Pretty in Pink (1986) marks the third and final instalment in Hughes’ unofficial “Ringwald trilogy”. Along with Sixteen Candles (1984) and The Breakfast Club (1985), it stars Molly Ringwald as a high schooler struggling with familiar challenges for suburban teens at the time. Here she plays Andie, a young working class woman raised by a single parent (Harry Dean Stanton) and attending a high school where the bulk of the students are more affluent than she is. Attracted to the well-to-do Blane (Andrew McCarthy), Andie faces resentment over her relationship from both her friends (Jon Cryer) and his (James Spader).
The aesthetic elements that made Hughes’ teen films so popular are in full evidence here, with strong 1980s fashion throughout and a particularly impressive soundtrack of pop and independent hits. (OMD’s “If You Leave” was a particular commercial success at the time). These elements can be found throughout Hughes’ oeuvre of the time, and represent a similar level of creative success across the board. In the case of Pretty in Pink – itself named after and featuring a Psychedelic Furs song – Andie works part-time at a local record store. This fully embeds the popular music not only in the soundtrack and the narrative as well. Her best friend appears to be Iona (Annie Potts), the owner of the store and a sounding board for her teenage angst.
Hughes’ screenplay focuses on a working class versus upper class divide. Andie is poor – the script places her house literally on the wrong side of the railroad tracks – but Blane is rich. Blane’s friend Stef (Spader) disrupts their romance because Andie is poor, and Andie’s friend Duckie does the same because Blane is too rich. Interestingly, both friends have an underlying motivation in wanting to date Andie themselves. All in all, it is fairly primitive stuff, but taken in the context of American teen drama it seems a little impressive that the issue is raised at all.
While John Hughes wrote the film – and his authorial signature is all over it – Pretty in Pink actually marked the directing debut of Howard Deutch. He demonstrates a solid sense of pace and draws particularly good performances out of his cast. There is particularly strong work among the supporting players: while Ringwald and McCarthy are amiable enough, other performers around them constantly threaten to steal the limelight. James Spader does a wonderfully venomous job as Stef, Harry Dean Stanton is a heartfelt and likeable single father looking for permanent employment, and Annie Potts’ turn as Iona is a comic delight that demonstrates just how much Hollywood has under-utilised her since (seven seasons of Designing Women notwithstanding).
Of course there is also Jon Cryer as permanently friend-zoned hopeful Duckie. Cryer’s comedic talents made the character shine, because certainly some of his less admirable behaviours and jealousies can make him difficult to like. In a contemporary remake he would almost certainly be re-imagined as Andie’s gay best friend, and were it not for a few minor plot points he almost occupies that role in the original. Watching the original film with the benefit of hindsight there are actually more than a few toxic behaviours expressed that have dulled Duckie’s original shine. Debate has raged among Pretty in Pink fans for years over whether or not the studio-enforced conclusion was the right choice. In all honesty I think that debate needs to be reconsidered.
Age has not diminished Pretty in Pink, but it has transformed it from a popular drama to a nostalgic curio. It represents the style, music, and attitudes of the American middle class at a particular place in time. I think there is worth in that.
By Brent Furdyk. 27 Feb 2021 2:42 PM
“Pretty in Pink” first hit movie theatres back on Feb. 28, 1986, quickly becoming an instant classic. To mark the film’s 30th anniversary, take a look at some fun facts that even the most diehard fans of the iconic John Hughes-scripted teen comedy may not know.
In a joint interview with "Seventeen" magazine, "Pretty in Pink" screenwriter John Hughes revealed that he would hear Molly Ringwald listening to The Psychedelic Furs' "Pretty in Pink" while they were filming their earlier movie "Sixteen Candles", which led to their next film's title. "I wrote 'Pretty In Pink' the week after we finished 'Sixteen Candles'," he said.
Furs frontman Richard Butler, however, admitted that having their song in the movie wasn't as advantageous as one might imagine. “[The movie] was nothing like the spirit of the song at all,” Butler admitted. “It’s really hard to say whether it was damaging for us."
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In a joint interview with "Seventeen" magazine, "Pretty in Pink" screenwriter John Hughes revealed that he would hear Molly Ringwald listening to The Psychedelic Furs' "Pretty in Pink" while they were filming their earlier movie "Sixteen Candles", which led to their next film's title. "I wrote 'Pretty In Pink' the week after we finished 'Sixteen Candles'," he said.
