Because I find Will Ferrell about as warm, cuddly and funny as a cobra, I can’t stand “Elf.” Also, the end sucks. So from where I sit, the last family Christmas classic released by Hollywood came all the way back in 1994 with “The Santa Clause.” That’s 22 freakin’ years ago, and were it not for The Mighty John Hughes, the modern holiday classic would be almost non-existent.
Hughes, who passed away in 2009 at the tender age of 59, didn’t have anything to do with “The Santa Clause,” but in just seven years, between 1987 and 1994, Hughes gifted us with no fewer than six holiday films, all of which are good, many legitimate classics.
Today, at least in my household, the holidays would be unthinkable without the following:
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)
Manhattan businessman and social snob Neal Page (Steve Martin) is forced to spend two days tied to the hip of Del Griffith (an unforgettable John Candy), a slobbish traveling salesman who is all heart and innocent thoughtlessness.
This is a screenplay (Hughes wrote and directed) that is pure art in the method of building on laughs. Nothing has ever made me laugh harder (maybe the Marx Brothers) than Steve Martin blowing up at that car rental counter.
Funny as it is, there is also a big beating heart, a tender message about the importance of family and home, and two other classic Hughes’ themes that are as anti-Hollywood as they come: his affection for the common (if imperfect) man, and his love for the Chicago suburbs, that he chose as his home.
Christmas Vacation (1989)
Once again, screenwriter/producer Hughes brings us home to the Chicago suburbs for an uproariously funny, endlessly quotable, and heartwarming look at the Griswold’s “fun, old-fashioned family Christmas.”
We didn’t mind Hughes tweaking us, or our Cousin Eddie, because we knew Hughes was one of us and that the satire came from the heart, not elitism.
What a gem, and my favorite on this list.
Home Alone (1990)
We return once again to the Chicago suburbs for one of the biggest comedy hits of all-time. Everything in this classic works: the concept, John Williams’ timeless score, the casting of Macaulay Culkin, Daniel Stern, and Joe Pesci, and a Hughes script (Chris Columbus directed) that again brilliantly builds on the laughs until you are gasping for air.
My favorite scene, though, is the simple one between Culkin’s 8 year-old Kevin McCallister and “The Shovel Slayer” (Roberts Blossom). Set in a church as a children’s choir sings “O’ Holy Night,” the lonely boy and the lonely old man share some wisdom about life and family, and do so in a way that is neither contrived nor treacly. Watch it again. Dialogue doesn’t get much better than this.
Great stuff.
Dutch (1991)
This time the snob is 12 year-old Doyle (Ethan Embrey) and the slob is his soon-to-be-stepfather, Dutch Dooley (a fantastic Ed O’Neill). To get to know one another, Dutch agrees to bring Doyle home from boarding school for Thanksgiving, and what we get is another Hughes-ian road trip filled with heart and laughs.
“Dutch” was largely dismissed upon release. The failure was so complete, O’Neill would go on to mock the movie in his “Married with Children” sitcom. Time, though, has been very good to this minor classic.
If you haven’t yet given it a go, do, and be prepared to make it a November mainstay.
Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (1992)
By some miracle, screenwriter/producer Hughes (with Columbus again directing) made lightning strike twice. Overall, the original “Home Alone” is superior; I’ll take the Shovel Slayer over Brenda Fricker’s homeless bird lady any day of the week. There’s also no John Candy and religion has been entirely stripped away. (In the commentary for “Home Alone,” Columbus makes no secret of his disdain for religion, so that might have had something to do with it.)
In parts, though, this New York romp is superior. Adding Tim Curry and Rob Schneider as antagonists results in pure gold, and John Williams actually improves on his musical score. Finally, the showdown between Kevin and The Wet/Sticky Bandits (Pesci and Stern return in fine form) is even funnier.
Nothing was smarter, though, than Hughes’s decision to move the action to Manhattan during Christmas. It makes for a wonderful, flavorful setting and even allows for a cameo from our next president, Donald Trump.
Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
Almost seventy-years on, very few screenplays have been written that surpass George Seaton’s (who also directed) 1947 original. The story is a goldmine of plot, subplot, pay-offs, heart, character, and imagination. Thematically it is about two things: faith and the real meaning of Christmas. Seaton is so determined to sell his ideas that those without faith are all portrayed, to various degrees, as unhappy people eager to make others unhappy.
Oddly enough, though, not once will you hear the word “God.” Seaton’s wonderful world (there are not enough words to describe how much I love this movie) is one without even a hint of religion. Obviously it is there in the subtext, but even the Christmas songs are secular.
Maybe that is why Hughes took on the thankless task of remaking a perfect film. While his 1994 update can’t touch the original, it does do a couple of interesting things while holding on to the main plot.
1) Hughes smoothes out Seaton’s screenplay (Seaton died in 1979, but producer/co-screenwriter Hughes still generously gives him top billing as the remake’s writer). It is less busy, harried, and there are fewer subplots. Hughes spends more time creating moments, which makes for a pretty good first half. Unfortunately, the second half feels and even looks like one of those Hallmark Christmas movies, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
2) In both music and story, Hughes makes his version very much about religion. God is everywhere, including in our protagonist Bryan Bedford (Dylan McDermott proving he belongs on TV), and that alone makes a viewing worthwhile.
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Hughes would go on to enjoy a couple more hits after 1994, a live-action remake of “101 Dalmatians” (1996) and “Flubber” (a 1997 remake of “The Absent-Minded Professor”). After that, the gas seemed to go out of his tank. Although still a young man in his forties, I have read that John Candy’s death in 1994 was the creative end of Hughes. That same year he moved away from Hollywood, back to the Chicago area.
In the early part of his career, with iconic hits like “Sixteen Candles,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and “The Breakfast Club,” Hughes captured and, to a point, helped to define what it meant to be a teenager in the Reagan years. Then he did the same with the Christmas season.
Hughes understood us, he got us, he was one of us, he laughed with us, he liked and respected us.
And he is missed.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
