John Hughes directs Steve Martin, John Candy and Laila Robins in this warm road comedy about a highly strung executive struggling to get home for Thanksgiving and the shower curtain ring salesman who he can’t seem to shake off. 

A throwaway comedy I never saw in its entirety as a kid, bowled me over at the Filmhouse members festive screening. Loads of hilarious set pieces abound, with both Martin and Candy revving their engines and racing neck and neck with each other to steal the show. Hughes, as with his teen classics, reveals depths to their broad archetype characters that gives the whole zany odyssey a sheen of emotional maturity, rare for this form of ribald farce.

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