15 Things You Didn’t Know About “Home Alone”

Here’s a list of little known facts about one of the biggest Christmas movies in history.

Here are 15 things you didn’t know about “Home Alone”:

1)      The idea for the movie came to John Hughes’ when he took his family on a trip to Europe in 1989 and he had the fleeting thought: “What if one of the kids had been accidentally left behind?” He wrote the script two weeks after returning home.

2)      In the original script, Uncle Frank was the real mastermind behind Harry and Marv robbing the McAllister house.

3)      The picture Kevin finds of Buzz’s girlfriend was a picture of a boy made up to look like a girl because Director Chris Columbus thought it would be too cruel to make fun of a girl like that. The boy that was used in the photo was the art director’s son.

4)      Joe Pesci purposely avoided Macaulay Culkin on set because he wanted Culkin to think he was mean. Maybe he was too ‘method’ because during a rehearsal for the scene where Harry attempts to bite off Kevin’s finger, Joe Pesci actually bit Macaulay Culkin, leaving a small scar.

5)      The ornaments that Marv steps on are actually candy.

6)      John Candy shot his part in one 23-hour day and all of his lines were improvised, including the story about leaving his kid at a funeral home.

7)      Macaulay Culkin also did some improvising. The line “Do you guys give up, or are you thirsty for more?” was not in the script.

8)      The movie “Angels with Filthy Souls” that Kevin watches is a movie specially created for Home Alone…Ya filthy animal

9)      Casting that could have been: Robert De Niro and Jon Lovitz turned down the role of Harry. (Joe Pesci’s part). Danny Devito was also considered. Chris Farley auditions for Santa Claus and the role of Uncle Frank was originally written for Kelsey Grammer.

10)   Many of the frames that focus on Kevin in the beginning of the movie are shot from above his head, making him seem small and helpless. At the end, Kevin is mostly shot from below, making him seem taller and more confident.

11)   Macaulay Culkin drew the map that he uses to set up the traps.

12)   When the McCallisters are running through the Paris airport towards the arrivals section, Uncle Rob and his family (who live in Paris) can be briefly glimpsed on the other side of the glass doors holding a large, paper “Welcome” sign. Originally, there was a scene (featured on D.V.D./Blu-ray) with the McCallisters ignore the sign, and tear it in half by running right through it, but it was cut from the movie.

13)   The 1995 comedy Bushwacked starred Daniel Stern and in the early stages was considered as possible spinoff to Home Alone, with Stern reprising his role of Marv.

14)   The movie’s Director Chris Columbus also directed Adventures in Babysitting, Mrs. Doubtfire, Rent, two Harry Potter movies and many more. He also wrote the screenplay for The Goonies based on Steven Spielberg’s original story.

15)   To date, Home Alone has made over $476.7 million dollars and it only cost $18 million to make. It stayed #1 at the Box Office for 12 weeks, long after Christmas had passed. I call that a success!