For the 25 years Home Alone has made itself present in our memories and DVD collections, we've always known that Uncle Frank was a big, damned jerk. However, if you watch this deleted scene that's cropped up on the internet this past weekend, you'll see that we've been underestimating his power all of this time.
There are so many things wrong with this picture, which was brought to our attention by the folks at SlashFilm. The biggest problem being, of course, the fact that Uncle Frank is an immature creep for yanking down his nephew's pants, all in the name of a stupid gag. It certainly wouldn't be out of character for, say, his brother Buzz to stoop to such lengths. But his uncle, who's supposed to be a "better example" for the rest of the kids? That's not his brand of behavior.
Cutting this scene from the final cut of Home Alone was probably one of the best moves that director Chris Columbus could have made. In addition to the scene generally not fitting in with the rest of Uncle Frank's character, it's really awkward to see any adult character pants a child in the same movie. Unless there was some sort of body swap involved where Frank became a 9 year old again, there really isn't any reason to include this sort of gag.
Most importantly, even if you remove the immature style of the gag, it's still a bit overkill when it comes to the rest of Home Alone. The family drama between young Kevin and the rest of his family is enough to sustain the conflict at home. With the younger members of the family handling the hi-jinks, and the older members of the family acting as if Kevin can't take care of himself, the situation between the defender of the McCallister house and his relations is easy for audiences to relate to. Having Frank adding a ridiculous prank to the mix just gets in the way of the rapidly developing story, and it muddies the waters.
Besides, there's plenty of ways that Uncle Frank has still made an impression as an asshat of distinction within the Home Alone universe. Not only is he a cheapskate that can't cough up money for pizza, or even a tip for the Little Nero's pizza guy, he's also a horrible shower singer – lest we forget his performance from Home Alone 2: Lost In New York.
To be fair, if they did keep the deleted scene from Home Alone in the original cut, this scene from the sequel might have felt like a little more of a payback for the antics of the first film. Either way, Uncle Frank is the worst and we hope that after two Christmases of Kevin being lost, the entire McCallister family learned to appreciate everyone being safe and sound at the holidays. Though judging by how Kevin ended up as an adult, we highly doubt it.
