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Pretty In Pink @ 40: Ten Things You Didn’t Know About The John Hughes Classic

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Probably John Hughes’s most fondly-remembered teen-rom-com and a defining movie of the 1980s, ‘Pretty In Pink’ was released worldwide on 28 February 1986 and quickly made a sweet $40 million from a $9 million budget.

A timeless tale about a young woman from (literally) the wrong side of the tracks falling for a ‘richie’, it’s endlessly rewatchable and arguably the best-written of Hughes’ movies, even it lacks the visual pizzazz of his directorial work.

Its memorable characters and touching themes reverberate through the years – this is the one that put Molly Ringwald on the cover of ‘Time’ magazine, even if its plot is very similar to ‘Sixteen Candles’. It also features an excellent theme song by the Psychedelic Furs and engagingly off-beat performances.

But what were the what-ifs, weird studio notes and strange/risky decisions that accompanied the making of ‘Pretty In Pink’?

10. It was Howard Deutch’s directorial debut
But he had made his name cutting trailers for Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, Sydney Pollack and Francis Coppola movies, as well as Hughes’ ‘Sixteen Candles’ and ‘The Breakfast Club’. He also directed videos for Stewart Copeland (‘Don’t Box Me In’) and Billys Idol and Joel. He was headhunted by Hughes and mentored throughout. He went on to direct ‘Some Kind Of Wonderful’ from another Hughes script.

9. Molly Ringwald almost didn’t play Andie Walsh
Though Hughes wrote the part with Ringwald in mind (and she had suggested to him both the theme song and title), Paramount wanted Jennifer Beals after she had fronted the enormously successful ‘Flashdance’. Tatum O’Neil and Jodie Foster were reportedly also considered. Hughes fought hard for Ringwald, though she almost turned it down because he wasn’t directing it. As it turned out, she almost played herself in the movie – her mother even features in the photograph which makes her cry.

8. Andrew McCarthy only read the completed script whilst on the plane to start shooting
He auditioned with Ringwald with excerpts of the script. She got him the part – neither Deutch nor Hughes were sure, wondering if Charlie Sheen would be better. Later, when reading the whole thing on his flight to Los Angeles, he reportedly hated the script (there are also reports that Ringwald had an unrequited crush on McCarthy throughout the shoot).

7. McCarthy was 22 years old during filming – playing a 17-year-old – and was having major problems with alcohol
He has admitted being wretchedly hungover during the first record store meeting with Molly Ringwald’s character. In this podcast, McCarthy even goes as far as to say that alcohol ruined his acting career in the late ‘80s.

6. The part of Phil ‘Duckie’ Dale was written for Anthony Michael Hall
But the ‘Breakfast Club’, ‘Sixteen Candles’ and ‘Weird Science’ star turned it down, saying that the plot of the movie was too close to ‘Sixteen Candles’. Robert Downey Jr. and Michael J Fox were also close to getting the part. Jon Cryer got the gig – interestingly he had also recently replaced Matthew Broderick in stage productions of both ‘Brighton Beach Memoirs’ and ‘Torch Song Trilogy’.

5. James Spader was 25 years old during filming – playing a 17-year-old
A very experienced performer before shooting ‘Pretty In Pink’, Spader apparently amazed Hughes and Deutch at his audition with an incredibly obnoxious performance, oozing attitude and stubbing out his cigarette with his foot as he left the room.

4. Duckie’s famous ‘Try A Little Tenderness’ lip-sync nearly didn’t happen
Hughes had written the scene into the script but hadn’t stipulated which track to use. Firstly, Cryer wanted to lip-sync to Michael Jackson/Mick Jagger’s ‘State Of Shock’, but the song was too expensive. The Otis Redding tune was Deutch’s idea. Kenny Ortega choreographed the scene with Cryer.

3. ‘Pretty In Pink’ was the last collaboration between Molly Ringwald and John Hughes
Sadly it seems Hughes never quite forgave Ringwald for refusing to appear in ‘Some Kind Of Wonderful’…and they seldom spoke again before Hughes’ death in 2009.

