FILM · 1990 · UK
The Witches
51 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (51)
- #001
Most of the witches at the meeting are men disguised as women.
- #002
Liccy Dahl stated that after the producers of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) rejected her request to cast Spike Milligan as the lead character, she never again asked for a role in a Roald Dahl book. She was, however, very happy when Anjelica Huston was cast as the Grand High Witch, since Huston was Dahl's personal favorite for the role.
- #003
Roald Dahl hated the happy ending in which a witch turns the mouse back into a boy. At the end of Dahl's novel the child is still a mouse, and he and his grandmother devise a plan to defeat the witches.
- #004
During production, actor Rowan Atkinson caused a disaster worthy of Mr. Bean, the comedy character he was developing at the time. Atkinson went to bed while the bathroom taps in his room were still running, causing a leak that damaged the crew's electrical equipment on the floor below.
- #005
The child has no name in the book. In the film his name is Luke.
- #006
The novel's dark tone was significantly softened to make the film more appealing to young viewers. In Roald Dahl's book the grandmother is far more sprightly; Luke was in the car with his family at the time of the accident; Bruno Jenkins is a disgusting, spoiled child whom Luke dislikes intensely, and it is implied that his equally snobbish father drowns him in a bucket of water at the Hotel; the Grand High Witch's plan involves teachers and parents killing the children in mouse form; and, most importantly, Luke's inability to return to human form means he ultimately has very little time left to live. All these changes infuriated Dahl, who never again allowed a film adaptation of his work in his lifetime. In his will he left very specific and high standards for future adaptations.
- #007
In addition to the "happy ending," the studio actually filmed an ending more faithful to Roald Dahl's book (Luke remains a mouse) and test-screened the film with both. The result, as seen in the final product, was that test audiences chose the second ending.
- #008
Rowan Atkinson modeled the role of Mr. Stringer on Basil Fawlty from Fawlty Towers (1975). John Cleese, who played Basil Fawlty in that sitcom, was Rowan Atkinson's idol. They would later share the lead in Rat Race (2001).
- #009
It is the last film Jim Henson directed himself.
- #010
Anjelica Huston went on record saying that Miss Ernst/The Grand High Witch is her favorite role and that she regularly dresses as the character on Halloween.
- #011
In the United Kingdom, two scenes were trimmed and cut so the film could receive a PG rating: the beginning of the shot in which the skin is peeled from the Grand High Witch's face, and the final shot in which Bruno turns into a mouse.
- #012
The film premiered in the United Kingdom on 25 May 1990, a week after the death of executive producer Jim Henson, who died on 16 May 1990. Henson had, however, received positive reactions from the test screenings in February 1990.
- #013
Mrs. Irvine was not in the book and was created for the film.
- #014
The Louis Vuitton trunk the Grand High Witch uses to hide her money is worth nearly $45,000 (US).
- #015
In the book, the grandmother is a retired witch hunter who lost her left thumb when she encountered a witch. In the film, the grandmother tells Luke that the Grand High Witch is searching the world, and, unlike the book, the grandmother lost her left little finger rather than her left thumb.
- #016
In the book the grandmother falls ill with pneumonia, whereas in the film she has a mild case of diabetes.
- #017
Jim Henson's Creature Shop created puppet mice in three different sizes. The 'A' mice were the size of real mice and were operated by wires almost as thin as a hair. The 'B' mice, also cable-controlled, were about the size of a very large rat. The 'C' type was a large hand puppet about a meter long and quite impressive. Because director Nic Roeg had difficulty cutting from a close-up of a human to a close-up of a mouse, however, the largest size was used in only four shots. He preferred to keep the shot width the same, so miniature mice on scaled-down sets were used most often.
- #018
The bedroom scenes were shot in rooms 223, 227 and 205 of the Headland Hotel in Cornwall, England.
- #019
It was Charlie Potter's first and only acting role. He later became a lawyer.
- #020
Before Anjelica Huston was cast, Cher was considered for the role of the Grand High Witch.
- #021
The book ended on an unhappy note. After the Grand High Witch and all the witches are killed by the hotel staff, Luke and his grandmother return home and begin plans to rid the world of witches by using the potion to turn the Grand High Witch's successor and her assistants into mice and letting cats destroy them. Luke learns that the mice can probably live only about nine more years, and he ultimately decides that he and his grandmother will die together.
- #022
This was one of Mai Zetterling's last acting roles before her death on 17 March 1994.
- #023
After the original production company Lorimar went bankrupt, Warner Brothers, which bought the film, shelved it for more than a year before allowing test screenings in Florida in February 1990. Despite positive reactions at the test screenings, it could not be released in the United Kingdom until 25 May 1990, and it had initially been planned to open in the United States on the same day. However, Warner Brothers delayed its American release until August, mounting an intense promotional campaign in the hope of attracting a large audience of young people on school holidays.
- #024
In the book Luke is British. In the film he is American.
