Home Alone released in 1990 and was so popular that it remained in theatres way past Christmas. It has since become a holiday classic, and most households will have it grace their TV screens each and every year and still enjoy it as much as they did the first time they watched it.
Despite how many times fans have watched the film, there are bound to be many interesting things that they didn’t know about this Christmas classic. There are some great anecdotal stories about what went on behind the scenes that the actors and director Chris Columbus have told over the years, as well as some interesting things about the movie you might not have noticed. Check out just a few of these awesome facts below.
10 Angels with Dirty Faces
The black and white gangster film that Kevin watches during Home Alone has become iconic in itself, mainly due to the quotes that fans love to repeat. Interestingly, many viewers don’t realize that the film doesn’t actually exist in reality.
The footage was made especially for Home Alone, and the movie is called Angels with Filthy Souls as a nod to the 1938 film Angels with Dirty Faces. This fake noir film footage was also the first thing to be filmed for Home Alone.
9 Foul Mouth Bandits
Joe Pesci plays Harry in the film, one of the Wet Bandits that targets the McCallister home. During filming, Pesci reportedly kept forgetting that they were filming a family movie whenever he was acting out outbursts for his character. Director Chris Columbus recommended that he say “fridge” instead of the “f” word to solve this issue.
While Pesci managed to keep it clean, Daniel Stern (Marv) had a swear word that managed to slip through into the final film. As he is pulling his boot back through the dog flap, he accidentally says the “s” word. This is made more apparent in the subtitles.
8 Playboy Secrets
In the scene where Kevin is reading his brother Buzz’s Playboy magazine, the pages inside were actually taped together so that Macaulay Culkin would not see any nude images. The only pages he could see were all safe for a young boy to look at.
Interestingly, the issue used is from July 1989, which featured Erika Eleniak as Miss July. This exact same issue was later used in the 1992 film Under Siege, where Eleniak played one of the main roles.
7 Buzz’s Girlfriend
When Kevin is going through his older brother Buzz’s things, he finds a picture of Buzz’s girlfriend. However, the person in the photo is not a girl at all. The director Chris Columbus felt that it wouldn’t be right to ridicule an actual girl on screen, as Kevin implies she is ugly by saying “woof”.
To solve this problem, they dressed a boy up as a girl for this photo. The boy used was actually Dan Webster’s son (Webster was the art director for the film).
6 It’s All About Perspective
The way that a film is shot can really contribute to the mood and depiction of the characters in the film. For example, at the beginning of Home Alone, most shots of Kevin are shot from above so that he appears smaller and more helpless.
However, as the film progresses, the shots begin to be shot from below Kevin so that he seems taller and more confident. This is to show how much Kevin’s character has grown throughout the events of the film.
5 Rubber Feet
Daniel Stern played Marv in the film and was one half of the Wet Bandits team. After Kevin causes him to lose his shoes in one of his many traps, Marv is forced to enter the house barefoot. Interestingly, Daniel Stern wore rubber feet during most of his barefoot scenes, which Bruce Willis had previously done in his role as John McClane in Die Hard two years prior (arguably another Christmas classic).
Additionally, the ornaments that Marv stands on as he enters the McCallister home are not real baubles but were made of candy so that they were not sharp enough to do any real damage, and Stern chose to go barefoot for real for this scene.
4 Festive Color Schemes
To ensure the festive Christmas theme was apparent throughout the entire movie, a red and green color scheme was heavily used in nearly all the scenes. The home’s decor featured these colors in more than one room in the house.
Additionally, a lot of the costume choices followed this color scheme too, as well as furnishings, wallpaper, and more. Once viewers are made aware of this, it’s hard not to see it all the time as the red and green is rather apparent.
3 Old Man Marley
The character of Old Man Marley added some suspense to the film, as Kevin is afraid of him at first due to the rumors of him being a serial killer that his siblings had told him. Marley also later added some additional touching moments to the film as his story arc continues.
In the original version of the screenplay, Marley didn’t exist at all. Additionally, the original ending of the movie had Peter asking Kevin what he had been up to while they were away and Kevin replying with “Just hung around” before the film cuts. However, it was then changed to show Kevin watching Marley reunite with his estranged son for a more fitting, touching end to this Christmas family-film.
2 Backward Filming
One of the scenes in the film shows Kevin walking down the street before Harry and Marv nearly hit him with their van, with it stopping just far enough to avoid a collision. Of course, Columbus wasn’t actually going to risk putting a young boy in danger.
The way this scene was achieved was that it was shot in reverse. It started with the van just in front of Culkin screaming, then the van reversed away and Culkin walked away backward. The scene was then played in reverse for the final film so that both appeared to be moving forward.
1 The Famous Scream
The image of Macaulay Culkin screaming has become iconic, and it’s no surprise as it was used for the poster and VHS box for the film. This imagery is used in the scene when Culkin uses his dad’s aftershave and then screams afterward.
Interestingly, despite how recognizable this image has become, it was actually an accident. Culkin was supposed to remove his hands from his face before he screamed, but he forgot to do this, which resulted in one of the best moments ever.
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