National Lampoon's Vacation

National Lampoon's Vacation is a 1983 comedy film directed by Harold Ramis and starring Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo. Anthony Michael Hall, Dana Barron, Randy Quaid, and Imogene Coca.

The screenplay, written by John Hughes, is reportedly about his own family's ill-fated trip to Disneyland when he was a boy, written in short-story form for National Lampoon magazine. The story was originally titled, "Vacation '58", and was set in 1958 rather than 1983, the year of the film . The success of the movie helped launch his screenwriting career.

The film was a significant box office hit, earning over $61 million in the United States with an estimated budget of $15 million. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted National Lampoon's Vacation the 46th greatest comedy film of all time. It continues to be a popular film and is shown on many cable television channels. It also has a fresh rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Plot

In the film, Chase and D'Angelo portray a married couple (Clark and Ellen Griswold) with two children (Rusty and Audrey), living in a Chicago suburb, who decide to take a cross-country trip to an amusement park (Walley World, played by Six Flags Magic Mountain) in California with a side trip to a Kansas farm where Cousin Eddie (Quaid) lives, where the couple agrees to drive D'Angelo's crotchety aunt to Phoenix.

Cast

Actor	Role
Chevy Chase	Clark W. Griswold, Jr.
Beverly D'Angelo	Ellen Griswold
Imogene Coca	Aunt Edna
Randy Quaid	Cousin Eddie
Anthony Michael Hall	Rusty Griswold
Dana Barron	Audrey Griswold
Eddie Bracken	Roy Walley
Brian Doyle-Murray	Kamp Komfort Clerk
Miriam Flynn	Cousin Catherine
James Keach	Motorcycle Cop
Eugene Levy	Car Salesman
John Candy	Guard Lasky
Christie Brinkley	The Girl in the Ferrari
Jane Krakowski	Cousin Vicki

Trivia

Wagonqueen Family Truckster

The Wagonqueen Family Truckster was a station wagon created specifically for the film. It was nothing more than a Ford LTD Country Squire station wagon with modified front and rear ends and a "metallic pea" paint job, based on the Dodge Aspen/Plymouth Volare line, which, due to rushed production, suffered much wear in a relatively short period of time.

The production staff intentionally styled the Truckster to be ugly and ridiculous, with the following features:

"Metallic Pea" paint
overdone wood paneling
eight headlights, four on each side in a rectangular cluster
double rear taillights
a grill area largely covered by bodywork, with two small openings about midway down, and a small grille at the bottom (Similar to a 1982 Oldsmobile Toronado)
large chrome hubcaps with a large "Wagonqueen" logo in the middle
an oddly-placed gas tank access door (in the hood)
dull, brown cotton interior
a rather poor-built engine (as demonstrated when Clark drives the car into his driveway and the engine knocks while it is running, and keeps running, even after Clark removes the key.)
an airbag made out of a trashbag.

Clark ends up purchasing the car after attempting to trade in his old station wagon, an Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser. By the time Clark finds out that the car he ordered isn't available, the dealer has had his old car crushed. During the trip the Truckster encounters a series of mishaps, including one where Clark drives it off a small cliff in the middle of a desert.

Other trivia

The crew bet stuntman Dick Ziker that he couldn't jump the Family Truckster fifty feet; Ziker won the bet.
Anthony Michael Hall grew three inches during production, leading to continuity errors over the course of the film.
In this film, almost everyone in the Griswold family (minus Audrey) wear Lacoste polos.
Actress Imogene Coca, who has been known by many as being kind, loving and friendly in real-life had trouble portraying the cold-hearted Aunt Edna, and at times, director Harold Ramis and actor Chevy Chase encouraged her to be 'meaner.'
The original screenplay had the Griswolds going to Disneyland, but objections from Disney (in particular, the fact that Disneyland is open 365 days a year) led John Hughes to create the fictitious Wally World.
The whole ending was re-shot. Originally, after they found out Walley World was closed, the family went to Roy Walley's house after they got the gun - not back to Walley World. This ending was disliked at preview screenings of the film, and the whole cast got together months later to film the ending back at Walley World that we see today (John Candy was never going to be in this film at all!). The footage of the original ending seems to be lost, although there is a still in the credits of the Griswolds on an aircraft with 'Walley World' hats on - which was from the original ending. In the 20th Anniversary Special Edition, Chevy Chase mentions he has the original ending on tape. This original ending was closer to the original short story that the film was based on.
When the dead Aunt Edna is strapped to the roof of the car, there originally was supposed to be a shot of her fingers moving, implying that she was still alive.
The off-screen police officer who asks "We're all finished here, Mr. Walley; want me to take them downtown and book them?" toward the end of the film is voiced by director Harold Ramis. Additionally, Ramis' daughter appears as "Daisy Mabel," the tongue-lacking child of Cousins Eddie and Catherine.
Chevy Chase and John Candy would go on to appear in the films Sesame Street presents Follow That Bird and Nothing But Trouble. In both films, Candy plays a police officer, somewhat similar to his security guard role in Vacation.
Brian Doyle-Murray appears as a motel clerk and would go on to star in a more prominent role as Chevy Chase's boss in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
Some versions of the film edit out the song "I'm So Excited" and replace it with the "Little Boy Sweet" tune. In the original version of the film, "Little Boy Sweet" appears in one scene with Christie Brinkley while "I'm So Excited" is played during two scenes featuring Brinkley driving alongside Chase in her Ferrari.

Sequels

National Lampoon's Vacation spawned a number of sequels:

National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985)
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
Vegas Vacation (1997)
American Adventure (2000)
Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure (2003)

With the exception of the latter two films, Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo reprise their roles as Clark and Ellen Griswold in each sequel. The "Rusty" and "Audrey" characters are played by a different set of actors in each sequel (although Barron and Hall were asked to reprise their roles for European Vacation), with the exception of Christmas Vacation 2. The latter two sequels were released direct to video. Miriam Flynn and Randy Quaid reprise their roles as Cousins Catherine and Eddie in each film aside from European Vacation and American Adventure. Each sequel also manages to reference "Wally World" in some way.

External links

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