Bob Clark Movies
Bob Clark began making independent low-budget features as a writer/director with the transvestite comedy The She Man in 1967, and his horror films of the early '70s, made with writer/actor Alan Ormsby, are fondly remembered: Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (signed as Benjamin Clark) and Deathdream (aka Dead of Night; Night Walk). Clark also won admiration for his Sherlock Holmes film Murder By Decree, scripted by John Hopkins. None of this could compare to the box-office success Clark would find in the early '80s with his seminal low-brow sex comedy Porky's and its first sequel. Reviled by critics but eaten up by audiences, the films' horny-yet-nostalgic tone would forever influence the world of teen movies. It was Clark's 1983 project, however, an adaptation of Jean Shepherd's writings called A Christmas Story, that would prove to be the director's finest moment. The pitch-perfect holiday farce failed to find an audience despite strong reviews upon its initial release, but much as It's a Wonderful Life did before it, A Christmas Story found new legions of fans each year it was aired on TV. After helming several flop comedies (Rhinestone, Turk 182!, From the Hip, Loose Cannons), Clark returned to Shepherd's material with 1994's It Runs in the Family. Much of his work in the '90s and 2000s was undistinguished kid and family fare, and the director scored a minor hit with the Look Who's Talking-esque Baby Geniuses (1999). 67-year-old Clark and his 22-year-old son Ariel died in a car accident in California in the spring of 2007. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1976
- R
Director Bob Clark would graduate from the Canadian Breaking Point to such films as Porky's and A Christmas Story, proving beyond a doubt that it is possible to overcome a bad start. Bo Svenson stars as a mild-mannered teacher--glasses and all. He witnesses a mob murder, whereupon he is put into a witness protection program by cop (Robert Culp). When mobsters show up to rub out Svenson, the authorities are helpless, so suddenly "Mr. Peepers" becomes "Rambo". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bo Svenson, Robert Culp, (more)
Although this Canadian production saw its widest U.S. cable TV distribution in the early '80s (primarily under the title Stranger in the House) to capitalize on the phenomenal success of Halloween and its offspring, this effective suspense-thriller actually predates John Carpenter's film by four years. The story involves a dangerous psychopath hiding out in the attic of a sorority house who torments a small group of pretty young sisters (including Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder) who are staying behind over Christmas break. His tactics range from making obscene phone calls from their house-mother's phone, to stalking the terrified boarders with sharp objects and murderous intent. Director Bob Clark, who mistook dreariness for tension in his previous horror effort Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things! (1972), here demonstrates a tight, aggressive style that generates some very original shocks -- particularly the surprise ending -- which clearly influenced dozens of similarly-themed slasher films to follow. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, (more)
- 1972
- PG
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In Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, an above average slasher/horror film, a group of amateurs decide to experiment with witchcraft with deadly results. This film has a small cult following, due to some extent to the fact that one of the lead characters is played by writer and makeup effects artist Alan Ormsby. Ormsby gives one of the three or four most obnoxious screen performances in history as Alan, the leader of a troupe of actors who try out a voodoo ritual on a corpse only to find out that it has worked on all the corpses in the graveyard. The acting is terrible and the special effects are obvious and cheap, but the film somehow manages to overcome all of this and be quite entertaining, but only for those with strong stomachs. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
This dark, brooding low-budget effort opens in Vietnam, where young infantryman Andy Brooks (Richard Backus) is struck down by a sniper's bullet. At the same time in Andy's hometown, his poor mother is uttering a desperate prayer for Andy to come home... and shortly thereafter, he does. Despite Mrs. Brooks' exultation at her son's safe return, it becomes apparent to the rest of the family that there's something terribly wrong with Andy; he won't do much more than sit in a chair, staring blankly at the walls of his room... that is, until nightfall, when he prowls the town in search of human blood, which he extracts from his victims through a syringe and injects into his own veins. The first horror effort from director Bob Clark, who followed with Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things! and the effective thriller Black Christmas, this haunting film (released as The Veteran in 1972) functions as a Vietnam-era variant on the classic story of "The Monkey's Paw" and was one of the first films of the genre to address the stateside reactions to the horrors of that war. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1967
This outrageous exploitation piece from Bob Clark, the director of Black Christmas and Porky's, tells the story of an army deserter (Dorian Wayne) who becomes a female impersonator named Dominita to escape capture. Dominita then extorts money from his old commanding officer (Leslie Marlow), forces him to take female hormones, and enlists him as a private maid. Marlow and his secretary (Wendy Roberts) end Dominita's humiliating revenge plans after suffering an hour of comparatively tame abuse. Co-written by Clark and Jeff Gillen, who appears onscreen briefly and went on to co-direct the horror classic Deranged. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1961
In this British bedroom farce, Bill Ferguson (Richard Todd), a Scottish travel agent, has a major row with his fiancée Stella (June Thorburn) shortly before leaving for a jaunt through Europe. Considering himself free to do as he pleases, Bill gives keys to his Edinburgh apartment to a number of beautiful women, inviting them to drop by if they happen to be in the neighborhood. When he comes home, Bill and Stella patch things up, which leaves him with a lot of explaining to do when a bevy of curvaceous females from across the continent begin appearing at their doorstep, including Ingrid (Elke Sommer) and Lucille (Nicole Maurey). Richard Todd served as producer as well as star; Frederic Raphael contributed to the screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Todd, Nicole Maurey, (more)
- 1954
The young wife with a tale to tell is Joan Greenwood, who with husband Nigel Patrick shares a tiny house with several other people. One couple, Derek Farr and Helen Cherry, are as annoyingly "perfect" as the rest of the boarders are not. Much of the comedy hinges on the kookiness of young boarder Audrey Hepburn, just on the verge of stardom (the film was made sometime before Hepburn's breakthrough film Roman Holiday, but released afterward). The usual misunderstandings and mixups form the final scenes of this rambunctious farce. Young Wives' Tale is based on a popular British play by Ronald Jeans. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Greenwood, Nigel Patrick, (more)
