Car Wash

Car Wash (1976)

Where anything can happen...and usually does!

This day-in-the-life cult comedy focuses on a group of friends working at Sully Boyar's Car Wash in the Los Angeles ghetto. The team meets dozens of eccentric customers -- including a smooth-talking preacher, a wacky cab driver and an ex-convict -- while cracking politically incorrect jokes to a constant soundtrack of disco and funk. Some of the workers find romance as the day moves along, but most are just happy to get through another shift.

Date of release
1976-10-22
TMDB
6.0 / 10 (136)
Runtime
1h 37m
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director
Michael Schultz

Casting

Interesting facts

Car Wash is a 1976 American comedy film directed by Michael Schultz from a screenplay by Joel Schumacher, and starring an ensemble cast. Originally conceived as a musical comedy, the film is an episodic comedy about a day in the lives of a close-knit group of employees at a Los Angeles car wash. It features Franklyn Ajaye, George Carlin, Irwin Corey, Ivan Dixon, Bill Duke, Antonio Fargas, Jack Kehoe, Clarence Muse, Lorraine Gary, The Pointer Sisters, Richard Pryor, and Garrett Morris.

Production

The producers originally intended the project to be a stage production, which would feature a replica car wash on stage, hoping that the project, if successful, could be adapted as a movie. They pitched the idea to Universal Pictures' then-president Ned Tanen, who persuaded them to make the film version instead. Joel Schumacher was chosen to write based on his work writing Sparkle.

The soundtrack was recorded before filming commenced. The director Michael Schultz wanted the actors to actually listen to the same music that would later be added in post-production while filming the scenes.

The soundtrack album Car Wash, recorded by Rose Royce, was a major success, yielding three Billboard R&B Top Ten singles: "Car Wash", "I Wanna Get Next to You", and "I'm Going Down". The title track, written and produced by Norman Whitfield, was a #1 hit and was one of the biggest hit singles of the disco era.

The Car Wash soundtrack won a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album at the 19th Annual Grammy Awards in 1977.

Car Wash had its network television premiere on NBC Monday Night at the Movies in 1978. Along with the standard dubbing of strong language, many scenes that included the gay character Lindy (Antonio Fargas) were trimmed or deleted. To replace these shortened scenes, and therefore shortened film, a subplot of a diner owner Joe (Danny DeVito) (scenes shot for the theatrical version, but cut prior to release) were reinserted.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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