The Addams Family
Short description
A man arrives at the Addams mansion claiming to be Uncle Fester, who vanished twenty-five years earlier. The macabre family welcomes him back and prepares a celebration, but Morticia grows suspicious when he cannot recall details of the life he is supposed to have lived. Meanwhile, an unscrupulous lawyer and his clients scheme to get their hands on the family fortune, using the newcomer in their plan. The children, Wednesday and Pugsley, occupy themselves with their usual games, and the household's disembodied hand scampers through the corridors as ever.
The film is Barry Sonnenfeld's first as director, following his work as a cinematographer. Caroline Thompson and Larry Wilson wrote the screenplay, and Scott Rudin produced. Raúl Juliá and Anjelica Huston play Gomez and Morticia, with Christopher Lloyd as the supposed Uncle Fester, Dan Hedaya as Tully Alford, Elizabeth Wilson as Abigail Craven and Judith Malina as Granny. It was released in November 1991 and runs 100 minutes.
Made for about 30 million dollars, it took roughly 192 million worldwide, a strong return. On IMDb it holds 7 out of 10 from around 200,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.1 out of 10 from over 5,000 votes. A critics' rating of 6 out of 10 from 54 reviews places it below the audience scores. Sonnenfeld returned to the family with Addams Family Values in 1993, his second film as director.
What's left behind the scenes
- The construction of the Addams Family house cost $100,000.
- The film is based on the television series of the same name from the 1960s and the comics by Charles Addams.
- According to Angelica Houston, Christina Ricci herself came up with the sleeping pose for her character (with her arms crossed on her chest).
- The idea for the film originated as follows. Scott Rudin (who served as a producer on the film) was riding in a van with other executives from 20th Century Fox – Barry Diller, Leonard Goldberg (1934-2019), and Tom Sherak (1945-2014) – after seeing a movie, when Sherak’s son suddenly began to sing the theme song from the television series “The Addams Family” (1964-1966), and everyone joined in. The next day, Rudin suggested to Diller and Goldberg that they make a film about the Addams Family, and they agreed.
- To make Angelica Huston’s eyes appear slightly slanted, like Morticia’s in the original series, makeup artists lifted the corners of her eyes with threads secured in place with theatrical adhesive.
- When working on the image of Morticia, actress Angelica Huston drew inspiration not from Carolyn Jones’s (1930-1983) performance of the role in the original series (1964-1966), but from watching the documentary drama “Grey Gardens” (1975) by directors David Maysles (1931-1987) and Albert Maysles (1926-2015) about two elderly women living in a dilapidated mansion. Edith “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale (1917-2002) and Edith Bouvier Beale (1896-1977), aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy (1929-1994), played the roles.
- Approximately a month after filming began, cinematographer Owen Roizman moved on to another project. Gale Tattersall was hired to replace him, but shortly after starting work, he ended up in the hospital. Director Barry Sonnenfeld had had enough of this, and he took on the duties of cinematographer himself, deciding he had nothing to lose, because if anything happened to him, the project would simply be shut down. He already had experience as a cinematographer.
- The actors involved in the project were not entirely pleased with the storyline concerning Uncle Fester; initially, it was intended to remain unknown whether Gordon, who suffers from amnesia and closely resembles Uncle Fester, was actually Fester. Two weeks before filming began, the actors asked Christina Ricci to approach Scott Rudin and Barry Sonnenfeld with a request not to make Fester an imposter. According to Sonnenfeld, the only actor who didn’t care about this question at all was Christopher Lloyd, who played Fester.
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