Buck drops everything in the night and drives over to the Russells’ household whilst trying to remember the kid’s names on the way (he thinks one may be called Jennifer - which delights his own daughter, Jennifer Candy, every time she hears him say it in the film). He actually does a great job of looking after the children albeit not necessarily a traditional one. He wins the hearts of his youngest niece and nephew quickly after lots of big meals – giant pancakes, ingenious ways of doing the washing (microwaving socks because he “can’t get the god-damn washing machine to work”) and being generally funny and respectful with them, they absolutely adore him. On the other hand Tia (Kelly) the eldest, a rebellious teenager gives him a run for his money, especially where her delinquent boyfriend, Bug (Jay Underwood) is concerned.
Bug is basically a scumbag and Tia can’t see it, she thinks he’s the coolest and she’s in love, only to get hurt later at a party where he tries to pressurise her to have sex and ends up going with someone else.
Working with such a young cast came naturally to John, basically treated them like he would his own kids, “The whole attitude in acting with the two kids in the movie is based on my relationship with Jennifer and Christopher, and how I would deal with them. And I dealt with each one differently as I do with my kids, the one thing I never did was I never talked down to them at all”. To corroborate, Jennifer, John’s daughter has said in interviews that he was most like his character in Uncle Buck. The interrogation scene between young Culkin’s character and Candy is genius – however the questions and answers passed back and forth was difficult for 8 year old Culkin to remember, Candy remedied this by telling Hughes to put the camera on his back. Candy would say Culkin’s lines and Culkin would repeat it back, add in some cuts back and forth and the scene is perfect and hilarious. Culkin cannot remember that much about his time on Uncle Buck, but he remembers John Candy as being ‘funny and fantastic’, he also has a loose memory of John Hughes’ birthday that year, Candy got a clown to come to the studio that day and Culkin believes there may have been a stripper at night but of course being a child he was not present.
During the early meetings Jay Underwood (Bug) remembers, “Us kids were kind of hanging out with Candy, when young Macaulay Culkin just blurts out, ‘How much do you weigh?’ Candy said something like ‘Well who wants to know?’ in a good natured way. Mac responded with ‘My friends at school told me to ask you how much do you weigh?’ At that point Candy just kind of good-naturedly got onto another subject! The thing about John is that he’s humorous off screen but he’s not always doing his ‘schtick’. I most often refer to him as a super nice guy, big teddy bear of a fellow, kind and caring – a family man. He was just pleasant to be around. Totally unaffected.”
Jean Louisa Kelly was only 16 when she got the part of Tia, “The first time I met John was at the screen test, I think. I had never had a screen test before, in fact, Uncle Buck was my first movie. John was friendly, relaxed and funny… I didn’t know much about his work at the time. I must have seen some of his movies, but I was a theatre geek so films were not my specialty. John was always lovely, funny, relaxed and playful. From what I remember, it seemed easy to him… the whole experience was challenging for me because it was so new, such a different way of doing things, that I am sure he was doing his best to make me feel comfortable.”
Although Bug literally was an annoying ‘gnat’ on screen, off screen Underwood is a lovely man and a huge Candy fan thrilled to be working on Uncle Buck. “I loved Candy’s movies! My friends and I were always doing imitations of him. The first time I met him was at my second/last audition for the part. Originally Bug was written as a punk rocker so I had a friend do my make-up and hair, another that helped dress me in some of his punk clothes along with some jewellery I had from an after school special I did called The Day My Kid Went Punk. I knew I had to go to both my auditions completely in character or they’d never see me as the part. I had the spiked mohawk hair going on, leather jacket, all kinds of crazy necklaces and rings, motorcycle boots and I played the part as well. I remember John Candy asking me, ‘So what’s that thing there hanging around your neck? Is that some kind of animal or something?’ I responded, ‘It’s the jaw of a rat, man’ because it was – I had an actual jaw of some kind of animal, I’m not sure if it was really a rat, probably something a little bigger. To which he said something like, ‘Oh, that’s very interesting’. In any case, we read the scenes a few times and that was that. It was just Candy and Hughes at my audition, and maybe the casting director. It was awesome, I was so excited. I knew Hughes was supposed to be there, but I didn’t know Candy was until I walked in the room! Both were kind and cordial.”
