Sixteen Candles

'Sixteen Candles'
A film poster for Sixteen Candles
Directed by	John Hughes
Written by	John Hughes
Produced by	Hilton A. Green
Starring	Molly Ringwald Anthony Michael Hall Michael Schoeffling Paul Dooley Justin Henry
Cinematography	Bobby Byrne
Edited by	Edward Warschilka
Music by	Ira Newborn
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	May 4 1984 (USA)
Running time	93 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$6,500,000 (estimated)

For the Fall Out Boy song, see A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More 'Touch Me'

Sixteen Candles is a popular 1984 coming-of-age film starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling and Anthony Michael Hall. The film was written and directed by John Hughes and is often credited with the beginning of the Brat Pack film movement.

Plot

High school sophomore Samantha "Sam" Baker (Molly Ringwald) struggles to get through her sixteenth birthday, backdropped by her ongoing infatuation with fellow student Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling) and her family’s uniform ignorance of her situation (in their defence, they are planning a wedding for older sister Ginny (Blanche Baker), and weird foreign exchange student Long Duk Dong (Gedde Watanabe) hits town visiting Sam’s grandparents and is hastily paired with Samantha). The family eventually make up before the wedding.

A running subplot involves geeky, insecure Ted (Anthony Michael Hall) unsuccessfully trying to bed his love interest-Samantha-to satisfy a bet with his friends. Ted eventually confesses the wager to Samantha, who befriends Ted and loans him her underwear to help him out.

Later (after a peep show of Samantha's underpants for $1 admission), the geek and his equally unwelcome friends Cliff (Darren Harris) and Bryce (John Cusack) attend a senior after-party at Jake's ("party hardy dude-person"), a complete disaster that almost destroys the house. At night's end, Jake finds Ted trapped under a table, and they talk. Ted explains to Jake the situation with Samantha and gives him her underwear. In return, Jake lends Ted a car - his father's Rolls Royce convertible - as well as his fully inebriated girlfriend Caroline Mulford (Haviland Morris), Sam’s rival. Jake uses the excuse of later finding them together to breakup with Caroline and corner Sam after her sister’s wedding; the movie intimates that they share a kiss over the outline of a birthday cake with sixteen candles.

Cast

• Molly Ringwald as Samantha Baker
• Justin Henry as Mike Baker
• Michael Schoeffling as Jake Ryan
• Anthony Michael Hall as The Geek, also known as "Farmer Ted"
• Gedde Watanabe as Long Duk Dong
• Haviland Morris as Caroline Mulford
• Paul Dooley as Jim Baker
• Carlin Glynn as Brenda Baker
• Blanche Baker as Ginny Baker
• Edward Andrews as Grandpa Howard Baker
• Billie Bird as Grandma Dorothy Baker
• Carole Cook as Grandma Helen
• Max Showalter as Grandpa Fred
• Liane Alexandra Curtis as Randy
• John Cusack as Bryce
• Darren Harris as Cliff

Filming locations

Sixteen Candles was filmed primarily in and around the Chicago north shore suburban community of Evanston, Illinois. Most of the exterior scenes and some of the interior scenes were filmed at Niles East High School. Some exteriors were also shot at New Trier East High School. A cafeteria scene, gym scene, and auto shop scene were filmed at Niles North High School. Still other filming took place in the gymnasium at New Trier West High School. The Baker house location is on the 3000 block of Payne St. in Evanston.

Sequel

There was initial interest in a TV movie sequel entitled "36 Candles" -- 20 years after the original -- starring Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall in 2004, however, the project was shelved.

External links

• The Sixteen Candles DVD Official Universal Site
• Sixteen Candles at IMDb
• Sixteen Candles quotes at MovieWavs.com
• Sixteen Candles at The 80s Movie Rewind