Army Of Darkness Almost Featured Charles Napier As Ash's S-Mart Manager

"Army of Darkness", even with the fight scene added at the end, is still only 81 minutes long. And while the short length ensures a breakneck, Looney Tunes-like pace, one might wonder why the ending felt so abrupt. Similarly, why did recognizable star Bridget Fonda appear at the start of 'Army of Darkness,' as Ash's girlfriend Linda, and didn't get any lines? According to Bill Warren's must-have tome "The Evil Dead Companion," there was additional S-Mart footage planned, including some dialogue scenes with Linda, as well as an interaction between Ash and his manager.

The manager, said Sam Raimi, was to be played by the legendary Charles Napier, star of 'Star Trek', 'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls' and hundreds of others. We could recognize him as a cop in "The Silence of the Lambs" or his small roles in "The Blues Brothers" and "Rambo: First Blood Part II". Any viewer of the 1980s or 1990s would likely stumble upon Napier eventually. Napier's manager character was going to be, according to Warren's book, something of a jerk. Raimi said Napier's character, however, never made it past the working print production stage. Raimi excised the character entirely, as well as Linda's dialogue.

This was one of many cuts that the "Army of Darkness" had to undergo. There was controversy with the MPAA ratings committee, which wanted to rate the film NC-17 on its violence. Universal wanted a PG-13 film, so Raimi cut the film down from its original runtime of 88 minutes. It still received an R rating. Universal hired an outside editing house to cut more, and the 81-minute cut was the result. It always got an R rating.