Crooked Table Podcast: ‘Planes, Trains, and Automobiles’ (featuring Jamie Williams)

In the 1980s, few filmmakers were as in-demand and influential as John Hughes. The man basically created the concept of the teen movie with films such as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Yet, after that run, Hughes did the last thing anyone expected: he grew up. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles marks his directorial entry into adult comedies. And boy, is it a great one.

Jamie Williams last appeared on the show to talk 1999’s Man on the Moon. But now, we’re taking our first-ever trip to Hughes. We’ll talk about how the director created the comedy dream team of Steve Martin and John Candy, why Candy should have been an Oscar contender for his work, and how Planes, Trains, and Automobiles might be the best (or only?) Thanksgiving movie ever made.

SYNOPSIS

Easily excitable Neal Page (Steve Martin) is somewhat of a control freak. Trying to get home to Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with his wife (Laila Robins) and kids, his flight is rerouted to a distant city in Kansas because of a freak snowstorm, and his sanity begins to fray. Worse yet, he is forced to bunk up with talkative Del Griffith (John Candy), whom he finds extremely annoying. Together they must overcome the insanity of holiday travel to reach their intended destination.