Whilst filming Kelly turned 17, John bought her a massive cake with “She was just seventeen, you know what I mean” written on and gave her a Hard Rock Café jacket from Chicago. Kelly remembers, “Sitting in the freezing car in the suburbs of Chicago at 3:00 in the morning, doing our scene at the end of the movie where he comes to rescue me from the party. It’s funny how you can have such intimacy with someone through acting – we never saw each other after the filming was done, but I feel close to John when I think of that night.”
Underwood told me, “Working with he and Hughes was like living a dream to me – it was amazing! Hughes would always shoot the script but then do tons of improvisation. He would give you crazy things to try, wanted you try whatever you wanted and just let the film run out of the camera without cutting. It was great to play off Candy because he enjoys to work that way as well. The one scene I remember most was filming the trunk scene where he has locked Bug in the trunk of his car and then opens it up to reveal to Tia how he’s duct-taped my hands and mouth. He proceeds to rip the tape off my mouth (which, by the way, on the first take really hurt as we were outdoors in a suburb of Chicago in the dead of winter) then I spit out a handkerchief at him and start screaming all kinds of mean and profane things at him. Hughes told me to say whatever I wanted to say because he could edit it the way he wanted later. So on one take I think I started calling him a fatso and things like that. After the take, Candy very politely said to me, ‘Uh, we can lay off some of the fat comments okay?’ To which I was like, ‘Oh of course, sure, I’m sorry, no problem!’
It was obvious to Underwood that Candy and Hughes were very close friends, “He and Hughes were obviously great pals and I think their families may have been friends as well. Sometimes we would be setting up a scene with the lighting and camera, everything would be ready and we would be waiting on Hughes and Candy because they were in Candy’s dressing room watching the hockey game on TV! On another occasion we stopped in the middle of shooting to all go outside (cast and crew) and watch one of Hughes’ kids blast off a model rocket. It was a very relaxed set. Hughes and Candy, being who they were, could really call their own shots and I don’t think the studio brass really gave them a hard time about anything. However, that’s simply from my own outsider perspective.
“Shooting the trunk scene was my favorite as I got to do a lot of fun improv that Hughes kept in the movie. As I said it was cold and the first time he ripped the duck-tape off my mouth it seriously stung! My mouth was all raw and red. When we did the golf ball scene, they used a plastic golf ball that got thrown right off camera but when I fell onto the grass, the grass was frozen solid and so it started to tear up my arms, still it was so much fun!
“Filming was fun as well because we took over this giant, abandoned high school that had two gymnasiums which we used as sound stages; the classrooms were the dressing rooms, makeup, school, etc. and the crew road bicycles through the hallways with the school’s main office area serving as the office for the production company.”
John Hughes once said that “Uncle Buck was a perfect Candy script for me to direct, because he put himself into it”.
There was one rare occasion when Candy and Hughes would come to loggerheads. One night during filming Candy went out and had a great time in the local pubs and bars in the area
- this was mentioned on the local radio station the next morning, Hughes overheard and when Candy turned up for work (always on time) he was sent home, to Candy I’m sure he was just living his character - it’s something Uncle Buck would have most definitely done in the most harmless way. Of course working and being friends, there was always going to be a fall out at some stage - this one was forgotten about quickly.
