The Addams Family (1991 film)
The Addams Family is a 1991 American supernatural black comedy film based on the characters from the cartoon created by cartoonist Charles Addams and the 1964 TV series produced by David Levy. Directed by former cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld in his screen directing debut, the film stars Anjelica Huston, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance as Morticia Addams, Raul Julia as Gomez Addams, and Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester. The film focuses on a bizarre, macabre, aristocratic family who reconnect with who they believe to be a long-lost relative, Gomez's brother Fester Addams, who is actually the adopted son of a loan shark intending to swindle the Addams clan out of their vast wealth and fortune.
The film was noted for its troubled production; originally developed at Orion, the film went $5 million over budget due to constant rewrites throughout shooting; health problems of people involved in the filming and an overall stressful filming for Sonnenfeld himself, caused multiple delays. The rise in production costs from the film's $25 million budget to $30 million led Orion, fearful of another big-budget flop and financially struggling, to sell the film to Paramount, who completed the film and handled the film's domestic distribution, while Columbia Pictures distributed the film internationally. The film was commercially successful, making back several times its production costs, and was followed by a sequel, Addams Family Values, two years later.
Plot
laments the 25-year absence of his brother Fester, who disappeared after the two had a falling-out. Gomez's lawyer Tully Alford owes money to loan shark/con artist Abigail Craven, and notices that her adopted son Gordon closely resembles Fester. Tully proposes that Gordon pose as Fester to infiltrate the Addams household and find the hidden vault where they keep their vast riches. Tully and his wife Margaret attend a séance at the Addams home led by Grandmama in which the family tries to contact Fester's spirit. Gordon arrives, posing as Fester, while Abigail poses as a German psychiatrist named Dr. Greta Pinder-Schloss and tells the family that Fester had been lost in the Bermuda Triangle for the past 25 years.Gomez, overjoyed to have Fester back, takes him to the family vault to view home movies from their childhood. Gordon learns the reason for the brothers' falling-out: Gomez was jealous of Fester's success with women, and wooed the conjoined twins Flora and Fauna Amor away from him out of envy. Gomez starts to suspect that "Fester" is an impostor when he is unable to recall important details about their past. Gordon attempts to return to the vault, but is unable to get past a booby trap. Gomez's wife Morticia reminds "Fester" of the importance of family among the Addamses and of their vengeance against those who cross them. Fearing that the family is getting wise to their con, Abigail convinces Gomez that his suspicions are due to displacement.
Gordon grows closer to the Addams family, particularly the children Wednesday and Pugsley, whom he helps to prepare a swordplay sequence for a school play. Abigail had insisted that Gordon not attend the play, but after feeling deeply saddened by this, he attends anyway. After the play, Dr. Pinder-Schloss insists that Fester must once again leave, so the Addamses throw a large party with their extended family and friends, during which Abigail plans to break into the vault. Wednesday overhears Abigail and Gordon discussing the plan, and escapes them by hiding in the family cemetery. Tully learns that as the elder brother, Fester is the executor of the Addams estate and therefore technically owns the entire property. With help from the Addamses' neighbor Judge George Womack, whom Gomez has repeatedly infuriated by hitting golf balls into his house, Tully procures a restraining order against the family, banning them from the estate. Gomez attempts to fight the order in court, but Judge Womack rules against him out of spite.
While Abigail, Gordon, and Tully try repeatedly and unsuccessfully to get past the booby trap blocking access to the vault, the Addams family is forced to move into a motel and find jobs. Morticia tries to be a preschool teacher, Wednesday and Pugsley sell toxic lemonade, and Thing—the family's animate disembodied hand—becomes a courier. Despondent, Gomez sinks into depression and lethargy.
Morticia returns to the Addams home to confront Fester and is captured by Abigail and Tully, who torture her in an attempt to learn how to access the vault. Thing observes this and informs Gomez using Morse code; Gomez gathers the family and rushes to Morticia's rescue. Abigail threatens Morticia's life if Gomez does not surrender the family fortune. Fed up with his mother's behavior and constant berating, Gordon turns against her. Using a magical book which projects its contents into reality, he unleashes a hurricane into the house, which strikes his own head with lightning and launches Tully and Abigail out of a window and into open graves dug for them by Wednesday and Pugsley.
The lightning strike restores Gordon's memory, and it turns out he really was Fester all along, suffering amnesia after being lost in the Bermuda Triangle and turning up in Miami, where Abigail took him in. The family enthusiastically welcomes him back into the Addams household on Halloween. With the family whole again as they play "Wake the Dead," Morticia informs Gomez that she is pregnant.
Cast
- Anjelica Huston as Morticia Addams
- Raul Julia as Gomez Addams
- Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester Addams
- Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams
- Jimmy Workman as Pugsley Addams
- Judith Malina as Grandmama Addams
- Carel Struycken as Lurch, the Addams Family butler.
- Christopher Hart's Hand as Thing
- John Franklin as Cousin Itt
- Elizabeth Wilson as Abigail Craven / Dr Pinder Schloss, a loan shark.
- Dan Hedaya as Tully Alford, Gomez's lawyer.
