I know you aren't really that interested in coincidental things in common between movies I see in or around the same time period, but this one was too good to pass up.
This past weekend I watched two movies that had four distinct collaborators in common, but were otherwise unrelated to each other.
That's right, both Gremlins (1984) and The 'Burbs (1989) were directed by Joe Dante, scored by Jerry Goldsmith, and featured Corey Feldman and Dick Miller in supporting roles.
To add to that, both featured the idea of suburbia turned upside down, as a bonus.
The Gremlins viewing, a re-watch, was prompted by my wife. She hadn't seen it in years, which didn't make her any different from me in that regard. She was different from me in having a real pressing desire to see it, but I was happy enough to go along, it being a Christmas movie and all. Glad I did. Even though I find most of the stuff with the gremlins dressing up like humans and drinking and smoking in bars to be incredibly stupid, I was surprised at how tight the script was, and how many pleasures the movie does actually contain. The kitchen scene is, and always will be, the best. (Love Frances Lee McCain as an incidental badass.)The 'Burbs viewing, my first, was the result of a Secret Santa gift. "How's that?" you say. Well, in my Flickcharters Facebook group we have a side group each Christmas in which everyone draws the name of another participant out of a hat (a virtual hat, in which the organizer assigns you a pick), and then has to gift that person a movie they haven't seen that seems like it would align with their tastes. I got 'The Burbs from my Secret Santa, presumably because I have a couple Tom Hanks movies high up on my Flickchart (Big is in my top 20). (I gave Ruby Sparks to the person I picked.) I didn't love The 'Burbs -- a bunch of patently unbelievable choices and behavior in that movie -- though the Tom Hanks completist in me is glad to have seen it, and I did enjoy particular moments quite a bit.
It was watching 'The Burbs Sunday morning after my Saturday night Gremlins viewing that I noticed the similarities in the opening credits. I can't really recall the sound of Goldsmith's score for 'The Burbs a couple days later, though the Gremlins one is pretty memorable. And of course the similarity in theme and tone is a good indicator of Dante's influence.
The really funny thing is the similarity of the roles of the actors. In both movies Feldman plays a character that can be described as "neighborhood kid" -- a role the passage of five years did not render him ineligible from playing. And in both movies, veteran character actor Dick Miller is a public works worker, driving a plow in the first film and collecting garbage in the second.
We're not hearing much from any of these guys anymore, though only Goldsmith is dead. Miller is 88 and recently had a documentary made about him that I want to see, called That Guy Dick Miller. Dante is 71 and is technically still making movies, with his most recent having been released only three years ago. And at 46, Feldman of course manages to stay in the spotlight, even if not for making any reputable movies -- his latest crusade has involved unveiling those who sexually abused him when he was about the age he was in these movies.
Interestingly, though, the collaboration between some of these guys was not an isolated event. The last two movies directed by Dante -- 2014's Burying the Ex and 2009's The Hole -- were also Dick Miller's last two films.
Some collaborations are just too good to abandon.
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