As per usual with Hughes films, they filmed a lot of scenes that sadly didn’t make the final cut. Boom operator Greg Agalsoff remembers one, “A funny anecdote took place while we were doing Uncle Buck. John was talking to a few of us between scenes, and he said, ‘Hey, watch this’. His friend, Frankie, was given a small part by Mr Hughes in which several of Uncle Buck's friends had come over for fun and frivolity and beer. Frankie was sitting on a sofa, feet up on the table and holding up a newspaper which he was reading. Candy said, ‘Frankie, can you help me out? I think I left my script out in the motorhome. Can you go get it for me?’ Without lowering his paper, Frankie bellowed, ‘F**K you, you lazy ass! Get up and go get it yourself!’ We were in tears. Candy, undeterred, and trying not to laugh, said, ‘Aw c'mon, Frankie, my knee is bothering me and it's cold out there!’ Frankie continued to hurl a litany of expletives that had us all writhing. John kept pleading, but to no avail.”
I can’t help but think this is why John loved Frankie so much, Frankie seemed to be with him for the largest part of his career, when Hollywood is so full of ‘yes’ men he knew Frankie was dependable, honest and wouldn’t hesitate to tell him where to go if he felt like it. I think we all need a Frankie in our lives, for they make the most loyal of companions.
Polka, Polka, Polka
Apparently John Hughes had the idea for Home Alone, back when they were filming Uncle Buck. In Uncle Buck there is a scene where Buck’s frustrated girlfriend Chanice (Amy Madigan), knocks on the door of the Russell’s house. Chanice has been sent round by Buck to look after Miles and Maizy, whilst he’s gone out to find Tia (who has strayed to a weekend party without permission). Miles is camped inside the house looking through the letterbox waiting for Chanice’s arrival. The first time Chanice knocks, Miles looks and Chanice is out of sight so he closes the letterbox. Second time Chancie knocks, Miles looks and there are three scary looking men peeping back through the letterbox at him, third time, he looks again and it’s Chanice.
So the three strange men (blink and you will miss them) depicts every anxious child’s imagination. Allegedly for Hughes this sparked his imagination too. He wrote a script that would be Home Alone, about a child, Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin), from a large family, accidently being left behind at Christmas time whilst the family go on vacation (due to a head count error). The whole film is then about Kevin coping on his own and also defeating some pesky house burglars determined to break into his home, whilst his family, mother in particular (played by Catherine O’Hara) desperately tries to get home to her son even though there are no flights.
Hughes asked John to do him a favour and have a cameo part in the film as Gus Polinski – the Polka King of the Northwest who was travelling with his band the Kenosha Kickers and is the sweet man that offers Kate McCallister a lift back to her son after hearing her plea in the airport. Hughes in fact offered John 1% of the royalties from Home Alone, however John advised he was doing it for Hughes, not for the money and kindly declined his offer. In hindsight he turned down a huge payday as Home Alone is the biggest grossing comedy of all time, cue the John Candy shrug of the shoulders and laugh.
John literally filmed his scenes in Home Alone in less than 24 hours whilst a driver was waiting in the car park ready to take him to his next job. The Kenosha Kickers (John’s band) were actually Eddie Korosa Jr and the Boys from Illinois. They got the job as Home Alone was being filmed near to Chicago where Korosa’s parents owned a very famous polka bar called Baby Doll Polka Club since 1954.
Korosa Jr. remembers spending a wonderful 18 hours filming with John, he told me;
“During scene set up I would take requests from John to play and sing polkas. While setting up we had most of the crew singing Beer Barrel polka, In Heaven There is No Beer polka, we even did the Chicken Dance.
“We got yelled at by Director, Chris Columbus, for having too much fun! He wanted us to stop playing. John Hughes was there and requested us to play one more polka. Fun!”
Korosa remembers that John was just so kind and talked to everyone, every single band member and told the funniest jokes.
There was a recent internet theory originating from Reddit that John’s character, Gus, may actually have been the devil. For starters Kevin’s mum is pleading for someone to help her get home and declares “If I have to sell my soul to the devil himself I will get home to my son” when John’s character Gus pips in. Gus also plays the clarinet - the Devils choice of instrument is always woodwind according to the bible. The fact that they meet in the crossroads of Scranton Airport (to me this is tenuous, but lets keep going) means that Gus could be a Crossroads Demon. Apparently if you call the Devil at a crossroad he will come, I’m going to take people’s word for that, I don’t feel like I have to test the theory out!
