PRETTY IN PINK

'''Pretty in Pink''' is a popular 1986 film about teenage love and social cliques in 1980's American high schools. It is notable for belonging to the group of John Hughes movies starring Molly Ringwald and belongs to the Brat Pack movies. The title of the film comes from the song of the same name by British music group The Psychedelic Furs.
The film was directed by Howard Deutch, produced by Lauren Shuler, and written by John Hughes.
'Tagline:' ''He's crazy about her, she's crazy about him, and he's just crazy.''

Contents

Main cast

Plot summary

Trivia

Music

References in popular culture

External links

Main cast

★ Molly Ringwald - Andie Walsh

★ Jon Cryer - Philip F. "Duckie" Dale

★ Andrew McCarthy - Blane McDonnagh

★ Harry Dean Stanton - Jack Walsh

★ Annie Potts - Iona

★ James Spader - Steff

★ Kate Vernon - Benny Hanson

★ Andrew Dice Clay - Bouncer at CATS (as Andrew 'Dice' Clay)

Plot summary

Molly Ringwald stars as Andie Walsh, a poor, but fashion-conscious New Wave girl who has a crush on one of the rich boys in her school, Blane McDonough, played by Andrew McCarthy. When Andie and Blane try to get together, the pair encounters resistance from their respective social circles.
Andie lives on "the wrong side of the tracks" with her unemployed, sluggish father. She is trying to convince him to get a job and seems to be struggling with it. Her mother left the family a few years prior. To save on money, Andie buys secondhand clothes and uses her sewing and fashion skills to create unique New Wave clothes. Her best friend (and stalker) is Duckie Dale. Duckie has an obsessive crush on Andie, but plays it off as a joke in front of her. In school, she and Duckie are harassed by the "richie" kids, namely Benny and Steff. Steff's friend Blane, however, is secretly eyeing Andie, unbeknownst to her right away.
Andie works at TRAX, a New Wave music store in Chinatown, managed by her older mentor friend Iona, who dresses younger than her years and moans about her newly
single life. Iona advises Andie to go to her senior prom despite not having a date. Blane and Andie talk for a brief moment as Blane buys an album. Andie then begins developing feelings for Blane. She discusses them with a few friends at the local club, CATS.
Soon, Blane makes his move via chatting in the computer lab. Andie is smitten. A date is made later in the courtyard (where the punks, metalheads, and New Wavers hang out during lunch and after school). Steff begins questioning why his best friend "was conversing with a mutant." Blane brushes him off.
On the Friday night of the date, Andie waits for Blane at TRAX, but Blane is late. Duckie comes instead, only to find Andie upset because she thinks she's been stood up. But Blane arrives, leaving Duckie heartbroken. Duckie storms out, frustrated and hurt. Andie goes on her date with Blane.
First, Blane suggests a party Steff is throwing. But the party isn't exactly what Blane expected, and Andie is treated poorly by everyone, including a drunk Steff and Benny. Andie, in turn, suggests going to CATS, where Iona is sitting with Duckie. Duckie is suddenly cold and unforgiving, for obvious reasons. He quickly chases Andie and Blane out of CATS. However, despite the bad night, Andie and Blane end the night with a kiss, and Blane asks Andie to prom. The next day, Andie visits Iona in her loft in Chinatown, who shows Andie her old pink prom dress.
Meanwhile, Andie's father had been faking going to a full-time job in front of Andie, and Andie quickly caught on, leading to yet another confrontation.
Soon, Blane begins separating himself from Andie due to pressure from Steff. He won't return her calls, and Andie becomes increasingly distressed. She finally cracks, confronting Blane, who said he had asked someone else before asking her to prom, and had forgotten. Andie runs away, heartbroken. Duckie then overhears Steff trashing Andie. Duckie And Steff get into a fight, and when teachers come out of the classrooms and try to separate the two, Duckie runs away.
Andie seeks more advice from Iona, only to find Iona preparing for a date with a yuppie, dressing like her age for a change. Iona is so excited about the new man in her life that she is already planning a wedding for her future. She seems happy and barely notices Andie's pain amongst her pleasure. Yet somehow, Iona's newfound happiness inspired Andie, and she goes home with Iona's pink dress and creates a new pink prom dress and decides to attend prom to "show them they didn't break [her]."
Andie finds Duckie, dressed up for the prom, as soon as she gets there. The couple reunite and make up, walking into the ballroom. Steff snickers and begins trashing Andie and Duckie again, only to be finally told off by the normally passive Blane. Blane then admits he'll always love Andie no matter what, and leaves, depressed. Duckie concedes and advises Andie to run after Blane. After Andie leaves, a blonde girl notices Duckie and goes to dance with him.
Outside of the prom, Andie catches Blane just before he gets to his BMW and they kiss in the misty night.

