National Lampoon's Vacation

National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)

Timing: 1:39 (99 min)

7.099/10
1685

6.998/10
8900

7.3/10
128000

All about film

Video 8

Photo 50

Actors and characters

Release date

1983-07-29

Country

United States

Production

Warner Bros. Pictures

Genre

Comedy, Adventure

Budget

$15 000 000

Revenue

$61 399 552

Website

Director

Harold Ramis

Actors

Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Anthony Michael Hall, Imogene Coca, Randy Quaid, Dana Barron, Eddie Bracken, Brian Doyle-Murray, Miriam Flynn, James Keach
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Matty Simmons

Operator

Victor J. Kemper

Composer

Ralph Burns

Artist

Audition

Phyllis Huffman, Susan Arnold

Editing

Pembroke J. Herring
All team (50)

• The plot is based on John Hughes's story "Vacation '58," published in the September issue of the humor magazine National Lampoon in 1979.
• Filming at the amusement park was not a pleasant experience for the actors. Chevy Chase recounted that some actors were sick on the rides, as they had to shoot multiple takes. Dana Barron admitted that she had to take pills to avoid motion sickness on the rides. Anthony Michael Hall later confessed that he didn't even have to act scared on the roller coaster – he was genuinely afraid.
• In the scenes at the amusement park, Anthony Michael Hall's character is taller than Beverly D'Angelo's, although in the scenes before arriving here they were the same height. The reason is that the film's finale was reshot 4 months after filming ended, and Hall grew almost 8 centimeters during that time.
• For a brief appearance on screen at the end of the film, actor, comedian, screenwriter and producer John Candy (1950-1994) was paid a fee of one million dollars.
• In the scene with the dog tied to the bumper, Chevy Chase bites his lip and his breathing is uneven – this is because the actor was desperately trying to hold back laughter.
• Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, was used as Walley World amusement park. The roller coaster shown in the film is the first in history to feature a complete loop.
• In the scene where the Griswold family looks at the amusement park from the parking lot, the actors were actually looking at a racetrack in Arcadia, California. The racetrack was simply removed from the frame and replaced with a painted amusement park.
• During filming, actress Imogen Coca (1908-2001) suffered a heart attack.
• At the Dodge City bar, where the bartender shoots Clark, someone from the film crew dropped a mannequin from the second tier of scaffolding during a take, startling everyone present.
• Filming the Griswolds' journey took up a significant portion of the allotted shooting time. Filming took place in California, Arizona, Colorado, Mississippi, Illinois, and Utah.
• The childhood photos of Audrey on the wall are photos taken by Dan Barron from when she appeared in commercials as a child.
• Scenes set in St. Louis and Dodge City were filmed on sets on the Warner Brothers studio lot.
• John Candy was paid one million dollars for his brief appearance at the end of the film.
• The plot is based on John Hughes' story "'58 Vacation," published in the September issue of the humor magazine National Lampoon in 1979.