- #025
The toy train that Luke rides as a mouse is a Lego Space monorail train.
- #026
At the time the film was released in the United Kingdom, Rowan Atkinson had made his television debut with Mr. Bean (1990) and had gained a new fan base. The UK poster image and video cover included a still from the film that closely resembled Mr. Bean. However, his character in The Witches (1990) is actually quite different, and the fact that he happens to wear a very similar suit and briefly uses a comical expression typical of Mr. Bean gave an opportunity to make a visual marketing reference to the character.
- #027
Cher, Frances Conroy, Geneviève Bujold, Helen Mirren, Anne Bancroft, Olivia Hussey, Linda Blair, Sigourney Weaver, Faye Dunaway, Susan Sarandon, Eartha Kitt, Jodie Foster, Vanessa Redgrave, Fiona Fullerton and Liza Minnelli were considered for the role of the Grand High Witch before Anjelica Huston was cast. Huston's casting later satisfied Dahl.
- #028
Despite the credits stating that this was Jasen Fisher's first film, he had first appeared a year earlier in Parenthood (1989). This may be because he shot The Witches (1990) earlier but it was shelved and did not reach cinemas until 1990.
- #029
When the boys are turned into mice, the mice are played by real mice and puppets.
- #030
The role of Mr. Stringer was originally offered to John Cleese, a friend of Jim Henson. Cleese turned the role down because he felt it was too close to his famous Basil Fawlty role. Cleese suggested Eric Idle for the role, but Idle had to decline the offer as he was about to start work on Nuns on the Run (1990).
- #031
In the book the plan to stop the witches centres on green pea soup. In the film it is watercress soup.
- #032
Rowan Atkinson's ITV sitcom Mr. Bean (1990) was released in the same year as the film. It premiered in the United Kingdom on 1 January 1990, four months before the film opened in British cinemas.
- #033
The potion in the film is called "Formula 86". The term "86" generally meant getting rid of someone or something.
- #034
Jane Horrocks (Miss Irvine) always appears in white. At the end of the film she becomes a white witch. Her honesty was transparent throughout the film.
- #035
Neither the novel nor the film explains why the witches hate children and victimise them, or why the Grand High Witch wants all the children in England destroyed.
- #036
The novel Luke's grandmother reads at the hotel is "Mr. Lucton's Freedom" by Francis Brett Young.
- #037
When the film began production, Anjelica Huston and Jack Nicholson were still dating. Nicholson reportedly sent dozens of bouquets of flowers to the hotel where filming took place, all of them for Huston. The hotel's real staff were apparently happy to see all the arrangements he sent.
- #038
Actor Jasen Fisher had fallen asleep just before Luke's scene and was startled by the cue to run. He then accidentally dropped a white cord, which he had been using to play with his mice.
- #039
The elevator Luke uses to go to bed was built from Construx.
- #040
This was Rosamund Greenwood's last film.
- #041
Many of the film's musical cues closely resemble those of The Shining (1980), another film largely set in a hotel.
- #042
Most of the witches in the ballroom scene where Bruno is turned into a mouse are men in dresses. Apparently they could not find enough female extras for the scene.
- #043
The magazine seen under Luke's radio set at around 0:13:50 is the March 28, 1988 issue of The New Yorker.
- #044
Bette Midler, Rocio Banquells and Kathy Najimy turned down the role of Miss Ernst/Grand High Witch.
- #045
The film reflects the real-life dangers of stranger abduction, child abuse and child murder: in the film Erica is seen walking alone in an alley when she is abducted by a witch. The Woman in Black lures Luke by offering him a chocolate bar and a snake to get him out of the treehouse so she can abduct him. The Grand High Witch gives Bruno a chocolate bar into which she has put Formula 86, which happens off screen. The Grand High Witch plans to destroy every child in England by turning them into mice. The Grand High Witch tries to kill a baby by pushing its pram down a hill (Luke stops the pram from falling over a cliff into the water). The Woman in Black kills the Witch cook, mistaking her for a child, and ignores the Witch cook's warning that Formula 86 is in the turtle soup.
- #046
Jane Horrocks and Brenda Blethyn later appeared together in Little Voice (1998).
- #047
Diane Keaton was considered for the role of the Grand High Witch.
- #048
In the book the Norwegian sections take place in Oslo, while in the film they take place in another city, Bergen.
- #049
The toy play set destroyed when Luke turns back into a boy is the firehouse from The Real Ghostbusters (1986). Anjelica Huston (who plays the Grand High Witch) later appeared alongside Bill Murray in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). Bill Murray had played Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters (1984), the film on which the aforementioned series was based.
- #050
Michael Crawford, Dudley Moore, Griff Rhys Jones, Geoffrey Palmer and Nigel Planer were considered for the role of Mr. Stringer.
- #051
The book on which this film is based resembles another Roald Dahl book, The Magic Finger (1990), in which the story is narrated by an unnamed child.
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