Trivia

★ Molly Ringwald had a huge crush on Andrew McCarthy at the time...she found him "incredibly cute" and "dreamy"

★ Andrew McCarthy and Molly Ringwald were supposed to go out on a date during the filming, but he stood her up. She states that Andrew is the only man to ever stand her up.

★ ''Pretty in Pink'' features a breakout role for James Spader, as a smarmy yuppie type that becomes one of his best known onscreen personas.

★ Anthony Michael Hall turned down the role of Duckie for fear of being typecast in the future. Hall starred in several other John Hughes films, including ''Sixteen Candles'', ''The Breakfast Club'' and ''Weird Science

★ In Hughes' original script, Andie and Duckie ended up together, but due to pressure, Hughes had to change the ending so that Andie and Blane ended up together. The producers worried that the ending might come across as elitist. Ringwald, who was very sick during the shooting for the original ending and therefore didn't like how those scenes turned out, also objected to the original ending because she viewed Duckie as more of a brother than a love interest.

★ Andrew McCarthy is wearing a wig in the final prom scene because the actors were all called back to reshoot the ending. Andrew had already shaved his head and lost weight for his next role as an army officer in a play to be performed in New York.

★ The Hughes-penned film ''Some Kind of Wonderful'' (1987) follows the same premise as ''Pretty in Pink'' but with the gender roles reversed and the alternative ending.

★ Dweezil Zappa and Gina Gershon have small roles in the movie. Molly Ringwald and Dweezil Zappa were dating during filming.

★ The girl with whom Duckie dances at the end of the movie, named "Duckette", is Kristy Swanson.

★ ''Pretty in Pink'' was filmed at Hancock Park High School in Los Angeles. It was also shot at Marshall High School, where ''Grease'' was filmed in 1977. However the film was set in Suburban Chicago (As was the case with a lot of John Hughes' films.)

★ Alexa Kenin, who played Jena (Andie's friend) died in New York soon after filming. At the time, the cast of ''Pretty in Pink'' was told that she died from asthma complications; mysteriously, she was either murdered or died of a herion overdose. ''Pretty in Pink'' is dedicated to her.

★ The film is also dedicated to the film's set decorator Bruce Weintraub, who died three months after Alexa.

★ This movie ranked number 26 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies [1].

★ The book Andie hands to Blane the second time he comes into Trax is "In His Own Write" by John Lennon.

★ Ringwald was the only leading actor of high school age at the time of filming (18); Cryer was 21, McCarthy was 23 and Spader topped them all at 26.

★ Andie (played by Ringwald) uses the word "richie" when describing Blane to her father. "Richie" was also a term Bender used in ''The Breakfast Club'' when speaking to popular Claire (ironically also played by Ringwald) and Andrew.

★ Ringwald and McCarthy joined forces again in ''Fresh Horses'', another film about a couple from opposite sides of the tracks (again, she's the poor one, he's the rich one).

★ This is Molly Ringwald's favorite among her own films.

★ Molly Ringwald says that her kiss with Andrew McCarthy at the end of the film is her favorite on-screen kiss

Music

★ The title of the movie ''Pretty in Pink'' was a pre-existing Psychedelic Furs song that was rerecorded for the successful ''Pretty In Pink'' soundtrack. The original version is played during the opening credits and the re-recording is played during the end credits.