I think both Johns (Candy and Hughes) would marvel at this thought and laugh it off without commenting either way. Maybe I shouldn’t bring up that Hughes turns Del Griffiths into the Devil in Planes, Trains and Automobiles? As both Del and Neil are in a near death truck sandwich after Del is driving up the motorway on the wrong side, Neil looks at Del and Del is cackling, cloaked in red, adorned with horns. Maybe there is something in this after all?
This wasn’t John’s only cameo that year, he also featured in Masters of Menace as a Beck’s beer truck driver. In a much bigger part, one of John’s most favourite projects to work on was also released, Disney’s The Rescuers Down Under. Being a big kid at heart and loving to create characters, John was overjoyed to be the voice of Wilbur the Albatross. I suspect, just like Radio Kandy, he enjoyed the fact he could turn up for work, have some fun and not have to go into make-up.
Deliriously Happy
In August 1991 Delirious was released by MGM, a film about a soap opera writer, Jack Gable played by Candy, the soap “Beyond Our Dreams”. Gable has an accident at the beginning of the movie and whilst being unconscious in hospital, wakes up in his own script where he can rewrite what happens at any time. It wasn’t a box office smash but it didn’t deserve the criticism it got from the critics, regardless of whether it was liked or not it was a complete love in for the team working on it.
It was filmed mainly in New York, directed by Tom Mankiewicz (Dragnet) with leading ladies Mariel Hemingway and Emma Sands and to John’s delight a cameo from Raymond Burr. Raymond Burr was well known on stage and screen but most notably for playing the character Perry Mason, this was actually the last film that Burr ever worked on. The whole cast and crew got on wonderfully and from the moment they started on set to all the after work drinks they had a blast. John particularly got on with Tom and Mariel who became lifelong friends. Sadly Tom has passed away, but he did talk about his love for Candy in his autobiography, My Life as a Mankiewicz. “I used to bound out of bed to get on the set. Delirious was the single happiest experience I ever had. I loved everybody in it. I loved everybody on the crew. I loved everybody around it. John Candy was such a wonderful leader, and I felt I was a leader as well.”
For John he wasn’t only the lead, but he was the romantic interest too, being pursued and pursuing both Hemingway and Sands’ characters respectively. This was a notable shift in Candy’s career, he was showing new sides to his already diverse acting capacity.
Mariel hit it off straight away with John, they had a real spiritual connection and were just so comfortable with each other. “I think John had a lot of demons. I think when you are that kind of weight you have a lot of stuff going (on) and I think that he knew I had a compassion for covering up pain, because I came from such a crazy family, I think he felt that understanding.” This was Mariel’
s first physical comedic role and she felt John aided her, teaching her in a way she taught herself, he would never tell her what to do he would just enable her. He also encouraged her: “He was a good audience, he laughed a lot”.
Hemingway was worked on many different films and noticed something so different about working on Delirious with John. “He was just so generous; he couldn’t have been more kind. I really loved him, I was not a person that liked to go to work and deal with people that had egos, problems issues etc.” They had the same mentality, “We were like let’s just get the job done, everyone here is making a difference, everyone here has a say in this without one cog we are askew and he knew that and I always felt like that. It’s not about the big name actor, it’s really about everybody else. He took care of people; he saw himself no different to anybody else.”
Part way through the film John’s character writes himself in as a great horse rider to woo both leading ladies, Hemingway had ridden all her life so she could do her own stunts, however John actually worried about riding horses so they got him on a mechanical horse to make it look like he was riding. For Hemingway it was one of her favourite memories “It was just hilarious and he was just so great at making fun of himself.”
Delirious was no different to any other movie John worked on. He was always early to work and the last to leave set, he was always there, even if he wasn’t needed, he just loved hanging out, like a little kid he was worried if he left he would miss something. “He was definitively one of the kindest humans I have worked with. He came early to work, he left after everyone had gone. He always took care of the crew and the cast, he loved working and he loved people. He was truly an amazing human being.”
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