How is Home Alone 30 Years Old?
It’s so hard to believe that one of my favourite Christmas films is actually thirty years old this year! In fact, it’s not even just a favourite Christmas film, it’s one of my favourite films of all time, full stop! Together with its sequel (I’m talking about the direct sequel, not anything afterwards, as we don’t talk about those) it’s a rip roaring, slapstick bit of holiday cheer which is known to everyone! It’s ingrained as part of my Christmas Eve tradition, once all the work is done, where we settle down and drink Baileys with either the first film, second – or both if we have time! I am, of course, talking about the 1990 movie ‘Home Alone’ starring Macaulay Culkin.
I’m sure we all know the story – I’m not going to bother giving you a spoiler alert, as if you haven’t seen it in the thirty years since its release, that’s totally your own fault – Large family is preparing to go on holiday for Christmas and somehow leaves their youngest child behind to fend for himself leading him to save the house from two hilariously clumsy burglars. It’s an unusual premise which leads to much hilarity and many unfortunate injuries for our inept villains, who somehow manage to survive a series of booby traps that would likely have killed them in real life!
So, after exhaustive research, I thought I’d share ten facts with you about this film that you might not know about this festive favourite, so buckle up while I take you on a whistle stop adventure into little known facts about Home Alone!
1: In the first film, you might not have noticed, but there’s an abundance of the colours red and green. This even extends into the deco in the McCallister’s home. It’s also in a lot of the clothes and set dressing. This was a deliberate choice to add a Christmas feeling to the film. They were a little looser with this idea in the second film, making it a bit more colourful, but if you go back and watch it knowing there’s deliberate over-use of red and green, it’s hard to see anything but!
2: When older brother Buzz’s tarantula lands on Marv during the bungled burglary, actor Daniel Stern had to mime his bloodcurdling scream so as not to scare the big hairy spider sitting on his face. The sound for the scream was dubbed in later. The scream may not have been real, but the tarantula crawling over Marv’s face certainly was, which makes the actor much braver than I. Stern may have agreed to it for just one take, but I don’t think you’d get me to agree to it at all!
3: The black and white film ‘Angels With Filthy Souls’, which Kevin is a fan of pranking people with isn’t actually a real film, nor is it’s sequel, ‘Angels With Even Filthier Souls’, that he uses in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. They’re parodies of the 1938 James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart gangster flick ‘Angels With Dirty Faces’. Obviously, only the scenes used in the Home Alone films were ever made, so you won’t find them available to buy anywhere, though on some versions of the Home Alone DVD, the excerpts are on as a bonus feature. Extra Trivia: ‘Angels With Filthy Souls’ appears on a TV in the background in a scene in the 2019 film ‘Detective Pikachu’.
4: Old Man Marley, the quiet older gentleman who saves Kevin despite him thinking he’s a creepy serial killer earlier in the film, wasn’t in the original screenplay for the film. Director Chris Columbus thought the film could do with more heart and sentimentality, so they created this character and named him as a tribute to Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ – It’s hard to imagine this film without him, especially as he saved Kevin in the film’s climax! Something tells me that a kid as resourceful as Kevin would have found another way out of that situation, still surviving for his New York-bound sequel. I always thought it would have been really sweet if Kevin had hooked Old Man Marley up with the pigeon lady from the sequel. In my head, that’s a cute spin-off.
5: Macaulay Culkin isn’t the only member of the Culkin family to star in the film. Kevin’s cousin Fuller, who’s told to lay off the Pepsi so he doesn’t pee the bed, is actually Macaulay’s younger brother, Kieran Culkin, who is still acting, building up quite an impressive list of credits including films like ‘Cider House Rules’ and shows like FX’s ‘Fargo’.
6: The film was shot entirely. In the Chicago area. Even the parts which were meant to be France, including the airport - these scenes were actually shot at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. I suppose many airports look sort of the same unless you know them. The big, luxurious first class cabin seen in the film was actually a set built in a local school and the scene where Kevin runs through the flooded basement of a house is actually in the school’s swimming pool.
The exterior shots of the McCallister house were shot in nearby Winnetka, Illinois – not too far from Chicago. Since filming, it’s become a huge tourist attraction and the owners who owned the five-bedroom house during filming managed to sell it for a whopping $1.58 million in 2012!
7: The fake snow used in the film was actually made of a combination of wax and plastic and didn’t go to waste after production on the film ended. The Production team actually collected it and donated it to the Chicago Lyric Opera, where it’s been used in several productions since.
8: The late John Candy’s scenes were all shot in a single day, even if that single day of filming did last 23 hours! He was the only actor who writer and producer John Hughes allowed to go off script and actually improvised all his lines, according to director Chris Columbus! He’d worked with Macaulay Culkin before on Uncle Buck and agreed to do the film as a favour to John Hughes and as such was only paid $414. According to John Hughes, some of the ideas for Home Alone started coming to him during work on Uncle Buck, so if it weren’t for Uncle Buck, we might not have Home Alone!
9: The part of Kevin was specifically written for Macaulay Culkin after Chris Columbus had worked with him in Uncle Buck. Despite the Bart being created for him, they still auditioned around two hundred other kids for the role, but none stood out as much as Macauley. He’s not the only face who could have looked different in the film either. The Role of Uncle Frank nearly went to Kelsey Grammer, but he had to turn it down due to scheduling issues and both Robert De Niro and John Lovitz were considered for the role of Harry, but both rejected it. Daniel Stern originally pulled out when he found out before production started that it would take longer than he’d been made aware of and he was replaced with Daniel Roebuck, but they didn’t see any chemistry between him and Joe Pesci’s Harry, so they brought Stern back. I can’t imagine anyone else playing those roles now.
10: Joe Pesci was all about method acting when he filmed this movie. He avoided socialising on set so that Macauley Culkin would be slightly afraid of him. It probably also terrified Macauley that Pesci accidentally bit him on the finger during a rehearsal of the scene where he threatens to bite his fingers off after hanging him on a hook on the back of a door. It was an accident, even if he did leave the child start with a tiny scar. Pesci also wasn’t used to family movies either and has trouble not swearing. Chris Columbus suggested that he exchange the F-Bomb for ‘Fridge’ instead. Daniel Stern also had a tiny expletive slip-up of which a remnant can still be seen in the film. When he climbs barefoot through the window and stands on the Christmas ornaments (which were made of candy so they weren’t dangerous). Despite candy being safer than glass, he still had his feet protected by layers of prosthetic rubber just to be safe, but still manages to say “shit” when he stands on them.
I’d love to have included some of the fan theories and conspiracy theories in this list, but we can hardly call those ‘facts’ – These have included the creepy fan theory that booby-trap loving Kevin grew up to be the Jigsaw Killer in ‘Saw’, or that Mr McCallister can only afford to take so many people on holiday to France and afford a big house because of some illegal means, or that Elvis himself is still alive and features in one of the film’s airport scenes! There are so many theories surrounding Home Alone, but that’s what happens to anything iconic – it spawns legends! Whichever of these you may want to believe, there’s no taking away that this is an amazing film!
So, did you know any of these facts? Is it also one of your Christmas favourites? Do you know any facts about the film that I didn’t cover? If so, let us know in the comments! And until next time, Stay safe, stay sane and stay… Vidalicious. Oh, and keep the change, ya filthy animal!
