|
''Car Wash'' is a 1976 American comedy film released by Universal Pictures. The Art Linson Production was directed by Michael Schultz from a screenplay by Joel Schumacher. Starring Franklyn Ajaye, Bill Duke, George Carlin, Irwin Corey, Ivan Dixon, Antonio Fargas, Jack Kehoe, Clarence Muse, Lorraine Gary, The Pointer Sisters and Richard Pryor, ''Car Wash'' is an episodic comedy about a day in the lives of the employees and the owner, Mr. B (Sully Boyar), of a Los Angeles, California car wash (filmed at a Westlake car wash at the corner of Rampart Blvd. and 6th Street). ==Overview== Originally conceived as a musical, ''Car Wash'' deals with the exploits of a close-knit, multiracial group of employees at a Los Angeles car wash. In an episodic fashion, the film covers a full day, during which all manner of strange visitors make cameo appearances, including Lorraine Gary as a hysterical wealthy woman from Beverly Hills dealing with a carsick son. Richard Pryor also appears in a memorable cameo as a money-hungry evangelist named 'Daddy Rich' whose pseudo-gospel of prosperity theology is beloved by most (including his female entourage, played by The Pointer Sisters) but loathed by Abdullah, formerly Duane (Bill Duke), a young, bad-tempered, Black Muslim revolutionary. Later in the film, there is also a man ("Professor" Irwin Corey) whose strange behavior and dress fit the profile of the notorious "pop bottle bomber" being sought that day by the police. This causes employees, customers and the owner of the car wash, Mr. B (Sully Boyer) to fear for their lives, but the strange man's pop bottle "bomb" is simply a urine sample he is taking to the hospital. Mr B's son Irwin (Richard Brestoff), a left-wing college student who smokes pot in the men's restroom and carries around a copy of ''Quotations from Chairman Mao'', insists on spending a day with the "working class" employees, since he considers them "brothers" in the "struggle". As he gets ready to go to work, he sets off motion sensors that give him the first "human car wash", which he takes in a good-natured (if pot-induced) stride. George Carlin appears as a taxi driver searching fruitlessly for a prostitute who stiffed him for a fare. The prostitute, Marleen, has her own hopes shattered as a customer who she apparently has fallen in love with has given her a false telephone number. Ex-con Lonnie (Ivan Dixon) is an older employee and the foreman of the car wash who tries to mentor Abdullah while struggling to raise two young children on a meager salary, as well as fending off his parole officer (Jason Bernard). Abdullah confronts Lindy (Antonio Fargas) and sharply criticizes his cross-dressing, to which Lindy coolly replies, "I'm more man than you'll ever be and more woman than you'll ever get". T.C. (Franklin Ajaye) is another young employee who is determined to win a radio call-in contest to win tickets for a rock concert and to convince his estranged girlfriend Mona, who works as a waitress in a diner across the street, to accompany him. Floyd and Lloyd are two other employees who are musical entertainers who have an audition for an agent at the end of their shift and spend the entire movie doing their jazz-blues dance moves in front of bewildered customers. Justin is another young employee who clashes with his girlfriend, Loretta, who wants him to go back to college, but he refuses out of the feeling that a black man like him will not get anywhere in the world with any kind of education. Justin's elderly grandfather, Snapper, works as the shoe shine man at the car wash and is a follower of Daddy Rich. Other employees include womanizer Geronimo; Scruggs, a cowboy who works as the gas pump operator; Hippo, an overweight employee who briefly hooks up with Marleen the prostitute; Chuco, a scheming Latino employee; Goody, a Native American employee; Charlie, a scruffy middle-aged employee; Sly (Garrett Morris), a con artist employee and bookie who later gets arrested right at the car wash for a series of unpaid parking tickets; and Earl, who has the attitude of being superior to his colleagues because he doesn't get wet, he would appear to think that he is the supervisor at the car wash. Among all of this, Mr. B constantly makes passes against the receptionist Marsha (Melanie Mayron) as an escape to his troubled home life. Mr. B is constantly tense and worried throughout the film as he fears about his car wash going out of business due to a competitive car wash a few miles down the street. Lonnie, on the other hand, is full of ideas on how to save the car wash that he cannot get Mr. B or anyone else to listen to him, mostly due to Mr. B being a cheapskate. Later at the end of the movie, Abdullah, after being fired by Mr. B for his unexplained absences and restrained from physically attacking him, appears in the office with a gun while Lonnie is closing up, intending to rob the business. Lonnie talks him out of it, and the two of them share a heartfelt scene in which they commiserate at the status society has imposed on them, two proud men forced to work at a meaningless job for meager pay. "A clown show," the tearful Abdullah calls it, and you can see now that all the comedy in the film stems from the various ways these men have of coping with their lot in life. Some dream of show business stardom, some take refuge in a crooked religion, some put on airs of superiority, and one - only one - goes to college in an attempt to better himself, and even he is beginning to doubt his chances. It's a melancholy ending to the day as they all go their separate ways, knowing that they'll be back tomorrow to do it all over again. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Car Wash (film)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|