Finding Uncle Buck

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Back in November, I did a short documentary on the lost 3 hour version of Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987). I used the shooting script, behind the scenes footage, and promotional material to paint a picture of the cut material that has never been seen publicly. The fan response was so great that I knew I had to do a similar doc on another John Hughes movie, as he was legendary for shooting hours of footage on his films. I then found out that the original cut of Uncle Buck (1989) was a whopping 4 hours long, and I just knew I had to find out more. 

Much like I did with my video on PT&A, I used the script & other promotional material to look back at the footage that had been cut from the theatrical film. Only this time, after posting the video, I was actually able to track down a missing 10 minutes from the rough cut of the movie. A viewer of my channel had access to a missing sequence of the film that was given to a member of the crew via VHS tape. It's clear that the scene came from an assembly cut of the film - an early version of the film that includes ALL footage shot, that is then trimmed and refined. Scenes in these cuts are typically way longer than they will in appear in the final cut, if they will appear at all. Case in point, the following scene:

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This scene looks like it would have taken place mid-film. It has Buck (John Candy) gambling with some buddies, all of whom appear to be local repairmen, using the children's games Buck has at his disposal. One of these buddies, "the guy in the red hat" as he's referred, is Chicago character actor Mike Hagerty. Another, "Coquero" (spell check) is played by Candy's longtime driver, Frankie Hernandez. 

​I did some very minor editing to the scene to improve the audio, but otherwise it's pretty much intact. As a result, the pacing of the scene is off compared to the rest of the film, as the content has not been refined at all. I can only assume that this scene would've ended up being cut to about 3 minutes if it had been left in the film. Still, it's a disservice to trim any John Candy performance, especially in a scene that has never been seen before. 

I'm so honored to present and share this sequence with fans of the movie. It's only confirmed my theory that more lost footage of this movie it out there; in basements, attics, and storage sheds of friends & family of crew members. If you think you might have access to or know someone whom has ANY deleted footage from this movie (or any John Candy movie), please contact me: [email protected].