Hollywood loves a reboot. Studios have reintroduced older materials to new audiences for decades. Most of these efforts fall flat or are average at best. Usually an old TV show gets made into a single movie that never gets a sequel, loses money for the studio, and creates a forgettable credit on IMDB for whoever played the lead role. McHale’s Navy, The Dukes of Hazzard, CHiPs and Miami Vice are a few examples. (Note: When we define this category, we have removed superhero movies from the equation. These characters have books and comics that keep them in front of readers on a regular basis. They aren’t reintroduced after long periods of lack of content. If anything, they’re reintroduced too often. We’ve had three Spider-Man leads and something like 468 actors put on the Batman cowl.)
In 1991, audiences were treated to a family who had occupied TV’s in the1960’s, animated series in the 1970’s and comic strips starting way back in 1938. The 1960’s show was a huge hit with John Astin playing father figure Gomez and Carolyn James as his wife Morticia. The 1991 movie featured a cast that was positively loaded with gothic visuals and shot with what would become director Barry Sonnenfeld’s signature high-contrast, in-close cinematography. Raul Julia (Kiss of the Spider Woman) stepped into the role of Gomez, with a class and swagger that tapped into his natural charm. His presence would have filled every room, except that he was matched stride for stride by Anjelica Huston (The Witches) as Morticia. The partnership and the love story that they share is the foundation of the movie.
Much of Morticia and Gomez’s jokes are understated and somewhat reserved. This leaves plenty of room for Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) to be completely unhinged as Uncle Fester. Fester’s return to the family is the major event that drives the film’s story. Lloyd and Julia are sublime during their shared scenes, most notably the family’s traditional dance number, The Mamushka. Relationships are the overarching theme to the film. Morticia and Gomez, Gomez and Fester, the family as an odd and out of place set of characters in typical suburbia. Another relationship that propels the film’s comedy is that of siblings Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and Pugsley (Jimmy Workman.) Pugsley is delightfully dull while Wednesday is a scalpel. She has a sinister set of motives that come to her naturally.
The plot of the film is relatively simple. The Addams family lawyer, Tully Alford (character actor Dan Hedaya), owes money to a woman named Abigail Craven (Elizabeth Wilson.) Abigail’s son, Gordon, looks a lot like Fester. Tully comes up with the idea to have Gordon pose as Fester, return to the family’s mansion, and uncover the massive fortune that Gomez keeps somewhere on the grounds.
Gordon’s repeated missteps while trying to find the fortune provide Lloyd with repeated opportunies to show off his physical comedy. Already well known for over the top roles like Doc Brown or Jim Ignatowski. Fester was a perfect role for Lloyd. The simple formula was just to add in makeup, a skull cap and a fat suit and to let Lloyd do the rest. Several of Fester’s personality traits carry over from the TV series, including his love of using explosives on model trains and the ability to light a light bulb with his mouth. Filming The Addams Family was no small task. The film went through several rewrites. Multiple directors of photography were hired and left, leading Sonnenfeld to play multiple roles in the end. There were studio issues and lawsuits over the material. Julia at one point had a blood vessel burst in his eye, requiring the crew to film scenes around him. Huston wore a metal corset and had wigs and fake nails put on before every shoot. Most notably, her eyes were lifted at the corners (using tape or spirit gum depending on who’s being interviewed) that gave her intense headaches. Judith Malina, who played Grandmama, smoked weed in her trailer to dull the pain of wearing so much latex on her face. In the end, despite changing hands and altered distribution deals, the film was a box office success. The budget for filming was basically $30 million and the international box office total stopped $191 million. It was followed by the sequel, Addams Family Values in 1993.