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For devoted fans, no Thanksgiving is complete without a helping of «Planes, Trains and Automobiles,» which turns 35 on Friday.
The plight of Steve Martin’s uptight advertising executive Neal Page – who finds himself stranded by travel delays with shower curtain ring salesman Del Griffith (comedy legend John Candy) and is just trying to get home to his family turkey dinner – is essential holiday viewing.
“Around Thanksgiving, it’s kind of omnipresent,» says Martin of the 1987 classic road comedy – now available in a 4K Ultra home release – that has been imbued with even more emotion after the deaths of Candy in 1994 and writer/director John Hughes in 2009.
«It’s tragic,» says Martin. «I’d like them to see how this movie has this momentum. When it came out, it did fine. But it was almost a bigger hit 10 years after.»
Martin, 77, spoke to USA TODAY about insisting on shooting a car rental scene without f-bombs and the deleted scene he still misses.
‘This is weirdly it’:Steve Martin talks possible retirement after ‘Only Murders in the Building’
Question: «Planes» was shot over 87 frigid days in climates from Buffalo, New York, to Braidwood, Illinois. How much real travel bled into the movie?
Answer: Everything in the movie happened while shooting the movie, Missed connections, missed planes. So much moving around. We were supposed to shoot in one town, but there was no snow, so we moved everything to Buffalo. Part of the movie’s joke is that John Candy’s Del is wearing a parka while I’m wearing a suit. And it was truly 14 degrees when I’m hiking across that field after the train breaks down.
