'The hap-hap-happiest' holiday films of Northbrook's John Hughes
Filmmaker and longtime Northbrook resident John Hughes is known mostly for his comic teenage romance films that greatly contributed to the “Brat Pack” legacy of the 1980s.
But Hughes, who died at age 59 in 2009, also created some memorable holiday movies, most of them shot in Chicago and suburban locations.
“Planes, Trains and Automobiles” (1987)
Steve Martin stars as a Chicago marketing executive trapped with a goofy shower curtain ring salesman (John Candy) during a comically trying odyssey as he tries to get home for Thanksgiving. Hughes directed and wrote this one.
Notable local locations:
• A home on Oxford Road in Kenilworth.
• The El Rancho Motel in Gurnee, where Martin attempts to book a room with an incinerated credit card.
• The Old Courthouse Arts Center in Woodstock (also on view in Harold Ramis' masterpiece “Groundhog Day”).
Most memorable scene: Martin and Candy check into a Braidwood, Illinois, motel (now called the Sun Motel) where the two share an awkward, homophobic panic attack when they wake up in the same bed together. It played better 33 years ago.
“National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation” (1989)
The biggest box office hit of the first three “Vacation” comedies with Chevy Chase reprising his role as average American dad Clark Griswold. He attempts to create the perfect Christmas experience for his family, complete with 25,000 twinkle lights on his house, set in Chicago.
Then their bickering in-laws arrive, with Clark's wife's cousin and her crass husband in tow, and Christmas Eve dinner turns into a disaster. Hughes wrote and produced this one.
Notable local locations:
• Chicago's Daley Plaza with its once-annual gigantic Christmas tree display.
• Establishing shots of Chicago's Water Tower, the Hancock Building and Marshall Field's on State Street. (Most of the film was shot in Colorado and Los Angeles.)
Most memorable scene: The Chicago SWAT team invading the Griswolds' home may be a highlight, but a family cat getting electrocuted by Christmas tree wires wins this accolade. (By the way, “The Big Bang Theory” actor Johnny Galecki, who plays Clark's son Rusty, grew up in Oak Park.)
“Home Alone” (1990)
This film held the record for the highest-grossing live-action comedy until 2011's “The Hangover Part II.” A North Shore family heads off to O'Hare Airport for a vacation, accidentally leaving behind a little boy named Kevin (Macaulay Culkin).
When two burglars known as the Wet Bandits (Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci) try to break into Kevin's house, it's up to the kid to defend his home with smarts and an arsenal of weapons created from household items. Hughes wrote and produced this one.
Notable local locations:
• Kevin's house is at 671 Lincoln Ave. in Winnetka (although interior shots were mostly made on sound stages built in the gym and empty swimming pool at the former New Trier High School).
• Other establishing shots were provided at Hubbard Woods Park in Winnetka, Trinity United Methodist Church in Winnetka and Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park.
Most memorable scene: Many to choose from, but Stern's wide-eyed, soul-searing scream when that tarantula crawls over his face marks a milestone in audio terror never equaled since.