Howling in Innerspace with Piranhas: The Kevin McCarthy/ Joe Dante Connection

 

 

 

 

All this recent buzz about THE GHASTLY LOVE OF JOHNNY X has Kevin McCarthy on my brain.  The dashing movie star would have been 98 yesterday, and with fond memories of meeting Kevin many times on the convention circuit, I started thinking of his many appearances in the films of Joe Dante.  Dante tends to use actors repeatedly when he likes them, and the INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS star was part of that recurring troupe.

 

 

 

 

 

PIRANHA was the first movie for the pair.  McCarthy plays Dr. Robert Hoak, a deranged scientist who’s working with the titular fish.  McCarthy gets to play it up here, and his sendup is perfectly in pitch with the tone of the work.  His efforts to save a child on the river end badly, but he goes out a hero.  Dante cast McCarthy perfectly in their first collaboration, and uses him to great effect.  This is also one of those rare roles in which Kevin has facial hair.

 

 

 

 

 

TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE was up next for the two.  Dante’s segment, based on the classic episode “It’s a Good Life,” is an exercise in whacky, with a family trapped by a scary little boy who always wants to send people to “the other place.”  With great aplomb, Kevin portrays Uncle Walt, one of the family members trapped in a living Warner Bros. cartoon.  This one’s even farther out there than PIRANHA, and Kevin plays along with the material again.  It’s nice that Dante cast him among other Twilight Zone alumni, and the segment always brings me back to “Long Live Walter Jameson,” McCarthy’s fine episode from Season 1.  Their work here is always going to be overshadowed by the real-life horror of Vic Morrow and two Asian kids getting killed in a helicopter accident while filming John Landis’ segment; and the brilliant, even whackier performance of John Lithgow in the final segment.  A shame, really.

 

 

 

 

 

THE HOWLING was their next collaboration.  Kevin has a reduced role, as the head of a news program whose star reporter has several run-ins with werewolves.  This is by far my favorite Dante flick, and among my top horror films.  But let’s face it, Kevin doesn’t have much to do here except look sexy wearing sweaters.  His character’s also a bit of a dick, which makes his small turn fun at least.

 

 

 

 

 

GREMLINS actually sports McCarthy, albeit a much younger version.  While Billy and Gizmo watch TV and get ready to sleep, they’re watching INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.  A fine, oblique tribute from Dante to a man who had now become a stalwart in the director’s ensemble.

 

 

 

 

INNERSPACE gives Kevin his largest role in a Joe Dante flick.  He portrays Victor Eugene Scrimshaw, a heel involved in international espionage.  Kevin goes at the role with absolute relish.  It’s nice to see him act against type, as Dante has brilliantly cast the handsome all-American as the villain.  The expanded role offers Kevin more screen time, and proves his acting chops are still up to snuff.  And Dante, whose films are loaded with inside jokes, indeed stages a scene with Kevin and one of the infamous pods.

 

THE ‘BURBS is a cheat in the partnership.  Dante filmed a scene with Kevin that ended up on the cutting room floor.  A rip off in the eyes of any Dante/ McCarthy fan.

 

 

 

 

 

MATINEE is Joe Dante’s love letter to William Castle, and turns an eye to early 1960s paranoia via the Cuban missile crisis.  It provides an interesting twist in the partnership, as Kevin plays General Ankrum in the movie-within-a-movie.  It’s great to see Kevin spouting off the type of dialogue one would always find in those 1950s sci-fi movies, from around the era of his star turn in INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.  A credit to his great acting ability, Kevin plays it straight despite the presence of Mant: Half Man!  Half Ant!  All terror!

 

 

 

 

 

LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION was Kevin’s final turn in front of the camera for Joe Dante, and it one-ups MATINEE in that McCarthy once again sends up 1950s sci-fi… by playing Dr. Miles Bennell!  In a lab full of famous monsters from sci-fi filmland known as Area 52, some orderlies lead the good doctor away, as carrying a pod, he mumbles in shell shock and appears in an otherwise all-color movie… himself in black-and-white!  Kevin is only on camera for a few seconds, and the movie itself leaves a lot to be desired.  But it may be Dante’s best use of the actor, as it brings him back to the role which likely started him off with Dante in the first place.

 

Kevin McCarthy is remembered for INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS above all else, and always will be.  Fortunately for us, he had a second career in Joe Dante’s films.  Joe saw something in Kevin that he loved so much, he kept bringing him back.  In doing so, he gave to us a great range of performances from a talented actor.  I wouldn’t think it a great sin if people remembered Kevin for BODY SNATCHERS, and his work with Joe Dante.  Through a series of films, it was a sweet collaboration that only a pod person couldn’t love.

 

–Phil Fasso