“Where do you think you’re going? Nobody’s leaving. Nobody’s walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We’re all in this together.” With those words, Clark Griswold persuaded a generation to ride the roller-coaster with his dysfunctional family. And collectively, that’s exactly what we’ve done for 35 years. Since the 1989 release of “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” audiences have opted to escape their own familial dramas for this more charming, but no less disastrous, on-screen yuletide.
Following the success of National Lampoon’s “Vacation” (1983) and “European Vacation” (1985), Warner Brothers began to press John Hughes for a holiday-themed follow-up to the popular series. Hughes obliged since he already had the perfect story in his arsenal – his short comedic piece “Christmas ’59.” A fun nod to this history can be seen on the label of the home movie reel Clark finds in his attic. The studio gave Hughes the greenlight to develop the script, and moved forward to recruit Chris Columbus to direct. The production hit its first snag in the relationship between Columbus and leading man Chevy Chase. Columbus recalls his turmoil over the decision to leave the production, which came at a difficult moment in his life and career. “It took everything in my power to convince myself to resign from ’Christmas Vacation’ because I couldn’t make the movie with Chevy Chase.” (Fortunately for Columbus, just two weeks later, the script for another holiday classic, “Home Alone,” landed in his lap.) After this initial hiccup, production jumped ahead with fashion photographer Jeremiah Chechik accepting the project as his directorial feature-film debut. Chechik (who’s also featured on the cover of the prop People magazine Clark reads in bed) knew he’d been handed something special and recalls deliberately trying to infuse the movie with moments that would feel timeless.
Filming took place in and around Breckenridge, Colorado in March 1989. Expecting a snowy wonderland, but finding instead a drought-laden ski escape, the crew paid to bring in 10 truckloads of snow, sourced from surrounding mountaintops. Shortly after this cold and expensive delivery arrived, the town was hit by a blizzard. In five days, Breckenridge saw 87 inches of snow, which forced filming to move indoors where the mishaps continued. Following the blizzard, another (literal) shakeup occurred when Colorado experienced a small earthquake. While the rumbling didn’t affect the production, keen-eyed fans can catch the camera shaking slightly during the scene in which Uncle Louis and Auth Bethany arrive.
Disorder on the set wasn’t limited to external forces. The cast themselves saw plenty of micro-calamities. During the filming of a particularly physical comedic scene (Chevy Chase’s specialty), the actor got carried away by the moment and broke his pinky finger. Method acting at its most painful. Another issue, brought on at the hands – er, paws – of a rodent, affected the entire cast. The famous squirrel-in-the-tree scene was made genuinely chaotic by the fact that the squirrel was untrained. Chechik recalls showing up to film that day and being informed that the trained squirrel had died. “I said, “Holy f–k, we’re shooting that today!'” Chechik recalled. “And the animal trainer turned and said, ‘Ya know, they don’t live that long.’ We still had to shoot the scene, so we used an untrained squirrel. It was just total chaos.”
In addition to rewatching that classic scene with new information, viewers may want to keep an eye and ear out for a few other nuggets of trivia. In terms of casting, try watching the role of Rusty, played perfectly by Johnny Galecki, and imagine Leonardo DiCaprio instead. Casting director Heidi Levitt recalls meeting with DiCaprio for the part of Rusty and immediately realizing “he wasn’t goofy enough.” Many others went on to greater fame after the film – Juliette Lewis took on the role of Audrey, the other Clark offspring, while Julia Louis-Dreyfus appeared, pre-Seinfeld, as the next-door neighbor. Others in the film were already coming off stellar careers – Diane Ladd and John Randolph played Clark’s parents. And if Aunt Bethany sounds familiar, it’s because she was the original voice of Betty Boop.
The well-known final act of the film employs the whole cast to full potential. Clark, frustrated at being snubbed for a Christmas bonus, goes on a profanity-laden, eggnog-fueled tirade. The classic monologue was made possible by the rest of the cast, who wore cue cards around their necks so Chase could remember each perfect expletive. Beverly D’Angelo, who played Ellen Griswold, recalled her amusement at watching Chase’s eyes dart back and forth during the scene, since the cards weren’t arranged in order. For her part, when the camera swung back to her, she improvised a hand-grab to her film husband’s crotch that stayed in the final cut and became a classic visual.
The action resolves itself as a SWAT team intervenes after Cousin Eddie kidnaps Clark’s boss. Since this is a Griswold holiday, though, and nothing will ever be quite right, an explosion brings about the last scene, sending a fiery lawn decoration sailing through the sky, while Aunt Bethany sings the Star-Spangled Banner. As loyal annual watchers, we salute alongside the Griswolds and give our own quiet thanks for the 97-minute reprieve from our own dysfunctional holiday.
