One of the most beloved movies of the 1980s, Gremlins, was released 35 years ago this week. A unique blend of horror and comedy, it was the fourth-biggest box office hit of 1984, and trails only Batman as Warner Bros.' biggest of the decade. To celebrate, here are some images from the WB Archives, many of them scanned from the original negatives.
Gizmo invites you to join him on a driving tour through his favorite movie!Director Joe Dante on the Gremlins set. His quirky and parodic touch made him the perfect choice to helm this movie. In addition to the sequel, Dante returned to Warner Bros. for the Oscar-winning Innerspace (1987) and the wonderful Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), which shares the same go-for-broke spirit of the Gremlins films.Keye Luke plays the owner of the Chinatown shop where Gizmo the mogwai is found. Luke is well-known for his role as Master Po in the Kung Fu TV series, but he started his acting career way back in 1934 in MGM’s The Painted Veilwith Greta Garbo!Legendary Warner Bros. animator Chuck Jones, seen at right with Zach Galligan as Billy Peltzer, makes a brief cameo appearance as himself early in the movie.Billy plays with the ever-adorable Gizmo. Actor/comedian Howie Mandel supplied Gizmo’s voice.Musician and actor Hoyt Axton gives a wonderful performance as the tireless inventor (and the movie’s narrator) Rand Peltzer. Here he is with another celebrity cameo: Forbidden Planet’s Robby the Robot.Our first sustained look at the gremlins who ate after midnight takes place in the Peltzer kitchen. The appearances of the mogwai/gremlins were a very well-kept secret until the film’s release.One of the most memorable moments in Gremlins takes place when Lynn Peltzer (played by Frances Lee McCain) defends herself (and her kitchen) from three Gremlins, who all meet rather unpleasant (not to mention gooey) ends.The mogwai and gremlin puppets were designed by Chris Walas, seen here in an affectionate moment with the head gremlin Stripe.Perhaps the most out-of-control and gag-filled sequence in the movie (and just about any Hollywood movie of its era) occurs when hordes of gremlins invade Dorry’s Tavern, much to the dismay of Kate Berringer (Phoebe Cates).The lovely chemistry between Cates and Galligan (and Gizmo, of course!) is one of the reasons that the human aspect of Gremlins works so well.Another insane sequence: the gremlins take over a movie theater!Stripe in the final showdown with Billy and Gizmo (note the puppeteer at lower left). Stripe’s voice was provided by Frank Welker, who has played the voice of Fred for the Scooby-Doo animated franchise for 50 years, and Scooby himself since 2002.Director Joe Dante with a friend. Luckily, he came back to the Gremlins universe with Gremlins 2: The New Batch, which in some ways is even more anarchic than the original!Gremlins opened on June 8, 1984 (the same day as Ghostbusters), and those two films held the top two positions at the box office for six consecutive weeks. Gremlins stayed in the Top 10 until the end of September, allowing the WB publicity department extra time to have some fun with the ad campaigns. Here is the “Back-to-School” art seen in newspaper ads in early September 1984.In the wise words of Rand Peltzer, “…turn on all the lights, check all the closets and cupboards, look under all the beds. Because you never can tell. There just might be a gremlin in your house.”
