If ever a career defined the word "journeyman," it was that of director Bob Clark, who died yesterday with his son Ariel Hanath-Clark in an auto crash. Clark was 67.
I'm not using "journeyman" as a putdown. I never met Clark, but I've heard him speak on a number of DVD commentaries and he always struck me as a guy who loved movies, loved moviemaking, and practiced his craft with the same enthusiasm wherever his career took him. Which is not to say he always achieved inspired results. But after coming into the movie business via the grindhouse (his first released picture, She-Man, is available on a Something Weird DVD), he made one of the more creditable latter-day Sherlock Holmes pictures (Murder by Decree); redefined, for better or worse, the teen sex comedy (I find Porky's mostly unwatchable, but Crow T. Robot would want me to mention that it did help launch the career of Kim Cattrall); and, if you believe his obits,claimed Frank Capra's throne as the creator of the most popular and memorable Christmas movie ever.
Which is kind of funny, given that when it first opened in 1983 the main thing A Christmas Story's grosses proved was that you couldn't count on Jean Shepard's fan base to bring in the big box office bucks. Story has since taken on a life of its own, separate from Shepard, Clark, my former friend Scotty Schwartz (who played Flick) and so many others involved in the film who haven't profited from its revival. Ah well, that's showbiz.
For my money, Clark's one certifiable masterpiece is the deeply creepy 1974 Deathdream, in which The Monkey's Paw meets Vietnam.
It was made into an excellent DVD by Blue Underground a few years back. It is not for the meek of heart. But then again, neither is Rhinestone, the Stallone/Dolly Parton big-studio "musical" that Clark made in the wake of Story.
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