Furs frontman Richard Butler, however, admitted that having their song in the movie wasn't as advantageous as one might imagine. “[The movie] was nothing like the spirit of the song at all,” Butler admitted. “It’s really hard to say whether it was damaging for us."
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John Hughes wrote "Pretty in Pink" with Molly RIngwald in mind, yet she almost didn't ge the role. "Flashdance" star Jennifer Beals was producers' first choice — but turned it down, clearing a path for Ringwald.
“I remember actually hearing that Jennifer Beals was in the running, and it was sort of upsetting to me to imagine her in that,” Ringwald said in the book "You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried". “I felt like she was already an adult by then. It just didn’t seem possible, so I was really glad when I was approached about it.”
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Jon Cryer's portrayal of Duckie proved to be his breakthrough, but if producers had their way the character would have been played by Anthony Michael Hall. However, director Howard Deutch felt that casting choice would lead audiences to think Hughes was simply rehashing "Sixteen Candles", so the casting continued.
Star Molly RIngwald, however, had one actor in mind: Robert Downey Jr. It was only when the future "Iron Man" star turned it down did Cryer land the role.
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In the original ending, it was Duckie whom Ringwald's Andie ended up with at the end of the movie, not Andrew McCarthy's Blane. In the first test screening, however, that pairing was met with boos by the audience, leading director John Hughes to rewrite and reshoot the final scenes to accede to the wishes of the audience that Andie gets together with Blane, despite what the script had outlined.
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According to director Howard Deutch, Ringwald had earlier (and correctly) predicted that audiences wouldn't buy Andie winding up with Duckie as played by Jon Cryer, but would have if the character had been played by her choice, Robert Downey Jr.
“Molly dropped the bomb that she would’ve been fine with the original ending if Robert Downey Jr. had played Duckie, but since it was me, she just couldn’t see it,” Cryer revealed in the film’s 2006 "Everything’s Duckie "DVD edition. “It was like, ‘Wow, so I’m that unattractive?’ Thanks, Mol!”
Deutch later conceded that, story-wise, Andie should have ended up with Duckie. "And I could have ended that way, had I not f**ked with one thing: I cast Jon Cryer,” he joked in the book "You Couldn't Ignore Me".
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For casting the role of Andrew McCarthy's Blane, producers envisioned a square-jawed jock type until Ringwald intervened and suggested McCarthy.
“I did push for him to get hired,” Ringwald said in "You Couldn't Ignore Me".
“I thought he was cute and I thought, if I thought he was cute, then Andie would think he was cute!" - Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock
Director Howard Deutch let the actors freely improvise, which led to Jon Cryer coming up with some of his character's most memorable lines.
Among these was when he burst into the girls' room, and quips of the tampon machine on the wall, “So this is what it looks like. We don’t have a candy machine in the boys’ room.”
Another one cooked up on the spot by Cryer was, “His name is Blane? That’s a major appliance, that’s not a name."
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When James Spader auditioned for the role of jerky Steff, he got so into his loathsome character that director Howard Deutch absolutely loathed him — until realizing that was exactly what they wanted from the character.
According to "You Couldn't Ignore Me", after Spader was cast, he and co-star Jon Cryer were discussing Spader's previous (and very similar) roles, when Spader told Cryer, “I figure I got a lock on this teenage a**hole thing."
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One of the most memorable scenes in "Pretty in Pink" is when Jon Cryer's Duckie does a lip-sync and dance to Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness.”
As Cryer later told "Entertainment Weekly", director Howard Deutch brought in acclaimed choreographer Kenny Ortega, who designed Kevin Bacon's moves in "Footloose", to put together Duckie's routine. "And getting together with a seriously world-class choreographer, you’re gonna come up with something," admitted Cryer.
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“Duckie doesn’t know he’s gay,” Ringwald once told "Out" magazine. “I think he loves Andie in the way that [my gay best friend] always loved me.”
Cryer, however, begged to differ, telling Zap2It: “I want to stand up for all the slightly effeminate dorks that are actually heterosexual. Just ‘cause the gaydar is going off, doesn’t mean your instruments aren’t faulty. I’ve had to live with that, and that’s okay.”