★ ''Pretty In Pink'' is one of several Hughes film to be named after pre-existing songs. Others include ''Sixteen Candles'' by The Crests, and ''Some Kind of Wonderful'' by Grand Funk Railroad.

★ The movie soundtrack drew heavily from New Order with three New Order songs featuring in the film: "Shellshock", "Elegia" and "Thieves Like Us". Due to being instrumental versions, "Elegia" and "Thieves Like Us" were omitted from the soundtrack CD.

★ The videos for The Psychedelic Furs' "Pretty In Pink", OMD's "If You Leave" and New Order's "Shellshock" each featured scenes from the movie.

★ "If You Leave", written for the movie and featured in the pivotal prom scene, was OMD's biggest US hit single, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

★ OMD had originally penned the song "Goddess of Love" to be used during the prom scene, but it was later dropped for "If You Leave."

References in popular culture

★ Jon Cryer reprised his "Duckie" role for an episode of ''Mr. Show''.

★ Is referenced in the TV show ''Supernatural'' in the episode Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (Supernatural) when Dean refers to a diary as having "unrequited Duckie love written all over it."

★ In 2005, the TV show ''Veronica Mars'' paid homage to ''Pretty in Pink'' in the episode "Ruskie Business", in which the characters Meg and Duncan go to an 80s dance dressed up as Andie and Duckie, respectively.

★ EastEnders child abuser Stella Crawford revealed her favourite film was Pretty in Pink,

★ In the webcomic Wapsi Square, the Golem Girls are repeatedly shown watching the movie and complaining because Andie didn't end up with Duckie.

★ The Bowling for Soup song "1985" makes a reference to ''Pretty in Pink'', also referring to other movies starring Molly Ringwald.

★ In a 2005 episode of Boston Legal, characters Alan Shore (played by James Spader) and Denny Crane (played by Willam Shatner) are dressed in pink flamingo costumes for Halloween. Shore says to Crane, "You look pretty in pink".

★ Jay and Silent Bob refer, in ''Dogma'', to Shermer, Illinois as being the town in which John Hughes' movies take place. Jay decided he wanted to go there because "All the honeys are top-shelf, but all the dudes are whiny pussies - except for Judd Nelson, he was fuckin' harsh - but best of all, there was no one dealin', man; then, it hits me: we could live like phat rats if we were the blunt connection in Shermer, Illinois" only to find out that there is no Shermer, Illinois.

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★ Jay also refers to ''Pretty in Pink'' saying, "... and then there's ''Pretty In Pink'' which I can't watch with this tubby muthafucker any more, because every time we get to the part where the red head hooks up with her dream guy, he starts sobbin' like a little eight-year-old with a skinned knee and shit. And nothing is worse than watching a fat man weep."

★ In the performance poem The Wussy Boy Manifesto, poetry slam artist Big Poppa E references Duckie as a "wussy boy icon."

★ In the ''Gilmore Girls'' episode "Super Cool Party People", Lorelai plays the film for a bunch of 12-year-olds, commenting "Yes, that is the guy from ''Two and a Half Men''", in reference to Jon Cryer.

★ In ''Not Another Teen Movie'', in the scene at the airport, Jake quotes a line from ''Pretty in Pink''. Molly Ringwald also has a cameo role as a flight attendant.

★ In Season 2 of '', Emma's and Manny's outfits for the dance match outfits worn by Andie and Jena.

★ The song "FTW", by mc chris, contains the lyrics "In a world full of Blanes, I'm just a Duckie"

★ On the Spongebob Squarepants episode "Dumped" Spongebob quotes Duckie's famous line "Do I offend?"

★ Fall Out Boy's first album, Evening Out With Your Girlfriend, has a song titled "Pretty In Punk", an obvious reference to the film.

★ In a Season 3 episode of Dawson's Creek, Pacey tells Jen that he had "Duckie written all over [him]," referring to his belief that his romantic feelings for Joey would not be reciprocated.

External links

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