Sixteen Candles

Sixteen Candles is a 1984 American coming-of-age comedy film starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling and Anthony Michael Hall.

It was written and directed by John Hughes. It was released by Universal Pictures on May 4, 1984.

Plot
High school sophomore Samantha "Sam" Baker (Molly Ringwald) struggles to get through the day on her 16th birthday, which her entire family has forgotten about because her older sister, Ginny, is getting married the next day. She is also plagued by infatuation with a popular and attractive senior, Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling).

At school, she fares no better when she finds out that a completed "sex quiz," which she tried to surreptitiously slip to her friend, never reached her friend and unbeknownst to either of them, was picked up by Jake. Sam panics because the quiz contains sensitive information such as she is a virgin and is saving herself for Jake.

She has a whole new set of problems when she arrives home to discover all four of her grandparents are staying at the Baker home during the wedding. One set of grandparents has brought along a bizarre foreign exchange student, Long Duk Dong (Gedde Watanabe).

The grandparents force Sam to take him along to her school's senior dance that night and, to Sam's amazement, it takes "The Donger" only five minutes to find an unlikely girlfriend: the tall, large-breasted jock, Marlene (Deborah Pollack), nicknamed "Lumberjack." They are found slow dancing in the gym.

A subplot involves a geeky freshman (Anthony Michael Hall) who tries to win a bet with his friends by continually (and unsuccessfully) trying to bed his love interest, Sam. The character is referred to on several occasions in the film as either "Ted" or "Farmer Ted," but is credited simply as "the Geek."

On the way home on the school bus, Sam blows him off by saying, "Go to hell." In the school auto shop during the dance, Sam and Ted begin talking and Sam confesses her love for Jake. Upon hearing this, Ted tells her that Jake had been asking about her at the dance, and they agree that Sam should just go and talk to him. As she's leaving, Ted reveals the wager to Sam, who agrees to loan him her panties to help him win.

Later (after a $1 admission peepshow of Sam's panties, which Sam finds out about the next day), Ted and his equally unwelcome geeky friends, Cliff (Darren Harris) and Bryce (John Cusack), go to the senior dance after-party, hosted at Jake's house.

When they knock on the door, Long Duk Dong, who has come to the party with Marlene, greets them. Ted and his gang get in but they make a big mistake by knocking over the jocks' beer can pyramid. Ted and Bryce leave it up to Cliff to deal with the jocks.

Meanwhile, upstairs in Jake's bedroom, Jake takes the opportunity to look through the yearbook and finds Sam's photo. He jots down her phone-number on a scrap of paper and calls her, only to be disappointed when her grandparents pick up the phone.

Jake's entire house is completely trashed. At night's end, Jake finds Ted trapped under a table and they begin to talk. Jake inquires further about Sam, and Ted explains the situation.

Jake makes a deal with Ted: If Ted lets Jake keep Sam's panties, Jake will allow Ted to drive home his drunk popular girlfriend, Caroline Mulford (Haviland Morris), in Jake's father's Rolls Royce. Jake later uses the excuse of finding them together to break up with Caroline (who had surprisingly fallen for Ted and doesn't mind the break-up very much).

Afterward, Jake drives to the church just in time to meet an incredulous Sam after her sister's wedding. The film concludes with them sharing a kiss over a birthday cake with 16 candles.

Cast

 * Molly Ringwald as Samantha "Sam" Baker
 * Paul Dooley as Jim Baker
 * Justin Henry as Mike Baker
 * Anthony Michael Hall as Ted (aka "Farmer Ted")
 * Michael Schoeffling as Jake Ryan
 * Gedde Watanabe as Long Duk Dong
 * Haviland Morris as Caroline Mulford
 * 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 (aka, "Wease")
 * Deborah Pollack as Marlene (aka "Lumberjack")
 * Joan Cusack as Geek Girl
 * John Kapelos as Rudy Ryszczyk
 * Jami Gertz as Robin
 * Brian Doyle-Murray as Reverend
 * Zelda Rubinstein as Organist

Production
John Hughes had asked his agent for headshots of young actresses, and among those he received were those both of Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy.

Sheedy had auditioned for the role of Sam, but she was later dropped because of Hughes thinking Ringwald was more fitting for the role, but he called her a year later to give her a role in The Breakfast Club.

Inspired by Ringwald's appearance, he put it up over his desk and wrote the film just over a weekend with her specifically in mind for the lead role.

For the male lead in the film, it had come down to Schoeffling and Viggo Mortensen.

For the part of Ted, Hughes saw a number of actors for the role. According to him:

"Every single kid who came in to read for the part... did the whole, stereotyped high school nerd thing. You know - thick glasses, ball point pens in the pocket, white socks. But when Michael came in he played it straight, like a real human being. I knew right at that moment that I'd found my geek."

"Sixteen Candles" was filmed primarily in and around the Chicago North Shore suburban communities of Evanston, Skokie, and Highland Park, Illinois during the summer of 1983, when leads Ringwald and Hall were 15 years old.

Most of the exterior scenes and some of the interior scenes were filmed at Niles East High School, close to downtown Skokie, the setting for Hall's driving the Rolls Royce.

A cafeteria scene and a gym scene, were filmed at Niles North High School. The auto shop scene was filmed at Niles East High School in the auto shop. The Baker house is located at 3022 Payne Street in Evanston.

The church (Glencoe Union Church - 263 Park Avenue) and parking lot where the final scenes take place are in Glencoe.

Box Office
In its opening weekend, "Sixteen Candles" grossed $4,461,520 in 1,240 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking second. By the end of its run, the film had grossed $23,686,027 against a budget of $6.5 million.

Critical Reception
"Sixteen Candles" was well received by critics and is considered by many as one of the best films of 1984.

Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 86% of critics gave it a positive rating, based on 30 reviews.

Molly Ringwald's performance was especially praised; Variety called her "engaging and credible" while Roger Ebert wrote that she "provides a perfect center for the story.''"

Accolades
In December of 1984, Molly Ringwald and Anthony Hall both won Young Artist Awards as "Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture" and "Best Young Actor in a Motion Picture" for their roles in the film, respectively becoming the first and only juvenile performers in the history of the Young Artist Awards to win the Best Leading Actress and Best Leading Actor awards for the same film (a distinction that the film still retains as of 2014).

In July of 2008, the movie was ranked number 49 on Entertainment Weekly's list of "The 50 Best High School Movies."