cult favourite. Watching it today, you can already see Robert Zemeckis refining the fast-paced visual storytelling, elaborate practical stunts and rapid-fire editing that would soon define Romancing the Stone, Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Forrest Gump.
Used Cars may never receive the same recognition as Zemeckis’ later masterpieces, but for fans of anarchic 1980s comedy it remains an absolute gem. It introduced audiences to one of Kurt Russell’s funniest performances, showcased Jack Warden at his very best, and assembled an ensemble cast packed with future stars and unforgettable character actors.
Forty-five years on, Rudy Russo is still telling us to “Trust me!” Against all better judgement… we still do.