- Dana Ivey as Margaret Alford, Tully's wife.
- Paul Benedict as Judge George Womack, the Addams Family's neighbor.
- Mercedes McNab as Girl Scout
- Sally Jessy Raphael as Herself
- Tony Azito as Digit Addams, a four-armed Addams Family relative.
- Douglas Brian Martin and Steven M. Martin as Dexter and Donald Addams, the two-headed Addams Family relative.
- Allegra Kent as Cousin Ophelia Addams.
- Richard Korthaze as Slosh Addams, a fat toad-like Addams Family relative.
- Ryan Holihan as Lumpy Addams, a hunchback Addams Family relative.
- Maureen Sue Levin and Darlene Levin as Flora and Fauna Amor, conjoined twins that Gomez and Fester used to date.
- * Lauren Walker and Valeri Walker portray a younger Flora and Fauna.
- Patty Maloney as Lois Addams, dwarfish Addams Family relative and Slosh's wife.
- Joe Zimmerman as Long Arm Addams, an Addams Family relative.
- Steve Welles as Fingers Addams, an Addams Family relative.
Production
Pre-production
, a development executive at 20th Century Fox, pitched to the studio an adaptation of Charles Addams' The Addams Family comic strips, and the studio enthusiastically agreed that the comics would make a good film, and set out to purchase the rights. However, Fox would ultimately not make the film, as Orion Pictures, who owned the film rights to The Addams Family, would not sell the property, as they were planning on producing a rebooted TV series. Further crucial property rights were owned by Charles Addams' widow. Another difficulty in getting the film produced was the obscurity of The Addams Family 1964 TV series, as the show had not achieved the syndicated popularity of the similarly-toned comedy The Munsters. However, production finally moved forward when Addams' widow sold the remaining rights to Orion, who put the film in production with Rudin producing.Casting
said she based aspects of her performance on her friend Jerry Hall to give the character more warmth. Huston said she would have expected the role to go to Cher but was a longtime fan of Morticia.Writing
Caroline Thompson and Larry Wilson wrote the first draft of the screenplay, which was extensively rewritten later by other writers, including Paul Rudnick, who later wrote Addams Family Values. In a 2012 interview, Sonnenfeld stated that he originally intended that it be unclear whether Fester really was an imposter or not, but all the other actors rebelled and chose 10-year-old Christina Ricci to speak on their behalf, who "gave this really impassioned plea that Fester shouldn't be an imposter... so we ended up totally changing that plot point to make the actors happy. And they were right — it was the better way to go."Special effects
Makeup and animatronic effects for the film were handled by Tony Gardner and his company Alterian, Inc.Filming
After Tim Burton passed on directing the film, Barry Sonnenfeld took the job. His first directing job after previously serving as director of photography for several major films, Sonnenfeld experienced much stress during filming. Most of the film was shot on Stage 3/8 at the Hollywood Center Studios in Los Angeles, the same studio where the original TV series was filmed. In the last three months of production, director of photography Owen Roizman quit, and was replaced by Gale Tattersall. Filming resumed, but within weeks Tattersall was rushed to the hospital, halting production while Sonnenfeld took over cinematography, while simultaneously directing the film. Further delays occurred when a blood vessel in actor Raul Julia's eye burst, leading the production to film around Julia until he recovered, and Sonnenfeld's wife became sick, halting production.In her 2014 memoir Watch Me, Anjelica Huston described the filming of the Addams Family as "long and arduous." It was decided that the character of Morticia should have eyes which slanted upwards at the sides, an effect which was achieved by attaching an elastic strap to the back of Huston's head via fabric tabs glued at her temples, which pulled the corners of her eyes upwards. A second strap was added to balance the appearance of the lower part of her face with the upper. The bands caused extended discomfort to Huston, and, unless she removed them at lunchtime, she would suffer severe headaches and rashes later in the day. Removing the bands for a break entailed hours of extra work in both removing and then re-applying her makeup and wig. On top of this, the bands would snap at the slightest turn of Huston's head, causing yet more grueling repair time. Eventually, she learned to pivot and turn on her feet without moving her upper body or head. According to Huston, actress Judith Malina's way of enduring being "embedded in latex for over twelve hours a day" was to "smoke an endless series of joints in her trailer throughout filming."
Another production difficulty was the financial decline of original production studio Orion Pictures, who, while having recently made the big hits The Silence of the Lambs and Dances with Wolves, had also produced several major flops which ate up the studios' funds, leading Orion to sell The Addams Family, while still in production, to Paramount Pictures. In exchange, Paramount would own the domestic rights, as Orion had pre-sold the foreign rights to Columbia. Part of Orion's motivation to sell the film was that the film, originally budgeted at $25 million, had gone $5 million over budget due to newly added material as a result of the film's numerous rewrites. With the projected release date competing with Steven Spielberg's Hook, Orion feared that The Addams Family would be another expensive flop, and decided to cut its losses. Ultimately, The Addams Family was not only a nationwide hit, but it performed significantly better than Hook at the box office. As the sale occurred late in production, the filmmakers were unaware that Paramount had taken over production, learning of the sale from a journalist rather than either of the studios.