{"id":1392,"date":"2012-02-12T10:27:57","date_gmt":"2012-02-12T16:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=1392"},"modified":"2012-02-12T10:27:57","modified_gmt":"2012-02-12T16:27:57","slug":"bob-clark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=1392","title":{"rendered":"Bob Clark"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Although the career of American-born director Bob Clark likely registers as little more than a footnote in the United States, he looms unusually large in Canada and has left many imprints \u2013 some of them less distinguished than others \u2013 on the Canadian film industry.<\/p>\n

Clark was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. After turning down offers to play pro football, he completed a drama major at the University of Miamiand began his career as an actor. After directing his first short film, The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes (1966) and his first feature, She-man (1967), he achieved a minor cult hit with the low-budget, independent horror flick Children Shouldn\u2019t Play with Dead Things (1972). His next films, Dead of Night (1973) and the minor cult hit Black Christmas a.k.a. Silent Night, Evil Night (1974), brought him to Canadaand initiated his decade-long dominance of Canadian commercial filmmaking, facilitated in no small part by the country\u2019s tax-shelter policies.<\/p>\n

The stylish Sherlock Holmes thriller Murder By Decree (1978), which won five Genie Awards including one for Clark\u2019s direction, seemed to mark his departure from schlock entertainment to more quality fare. His next film, Tribute (1980), continued in this vein, garnering an Academy Award\u00ae-nomination for its star Jack Lemmon, who reprised his stage role for the film. But 1982 would see Clark return to full schlock form with the sophomoric and hugely profitable Porky\u2019s. The semi-autobiographical movie about teenaged boys discovering sex in southern Florida earned $160 million worldwide and proved to be the catalyst for a new genre of raunchy teen gross-out comedies. It remains the highest-grossing English-Canadian film ever made.<\/p>\n

The uncommon success of Clark\u2019s box-office hits was typical of the tax-shelter era in the sense that, aside from token financial involvement, the films themselves had nothing to do with Canada. This would remain true for his next film, the endearing A Christmas Story (1983), which was nominated for nine Genie awards; Clarkwon for Best Direction and Best Screenplay, and also received a nomination from the Writer\u2019s Guild of America for Best Adapted Screenplay.<\/p>\n

Since returning to the United Statesin 1984, Clark\u2019s directorial accomplishments have included the Dolly Parton\/Sylvester Stallone musical-comedy Rhinestone (1984) \u2013 for which he also wrote the lyrics \u2013 and a series of low-rent comedies and made for TV movies. He is currently drafting a script for a Porky\u2019s remake to be produced by Howard Stern.<\/p>\n

Film and video work includes<\/p>\n

Don’t Bother to Knock, 1961 (makeup)
\nThe Emperor’s New Clothes, 1966 (director)
\nShanty Tramp, 1967 (assistant director)
\nShe-Man, 1967 (director; co-writer with Jeff Gillen)
\nChildren Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things, 1972 (director)
\nDead of Night, a.k.a. Deathdream, 1974 (director; co-producer with John Trent, Peter James)
\nDeranged, 1974 (co-producer with Tom Karr)
\nBreaking Point, 1976 (director; producer)
\nThe Amazing Apes, 1977 (director)
\nThe Dukes of Hazzard, 1979 (writer; TV, 1 episode)
\nTribute, 1980 (director)
\nA Christmas Story, 1983 (director; co-producer with Gary Goch, Ren\u00e9 Dupont; co-writer with Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown; actor)
\nPorky’s II, 1983 (director; co-producer with Don Carmody)
\nBimini Code, 1984 (director)
\nRhinestone, 1984 (director)
\nRemote Control Man, Amazing Stories series, 1985 (director; TV, 1 episode)
\nTurk 182, 1985 (director)
\nFrom the Hip, 1987 (director; co-producer with Ren\u00e9 Dupont, Brian Russell; co-writer with David E. Kelley)
\nLoose Cannons, 1990 (director; co-writer with Richard Matheson, Richard Christian Matheson)
\nPopcorn, 1991 (producer, uncredited)
\nArthur Miller’s The American Clock, 1993 (director; actor; TV)
\nIt Runs in My Family, 1994 (director; co-writer with Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown)
\nDerby, 1995 (director; actor; TV)
\nFudge-A-Mania, 1995 (director)
\nStolen Memories: Secrets from the Rose Garden, 1996 (director; TV)
\nThe Westing Game, 1997 (special effects; TV)
\nThe Great Christmas Movies, 1998 (appears as himself; TV)
\nMy Neighbor’s Daughter, 1998 (actor)
\nThe Ransom of Red Chief, 1998 (director)
\nBaby Geniuses, 1999 (director; co-writer with Greg Michael)
\nCatch a Falling Star, 2000 (co-director with Alfonso Arau)
\nThe Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood, 2000 (co-writer with Gy Waldron; co-executive producer with Gy Waldron)
\nI’ll Remember April, 2000 (director)
\nKim Cattrall, Intimate Portrait series, 2000 (appears as himself)
\nNow and Forever, 2001 (director)
\nStages, 2002 (actor)
\nAnother Christmas Story, 2003 (appears as himself)
\nManiac Magee, 2003 (director; TV)
\nUnleashed, 2003 (director)
\nSuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2, 2004 (director)
\n