Kenny & Company (1976)

As hard as it may be to believe, despite being a widely celebrated holiday by the early 20th Century, there was a time when Halloween was infrequently mentioned in movies. This would begin to change in the Seventies, when films began mentioning Halloween more often. The year 1976 was a bit of a banner year in that three movies were released in which Halloween played a major role. Two were the horror movies The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) and The Clown Murders (1976). The third was the little known comedy drama Kenny & Company (1976).

Kenny & Company (1976) was significant as only the second feature film directed by Don Coscarelli, who would go onto direct the cult favourites Phantasm (1979), The Beastmaster (1982), and Bubba Ho-Tep (2002). He had earlier directed the drama Jim the World's Greatest (1975).  It was also significant in featuring Reggie Banister and A. Michael Baldwin, both of who would go onto star in Phantasm. In Kenny & Company, Reggie Banister played the teacher Mr. Donovan, while A. Michael Baldwin would play Kenny's best friend Doug.

Kenny & Company takes place over the four days leading up to Halloween. It centres on twelve year old boy Kenny (Dan McCann), his best friend Doug (A. Michael Baldwin), and their neighbour kid Sherman (Jeff Roth). The movie is episodic in nature, with Kenny and Doug's preparations for Halloween being the thread that links everything together. In the course of the movie, Kenny experiences his first crush, deals with the local bully, deals with the death of his dog, witnesses a fatal car crash, and, of course, celebrates Halloween. The movie climaxes with Halloween, during which Kenny, Doug, and Sherman go to a neighbour's haunted house and pull a trick on an elderly neighbour, and ends with Kenny and Doug finally besting the bully.

In making Kenny & Company, Don Coscarelli wanted to portray the everyday life of a twelve year old boy, drawing upon his own childhood to do so. At the same time he recognized the importance of Halloween for children, which may even overshadow Christmas in its significance for kids. Having written the screenplay for Jim the World's Greatest with Craig Mitchell, Kenny & Company was the first screenplay Don Coscarelli wrote all by himself.

Kenny & Company was truly a family affair. Don Coscarelli's father, Dac Coscarelli and his mother Kate Coscarelli both served as producers on the movie. Kate Coscarelli also played Kenny's mother in the film. It was Don Conscarelli's sister who designed the costumes Kenny, Doug, and Sherman wore for Halloween. As to Don Coscarelli himself, he not only wrote, directed, and produced Kenny & Company, but he also served as the film's cinematographer and editor.

When it came time to find a distributor for Kenny & Company, Universal Pictures, who had distributed Don Conscarelli's previous movie, Jim the World's Greatest, showed little interest in Kenny & Company. Don Coscarelli found a distributor for Kenny & Company in 20th Century Fox, who expressed interest in the movie as a late summer release. Unfortunately, 20th Century Fox decided to market Kenny & Company directly to children. In his book True Indie: Life and Death in Filmmaking, Mr. Coscarelli says that the film's tagline, "Get ready to have a happy day...Kenny & Company are coming your way!" did them no favours.

Indeed, the posters for Kenny & Company from 1975 must seem odd to anyone has seen the movie. The emphasis seems to be on skateboards, with only one photo on the poster referencing Halloween (the centrepiece of the movie). The over all impression that the posters for Kenny & Company give of the film is that it's a light-hearted comedy, when in truth it is a comedy drama that sometimes deals with such serious subjects as the nature of death.

Given 20th Century Fox's promotion of Kenny & Company, it should come as no surprise that at test screenings it did very well at daytime matinees, but played to empty theatres during evening showings. Ultimately, Kenny & Company would not play in such major markets as New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Needless to say, Kenny & Company did not do well at the box office.

While Kenny & Company did not do well in the United States, it proved to be an outright phenomenon in Japan. Released there in 1978, the film did very well at the box office in Japan. A. Michael Baldwin, Dan McCann, and Jeff Roth went on a tour of Japan, where they were met by crowds of adolescents everywhere they went. While Kenny & Company was dead on arrival in the United States, it was very much a hit in Japan.

Kenny & Company may not be well known beyond fans of Don Coscarelli, but it would prove to be influential nonetheless. Not only did the movie feature A. Michael Baldwin and Reggie Banister, who would go onto star in Phantasm, but Kenny & Company would even inspire Phantasm. During test screenings Don Coscarelli noted the reactions of audiences during the Halloween sequence and it occurred to him that he should make a horror movie. Of course, that horror movie was Phantasm.

Kenny & Company was also ahead of its time. While Hollywood had churned out several movies about teenagers through the years, there was a time that movies about young adolescents and pre-teens were not particularly common. Kenny & Company was unique at the time in focusing on a twelve year old. It was then the forerunner of such movies as Over the Edge (1979),. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), A Christmas Story (1983), and Stand By Me (1986).

Even today, Kenny & Company is not seen often. Its only DVD release was in 2005 and it is out of print. On Amazon it sells for a hefty $59.56. It is not available on any streaming services, unless one counts a copy that someone uploaded to YouTube. This is unfortunate not simply because of the significance of Kenny & Company in film history, but because it is a very fine movie. Speaking as someone who was close to the same age in 1976 as the characters in Kenny & Company, it realistically captures childhood in the Seventies. Indeed, with the exception of the absence of those awful Ben Cooper costumes, I think many Seventies kids will see their own childhoods in the Halloween sequence. With only a few exceptions (such as 1944's Meet Me in St. Louis), no movie captures the spirit of Halloween as well as Kenny & Company.

Of course, the movie benefits not only from a good screenplay, but from its cast as well. A. Michael Baldwin does well as Doug, the one kid who is not afraid to talk back to adults. As Kenny, Dan McCann portrays the sort of kid many might have known in the Seventies. Reggie Banister does a great job as Mr. Donovan, Kenny and Doug's slightly eccentric teacher. My favourite character in the film is Doug's father, Big Doug, a Secret Service agent with a sense of humour. Big Doug is played by Ralph Richmond, who has a surprisingly short filmography.

Ultimately, Kenny & Company is more than a movie that would lead to Phantasm or even a forerunner of Eighties movies about adolescents. It is a fine comedy drama that captures both the fun and stress of childhood perfectly. While people who grew up in the Seventies might appreciate it best, I think even Zoomers would love the film. Kenny & Company is still rarely seen today, but it really should be much more readily available.