Designing Greed:

The Making of Mrs. Deagle

Dissecting the look and layers of Polly Holliday’s most infamous role

Introduction

Few screen villains embody small-town greed and cruelty as vividly as Polly Holliday’s Ruby Deagle in Gremlins (1984). As the penny-pinching landlord of much of Kingston Falls, Deagle represents the heartless side of capitalism: a woman quick to foreclose, unbending with tenants, and openly hostile to the community’s most vulnerable. Her disdain is memorably directed at Mrs. Harris and her hungry children in front of the bank, where she coldly dismisses their pleas for help. From threatening to have Barney the dog destroyed to reveling in the misery of her tenants, Holliday’s sharp delivery and imperious presence elevate Deagle beyond a mere background antagonist. She becomes a local tyrant, the embodiment of selfishness and greed, and her downfall feels as inevitable as it is satisfying.

Clearly, Polly Holliday had a fully formed vision of how she was going to inhabit Ruby Deagle. Her notes to Joe Dante don’t just outline ideas — they practically perform the character on the page. You can almost hear her sharp tone and biting delivery in the text itself, as if Deagle were speaking directly through Holliday’s pen. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the way an actor breathes life into a villain, shaping not just the performance but the very essence of the character.

Polly’s final letter to Joe Dante laid out her ideas for Ruby Deagle’s most prominent scenes in the film. As you’ll see, many of her suggestions found their way into the finished movie. This level of forethought and deep character work helped ensure that Deagle became more than just a stock antagonist — it’s why she remains one of cinema’s most memorable small-town villains even today.

April 2, 1983

Dear Joe,

I loved your idea of hearing Mrs. Deagle talking to her cats as the camera pans the downstairs house in the beginning. As she descends the stairs on the chair elevator, could several cats follow down the steps?

It occurs to me that Katherine Hepburn’s first entrance in Suddenly Last Summer was similar — but this is better. Her voice was heard as she came down in an old-fashioned wrought iron (real) elevator.

Also (now this may be too much, but my job is to go as far as I can — you can always veto! Ha!)

When Mrs. Deagle sees the Gremlins in the last scene at the door, could she slam the door and, in panic and fear, pick up a cat (or have one in her arms from the top) for comfort and rush to the chair elevator? So that when the chair ejects through the window she takes a cat with her?

I knew you’d say no. P.S. The fall wouldn’t kill the cat — it would “yowl, hide & run away.” Just a reminder from our talk: many bowls (good china) of food on the kitchen floor, along with empty bowls. Cat food cans stacked around.

In the first bank scene, when she threatens Barney at the end:

“And you… I’ll get you when you least expect it!”

If Barney barked at her again, she would once more scream, clutch her heart, and so forth — this would bring Roland to comfort her, placate her, and help her leave.

Scene 201 (Feeding kitties before Gremlins sneak into the house)

This could repeat the idea of “hearing her feed the cats” in the kitchen (if we’ve already seen all the bowls of food there in the first panning shot of her house).

When she hears the “carolers,” she would enter from the kitchen to the living room.

(Of course, this means having a kitchen set, I guess — if you wanted to see her enjoying watching the cats eat. Is that too expensive?)

As you can tell, I can’t wait to get into this.

Just want you to know that my biggest pleasure is doing what a director wants. I like to think that my job is to motivate whatever is called for in the writing or directing.

If you want me to say a line standing on my head — I’m sure Mrs. Deagle practices yoga.

Love to all —

Polly

Scene 21

Mrs. Deagle in upstairs bedroom, talking to cats.

(High-pitched)

“Where are you, Arabella? Come on, baby — uhm, uhm, uhm! Here you are, precious — uhm, uhm, uhm!”

(Nasty & mean)

“Get away from there, Blackie! Bad boy! Bad! Bad! Stop that! You do that once more and I’ll—”

(Hears knock on door)

“SHHH! SHHH!”

(Descends staircase)



Scene 123

P.S. To take Mrs. Deagle’s obsession with evictions to its utmost conclusion:

She’d love to evict the bank.

(And if she catches Roland’s smile when Billy gives her her comeuppance, she might think of this in that last speech.)