The Soundtrack Show will begin in 5, 4, 3. In 1990, after more than a decade of blockbuster film scores for action, adventure and fantasy films,

John Williams made a glorious return to comedy with a little holiday movie called Home Alone.

This is the soundtrack show. Oh, The Home Alone is simply my most favorite movie that I've photographed.

It's very entertaining and it's very heartfelt.

Of the 27 films that I've shot, it's my by far my most favorite film.

Where I went to see what was described as a little Christmas film,

and I had no idea what to expect, and I was enchanted.

The genius of the script that John wrote is that he plays desire and fear

beautifully like a little orchestra.

Action. And your host, action.

Welcome back to the soundtrack show. I'm your host David W Collins, and this episode is all about that Christmas classic, Home Alone, a film from 20th Century Fox,

written by comedy legend John Hughes, directed by Chris Columbus, starring a young

Macaulay Culkin with a film score by John Williams.

Now we have a lot we can unpack here, a holiday movie, a comedy, a movie about an eight-year-old

child home alone, you know, balancing that reality versus

comedy, the nature of comedic film scores in the vein of Mickey Mouseing and all the technical

work that goes into it, you know, reminiscent of Carl Stolling's work with Warner Brothers, as well as

Williams' own work in comedies in the 1960s. But we'll get to all of that. Above all, we need to talk about the music to Home Alone and how it serves

this gem of a film that became a huge holiday hit. So I want to start with some background. John Hughes, who started as a comedic

writer for National Lampoon, was already a very successful movie writer and

director by the late 80s. There was the National Lampoon's

vacation series throughout the 80s, his huge directorial debut 16 candles in

...