On March 4, 1994, the legendary John Candy died from a heart attack in his sleep after shooting scenes for what would be one of his final movies, the Western-comedy Wagons East.
Set in the Wild West, the film follows an alcoholic wagon master named James Harlow (Candy), who’s hired by a group of settlers to lead them back east. However, the local railroad barons see this as bad for business and send out gunslingers to stop the group.
When it’s revealed that Harlow was also the wagon master for the Donner Party, he decides to part ways with the settlers, but later comes to their aid when he overhears that a cavalry is planning to wipe them out.
Wagons East was a box-office bomb and didn’t fare well with critics, but it’s surprising it even made it far enough to bomb, considering that the lead actor died before finishing all of his scenes.
As a result of John Candy’s death, production on the film was suspended, and it was reported that it wasn’t clear whether or not it would be completed under the circumstances. At the end of the day, the filmmakers decided to make some adjustments to the script and power through rather than scrap the entire movie. As it turns out, they’d shot what they considered to be a sufficient amount of footage of Candy to get them across the finish line.
“We were so unfortunate to lose John,” said producer Barry Rosen at the time, “but lucky that we were right on the tail end when it happened.” Rosen went on to explain that they’d shot about 80 percent of the film prior to Candy’s death, and the night he died, director Peter Markle shot more footage of Candy than he’d initially planned. That ended up being a happy accident because an important close-up shot of Candy was captured that evening, which Rosen said they wouldn’t have been able to include in any way had Candy died beforehand.
Yet and still, finishing the rest of Candy’s unfilmed scenes proved to be a bit tricky. The use of CGI was considered, but thankfully decided against. For one incomplete sequence in which Candy was shown riding his horse, they utilized a stuntman who served as a stand-in. They did incorporate some computer-assisted special effects as well, which are hard to unsee once you’re aware of them.
In the side-by-side comparison below, it’s pretty noticeable how they just reused an earlier shot of John Candy pouring out a bottle of liquor. As you can clearly see, they expertly disguised this recycling job by simply changing the background. Not exactly the kind of movie magic we’re used to hearing about, but it certainly comes in handy in a pinch.
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