2. The ending was reshot months after the original wrap – check out Andrew McCarthy’s wig…
The ending was originally supposed to feature Duckie and Andie dancing ecstatically at the prom to Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ in an ‘us against the world’ kind of way, and sticking it to the richies – let’s face it, that sounds fantastic. But a preview audience hated this ending, as did Ringwald. A rethink/reshoot was ordered. Hughes racked his brain for months, trying to work out how Andie could get together with Blaine at the prom. Finally he worked it out – Blaine arrives alone, just like Andie and Duckie. So Ringwald, Cryer and McCarthy were summoned for a one-day reshoot. Only problem was McCarthy was appearing on Broadway in ‘Boys Of Winter’ opposite Matt Dillon and Wesley Snipes and had had his head shaved for the part. So a really terrible wig was found for him. But the now-famous, reshot ending speaks volumes about Hughes’s quality as a screenwriter – both endings would have worked great. OMD’s ‘If You Leave’ was also summoned to soundtrack the finale in just three days, including writing/mixing/recording…

1. Fee Waybill of The Tubes presented the premiere on MTV…
It took place at Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood on 28 January 1986, also attended by Hughes, a very drunk Spader and McCarthy (check out the footage), Cryer, Jon Anderson, Dweezil Zappa, Michael J Fox, Andy Summers, New Order, OMD, George Michael and the Psychedelic Furs.

Further reading: the excellent ‘You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried’ by Susannah Gora

The Crap Movie Club: Mannequin (1987)

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mannequinYou know the drill – it’s a few days after Christmas and the house is finally quiet.

You sink into the sofa with a deep wish to indulge in some comfort viewing.

A guilty pleasure would be perfect, maybe a light Hollywood comedy, late-’80s style, something along the lines of ‘Vice Versa’, ‘Baby Boom’, ‘Innerspace’ or ‘The Money Pit’.

‘Mannequin’, starring Andrew McCarthy, James Spader and Kim Cattrall, would appear to fit the bill.

You haven’t heard of the director (Michael Gottlieb) but surely he can’t fail with that kind of ammo.

So you settle in expectantly. But after a few minutes it’s pretty clear that ‘Mannequin’ is sub-‘Splash’, high-concept dross, a bona fide Christmas turkey…

McCarthy plays a ‘quirky’ department-store window dresser who falls in love with a showroom dummy (Cattrall). The kicker is that she ‘comes alive’ at night only for him, a state of affairs closely monitored by the shop’s prissy vice president (Spader) and Rambo-obsessed security guard (GW Bailey).

Spader – one of my all-time favourite actors – gets top marks for effort but is hideously miscast. He usually has the ability to rise above apparently ‘unsuitable’ material (see ‘The Rachel Papers’ and ‘The Music Of Chance’) but not here.

James Spader

James Spader

Ditto McCarthy. As an actor, on the evidence of ‘Class’, ‘Pretty In Pink’ and ‘St Elmo’s Fire’, he definitely had something, even if often ‘helplessly sucked down by the undertow of female desire, with a pair of panicked eyes that bulge out like those of a deer caught in headlights and a mouth stuck in the permanent pucker of a cat’s asshole’, in the memorable words of Jonathan Bernstein from his brilliant book ‘Pretty In Pink’.

But here McCarthy (quite understandably) fails to decipher any character motivations, ending up either gazing ‘soulfully’ into the middle distance or yelping nonsensically. Not helped by a horrendous script, his line-readings barely make sense.

Poor Cattrall has a completely thankless role as an oppressed Ancient Egyptian who is put under a spell and then reincarnated as a mannequin (don’t ask). Elsewhere, Steve Vinovich makes for a terrible baddie, his performance barely exceeding am-dram level.

Gay and black stereotypes are hurled around willy-nilly and there’s even a large dose of weird corporate sexism thrown in for ‘comedy’ purposes. The director and editor conspire to extend every shot just too long, killing any potential giggles.

