Bob Clark 1941-2007

Director Bob Clark died in a car accident out here in California early yesterday morning.

Clark wasn't the best director in the world, and in fact his resume is really quite appalling. He directed "Porky's", which aside from having some gratutious boobage really isn't all that well-directed. He also directed "Porky's II".

He directed such forgettable 1980s movies as the Judd Nelson film "From the Hip", and the Sylvester Stallone/Dolly Parton dud "Rhinestone", and "Turk 182!", which didn't do much for Tim Hutton's career. He also directed the worst Gene Hackman movie ever, "Loose Cannons".

In the last ten years, he directed "Baby Geniuses" and its dire sequel. He also directed something called "The Karate Dog".

But Bob Clark had his one great, shining moment. He directed "A Christmas Story".

I love "A Christmas Story". There's something about it that it just perfect, that strikes the right tone throughout, while it's just packed with great, funny scenes, and memorable little nuggets of humor. It's a holiday piece, a kid tale, and it even has some nice family moments. And it has probably saved generations of children from putting their tongues on frozen poles.

"A Christmas Story" is based on stories by Jean Shepherd, who if you haven't read you should; he's a wry and witty writer. So he gets some of the credit. But still, this stuff isn't easy to pull off.

Witness the sequel to "A Christmas Story", which was called "It Runs In The Family" (or sometimes "A Summer Story"). It's also based on stories by Jean Shepherd, it's also directed by Bob Clark, it features the same characters, and though the roles were recast (because it was made 11 years later), the replacement cast -- Charles Grodin, Mary Steenbergen, Kieren Culkin -- certainly have chops.

But "It Runs In The Family" is just awful. Whatever worked in "A Christmas Story" just doesn't work in this film. The humor feels forced, the characters have lost something, and it all lies flat on film.

There's a magic to filmmaking, and though Bob Clark made a lot of movies, he really only captured it once. But when he did, he nailed it. And it's nice that, in most of the reports I've seen of his death, it's the movie on his resume they mention; all other sins are forgotten.

Hopefully we all have at least one "Christmas Story" success in all of us.