Rooftop Cinema Club: Gremlins
Gremlins, like children, begin life as soft, adorable creatures and in no time grow into little monsters. In Chris Columbus’ original screenplay, Stripe and the gang not only behead mom, they eat the family dog. The top brass at Warner Bros. had no problem convincing director Joe Dante and producer Steven Spielberg, both of whom shared final cut, that neither atrocity would make it into the finished product. But Phoebe Cates’ 55-second “daddy dead in the chimney” remembrance proved more problematic. On the blu-ray commentary track, Dante recalls, “They didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. That’s what’s good about it. That’s what’s interesting.” Spielberg was no fan of the scene, but when asked by the front office to snip it out, he yielded to Dante’s vision and it stayed. Dante later discovered that a failed last-minute campaign had been launched to instruct every film exchange in the country to snip the offensive minute from all release prints. And on a historical note, it was Gremlins — most notably the scene where Mom microwaves a mogwai — and one of the Indiana Jones pictures that gave rise to the PG-13 rating. — Scott Marks