Situations outside our control and forced to go with the flow.
Plains, Trains, and Automobiles
IMDB describes Planes, Trains, and Automobiles like so:
“A man must struggle to travel home for Thanksgiving with a lovable oaf of a shower curtain ring salesman as his only companion.”
A farcical comedy at times, yet poignant at the same time because many of us have found ourselves in similar situations – situations outside our control and forced to go with the flow.
At first I called this a two-man show starring Steve Martin and John Candy. But then I looked at the cast and saw 41 actors listed below Martin and Candy – plus another 33 uncredited actors who were background figures.
Lyman Ward is in the opening scene with Steve Martin as they sit on pins and needles during a boring management meeting. He was Ferris Bueller’s father.
Steve Martin has to catch a flight home to spend Thanksgiving with his wife and children. But he’s running out of time while his boss just sits there looking at poster boards without saying a word.
Not long after Steve Martin gets out of the meeting, he finds himself on Park Avenue in Manhattan during rush hour with hundreds of people all trying to hail a cab.
Suddenly, there’s an available cab, but at the same time Steve Martin sees it, so does someone else – Kevin Bacon.
Kevin Bacon already starred in Footloose and Quicksilver, yet here he is on the screen for one minute and four seconds as he races – and beats – Steve Martin to the cab.
Next, Steve Martin finds a cab, but John Candy steals it from him.
Eventually, Somehow Steve Martin reaches the airport and just makes his flight. He’s holding a first-class ticket but the flight’s been overbooked. So he winds up in coach sitting next to – surprise – John Candy.
Because of a winter snowstorm their flight gets rerouted to Wichita, Kansas. While Steve Martin and John Candy are sitting in the waiting area, an airlines representative comes on the screen and announces that the flight to Chicago has been canceled.
Ben Stein plays the rep. Ben Stein has 80 acting credits. Among them is an appearance as Ferris Bueller’s teacher calling the role: “Bueller? Bueller?” The Ferris Buehler connection is director John Hughes.
Stuck in the airport in Wichita, Steve Martin calls his wife to tell her about the cancellation. I look at her and look at her. Looks familiar but can’t quite place the face.
No idea who she is. But then I look her up. Laila Robbins has 80 acting credits. Most on TV. But she’s been in The Sopranos, Sex and the City, All My Children, five episodes of The Blacklist, and five episodes of The Boys.
In The Blacklist, she played Katarina Rostova who, if memory serves, was a former KGB agent and the long-lost mother of Elizabeth Keen.
With the flight cancelled, Martin and Candy take a cab to a motel. The cab driver, barely on screen, sounds familiar. So I look him up: Larry Hankin.
Now there’s a nameless actor with an amazing 188 acting credits since That Girl in 1966. Among them are Lou Grant, Lavern and Shirley, Escape from Alcatraz, the landlord in Pretty Woman, Home Alone, Seinfeld, Married … with Children, Mr. Heckles on five episodes of Friends, six episodes of The Last Hand, and two episodes of Breaking Bad.
The next day they’re driving to the airport in a rental car that’s almost been destroyed by a fire when they’re stopped by a state trooper who played by Michael McKean.
He’s accumulated 236 acting credits since 1977. Among them are Happy Days, Used Cars, Lenny in Laverne and Shirley, Coneheads, Friends, and all the way up to a semi-starring role as Jimmy McGill’s brother in Better Call Saul.
So Steve Martin and John Candy are side by side from New York to Wichita to Chicago in planes, trains, automobiles, and they left out motels. And like I said – a two-man show.
I’m America’s Best Crime Writer
and I approve this message.
Comments
Comments Off on Planes, Trains, Automobiles