“My poor little angel”: five unknown facts about a favorite Christmas tape

“My poor angel” premiered more than three decades ago but its story full of humor, tenderness and youth have made it a must-have film in Christmas programming. And although you will surely know the script and the narrative twists backwards and forwards, here are some facts about its production that you probably did not know.

The thirtysomething today Macaulay Culkin The world of acting began very young thanks to his father: Kit Culkin, a man who tried without much success to make a career in the cinema.

It would be in 1989, when he was barely 9 years old, that he got his first big role: that of John Candy’s intelligent and sarcastic nephew in “Alone with our uncle”. That role would be precisely the one that would make John Hughes, director of this film and screenwriter of “My poor little angel”, make him try his luck for a bigger role.

Macaulay Culkin got 100 thousand dollars for this important role in his career, but in the second part he would earn 5 million dollars, in addition to 5% of the film’s revenue.

The immense house in Chicago where the McCallister and where little Kevin (Macaulay) is left all alone is a real house. That is to say, it was not created in a recording studio to film with due tranquility, as usually happens in Hollywood.

According to the TheFW.com portal, the producers of “My poor little angel” found the location on the outskirts of Chicago and rented it to its owners: John and Cynthia Abendshien.

They had to stay in an apartment, also paid for by the filmmakers, while they finished recording. Of course, they could go see the filming and that is why they became very close friends with MaCaualay and her little brothers.

Another very curious anecdote has to do with Joe Pesci, the actor who plays one of the thieves who break into Kevin’s house. Pesci had always participated in films of a dramatic nature and completely removed from comedies and family films such as My Poor Little Angel. Precisely because of this detail, Chris Columbus, director of the film, wanted to have it. However, already on the set, Pesci would slip away some bad words.

Especially in the scenes in which his character went through a thousand and one adventures because of Kevin. As a solution, Columbus suggested to Pesci that every time he wanted to yell “fuck!” (fuck), say fridge.

One of the most remembered scenes of the film is when the villain played by Daniel Stern screams in terror when Kevin puts the tarantula that his brother Buzz had in his room in his face. Although Marv’s scream is very comical, on the set Stern chose not to. The actor only pretended that he was screaming and asked that sound be added in post production because he was afraid of scaring the arachnid and that it would attack him.

And we close this account with the sweetest scene of “My poor angel”, the one in which Kevin meets that neighbor who terrified him and who turned out to be encouraging him on the days he was alone and unprotected. And although that shot gives a different touch to the film, it was not provided for in the original script for the film.

Chris Columbus arrived one day with the conscious idea that this could generate a different effect on viewers, so that they don’t just leave with the feeling that they saw a very funny movie and nothing more.

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