RIP Kevin McCarthy & Claude Chabrol

Two cinematic icons expired last week.  Kevin McCarthy died on the date Americans like to call 9/11 at the venerable age of 96. Claude Chabrol met his maker 24 hours later having lived an even four score years.  Back in 1956 McCarthy enjoyed his only starring role of significance in the science fiction milestone “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”.  Chabrol’s more considerable claim to fame was having directed the first feature of the French New Wave, the extremely Catholic 1958 film “Le beau Serge”.

Chabrol deserves a better eulogy than I’m cut out to deliver.  By all accounts his career was up and down.  Auteur House stocks “Serge” - which I heartily recommend - as well as the better thought of follow-up “Les cousins”.  Thereafter we’ve only got two of his more recent works, the 1ate 80s thriller “Cry of the Owl” and his 1991 adaptation of “Madam Bovary”.  By reputation Chabrol’s best period was from the late 1960s until the early 1970s.  Unfortunately, nothing from this time has ever been released on DVD in this country.

McCarthy had a 66 year career in which he appeared in over 200 films and television shows.  With the exception of his Biff in the 1951 version of “Death of a Salesman” - a role which won him an Oscar nomination - and his amusing cameo in the 1978 remake of “Body Snatchers”, everything he ever did on screen pales into insignificance next to his best known part.  His hysterical rants which book end the Don Siegel classic - warning 1950s America about pod people coming to take them over - are part of the folklore of the era, thinly veiled Cold War commentary on the dangers of conformity.

When researching Chabrol’s life I came across a news headline which easily surpasses any obituary in amusement value.  Gerard Depardieu, the star of Chabrol’s last film, claims that he assisted Robert De Niro in sustaining an on screen erection whilst they were making Bertolucci’s “1900″.  The French will always back their erotic performance against that of the American cousins.