The score is awful too, with blaring sub-Harold-Faltermeyer synths and over-loud drum machines throughout (though there have been many worse movie themes than ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’, the UK’s second-biggest-selling single of 1987).

But, in its own way, ‘Mannequin’ laid down a marker in Hollywood, arguably influencing the crap/ infamous ‘caper’ movies of the early ’90s such as ‘The Adventures Of Ford Farlaine’ and ‘Hudson Hawk’ etc.

So we have that to ‘thank’ it for…

The Cult Movie Club: The Rachel Papers (1989)

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rachel papersHere’s a late, almost completely forgotten contender for the pretty short ‘film better than the book’ list.

Writer/director (and son of Richard) Damian Harris’s ‘The Rachel Papers’, based on Martin Amis’s 1973 debut novel, crept out in May 1989 to mediocre reviews and underwhelming business.

At the time, the post-‘Mission’, pre-‘Four Weddings’ British film industry was in its latest rut, unsure of its place in the global marketplace and reeling from massive government cuts.

But somehow ‘The Rachel Papers’ movie remains true to Amis’s irreverent, adolescent, sweary, very ‘London’ vision, while understandably playing down the overt racism, sexism and druggier aspects of the novel.

The plot centres around Charles Highway, a precocious, upper-middle-class tyke on the cusp of his 20th birthday. He’s no virgin (the title alludes to the secret ‘research files’ he keeps on all his previous conquests) but is desperate to sleep with an older woman before he hits his twenties.

The lovely, intelligent, well-bred Rachel seems to fit the bill perfectly, but Charles gets a lot more than he bargains for when he pursues her. Falling in love wasn’t part of the plan, etc, etc… He also has to contend with Rachel’s on/off American boyfriend DeForest. Charles does a fair bit of learning and ‘growing’, but with an agreeable lightness of touch. Most importantly, the movie rattles along at a good lick.

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Ione Skye and Dexter Fletcher

I came across ‘The Rachel Papers’ completely by chance in the early ’90s when I was almost exactly Charles’s age, and it rang a lot of bells. Watching it again recently, I was pleased how well it stands up whilst obviously being very much of its time. The movie lives or dies by the casting of the Charles character – Dexter Fletcher does his best but wouldn’t seem a natural fit for the role. For a start, he looks barely older than 15. Where was Hugh Grant when Harris needed him?

Often breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to camera, Charles is a fusion of Ferris Bueller and Alfie, basically a cocky, rather spoilt little prick with, as it turns out, a few deep-rooted insecurities. In Amis’s book, Rachel isn’t American – the casting of Ione Skye was apparently a studio-imposed decision, but it doesn’t upset the balance of the film at all. She does a great job in an underwritten role. She’s a fresh, natural, uplifting presence, carrying on from where she left off in the classic ‘Say Anything’. James Spader delivers a typically superb performance as DeForest, mining the same smarmy, condescending schtick he so memorably employed in ‘Pretty In Pink’.

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Skye, Spader, Fletcher

The film is also chock-a-block with other memorable character turns – Jonathan Pryce, Michael Gambon, Lesley Sharp, Aubrey Morris, Gina McKee and Claire Skinner do some great work, particularly Gambon as an amusingly-off-hand university interviewer. Ian Dury’s right-hand-man Chaz Jankel does a decent job with the soundtrack on top of some choice contributions from Shakespears Sister and John Martyn.

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Jonathan Pryce in ‘Rachel’

In the final analysis, ‘The Rachel Papers’ is the only Brit romcom I’ve seen that approaches something like ‘The Sure Thing’.

It’s irreverent and unpretentious but certainly not dumb, a fairly accurate portrait of late-’80s London, bringing an appealing cheerfulness to the city without resorting to picture-postcard clichés (there’s not a shot of Big Ben or Trafalgar Square in sight). The sexual politics and shenanigans are also refreshingly upfront.

It’s surely due a remake – the recent ‘Don John’ seems to touch on similar areas but looks like somewhat of a disaster area if the trailer is anything to go by. Don’t judge ‘The Rachel Papers’ by the trailer either, though, by the way…