There were no “what the French call, les incompetents” involved in the making of Home Alone. No, that production team knew exactly what they were doing when they pitched the concept of a family heading to France for a holiday trip and leaving their child behind. Released in 1990, the film captured the attention of a generation of kids who watched Kevin McAllister’s wacky dilemma (what 10-year-old wouldn’t want a big house and “a lovely cheese pizza” all to themselves?) and carried it all the way through adulthood. Thirty-five years later, and the movie is a generational holiday classic.
While the production team may have had the confidence of a child defending his house with mouse-trap style gadgetry, the studio was initially less convinced.
Directed by Chris Columbus and written by John Hughes, who was just coming off the success of the prior year’s holiday hit, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, the movie was granted a respectable, but relatively modest budget of $18 million. So Warner Brothers was in for a pleasant surprise when the film grossed nearly that much in its opening weekend. Home Alone showed no signs of slowing as it doubled the number of theaters in which it played, remained the number-one film in the country through February, and ultimately grossed $285 million at the box office.
The premise took root in Hughes’ mind as he was preparing for his own holiday vacation. He recounts going through his mental checklist. “I was going away on vacation, and making a list of everything I didn’t want to forget. I thought, ‘Well, I’d better not forget my kids.’ Then I thought, ‘What if I left my 10-year-old son at home? What would he do?'” Starting with the idea that kids would fear a burglary situation, he ran the concept through increasingly outlandish scenarios, writing the first eight pages of the screenplay before heading to the airport.
After settling a funding debacle with the studio upon his return, Hughes reached out to Columbus about the possibility of directing. The pair had worked together on Christmas Vacation, though Columbus had left the production early on due to conflicts with the star actor, Chevy Chase. Home Alone ultimately pulled together the ‘80s dream team for a movie project together.
Once the creative team was secured, the production cast the film. Hundreds of kids read for the role of Kevin McAllister, including John Mulaney whose parents made him pass on the offer. Ultimately, the iconic character was played by Macaulay Culkin – the actor for whom the part was originally written. Having worked with him on Uncle Buck, with John Candy, Hughes knew the kid was the right pick. Culkin’s salary for the role — approximately $100,000 — reflected typical wages for a child star in the 1990s. Just two years later though, Culkin earned $4.5 million for his reprisal of the role in Home Alone 2, as well as an additional $13 million in profit sharing.
On the other end of the pay scale was John Candy, who was paid exactly $414 to play the true hero of the film – Gus Polinski, leader of the polka band, The Kenosha Kickers. Candy offered his performance as a favor to his buddy Hughes, who in turn allowed Candy to improvise his entire scene.
Rounding out the cast were Hollywood greats Joe Pesci, who took the role of Harry after Robert DeNiro turned it down, and Catherine O’Hara, who initially argued with director Columbus that her dialogue was too cruel.
Looking back, the cast and crew recall a mostly smooth production, but pointed out some memorable moments that would not be obvious to viewers. Those who keep Home Alone as part of their annual holiday film rotation will want to watch the classic with an eye out for some squirm-inducing moments. For arachnophobes, the most horrifying moment of the film becomes even less palatable knowing the tarantula that lands on a character’s face was actually venomous. Very little CGI technology was used in film at the time, and there was no way to humanely render the spider nonpoisonous. Filming proceeded with fingers crossed, the moment eliciting a real-life scream from the actor. Another genuine scream came from Culkin, who improvised the famous scene in which he’s experimenting with shaving, claps aftershave to his cheeks and lets loose into the camera. The moment was meant to be a blip, but the child actor played it to full effect, turning it into the most recognizable image from the film.
Sharp-eyed nostalgia seekers will also want to watch for signs of Culkin’s 30-year-old stunt double, a man who was the same height as the actor but 21 years his senior, and the moment in which Pesci threatens to bite off the young actor’s fingers, but accidentally takes things too far, biting him in real life, drawing blood and leaving a scar. The film also features a cameo by Macaulay’s little brother, and recent Academy Award winner, Keiran Culkin, and a (purported by conspiracy theory) glimpse of Elvis Presley as a turtleneck-wearing customer in line behind O’Hara at the rental car counter.
Despite its protagonist’s onslaught of attacks against the villains, Home Alone endures as a warm holiday classic. It’s refreshing for a film to not only hold up with audiences 35 years after its release, but to also remain a fond point of nostalgia for its actors and creative cast.
And of course, nothing quite says cozy Christmas like a tarantula, or a hot iron, to the face.
