1994 film by Bob Clark
My Summer Story (originally released in theaters as It Runs in the Family) is a 1994 American comedy film directed by Bob Clark that serves as a sequel to his 1983 film "A Christmas Story". Like the previous film, it is based on semi-autobiographical stories by Jean Shepherd, primarily from his book "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash".
The opening makes direct reference to the events of "A Christmas Story", and the ending narration strongly parallels it; production delays forced most of the characters to be recast. Charles Grodin stars as the Old Man (Mr. Parker), Mary Steenburgen plays Mrs. Parker, and Kieran Culkin is Ralphie. Shepherd provides the narration, just as he had done for "A Christmas Story".
Two sequels followed the film. The first, "A Christmas Story 2", was released straight to DVD in 2012. The second, "A Christmas Story Christmas", was released on HBO Max in 2022 and features most of the original cast from the original 1983 film returning.
Plot.
The film takes place in the summer of 1941, after the events of "A Christmas Story", which took place in December 1940. It has several plotlines, one each for 10-year-old Ralphie, his father, and his mother, followed by a recurring subplot involving him and his dad on a fishing trip, that proves frequently fruitless until a single night when all fish are caught. This also feeds a needless obsession in Ralphie's 7-year-old brother Randy, much to Mrs. Parker's nerve.
Ralphie's plot.
Ralphie's plot for most of the film is to find a top tough enough to knock that of a bully's out of a chalk circle in a game of "Kill". Scut Farkus, the 13-year-old main bully, was demoted following the events of "A Christmas Story", with a new head bully, Lug Ditka, taking his place and ruling over the school. Despite his firm standing, Ralphie's tops are always defeated by Lug's top Mariah, prompting Ralphie to look for outside sources that also backfire, such as a top bought from an Eastern shop that is painted with roses, giving Lug all the mocking material. During the Parker family's visit to the world's fair, Ralphie gets a top from a gypsy stand called "Wolf" just as powerful as Mariah, allowing Ralphie to challenge him again. At the climax of the challenge, both Mariah and Wolf end up disappearing into the sewer, never to be seen again; as a result, the game ends on a lose-lose draw.
Mrs. Parker's plot.
Mrs. Parker's plot revolves around attempting to start a collection of celebrity dishes, one per each dish night, at the Orpheum Theatre run by Leopold Doppler. She acquires the first dish, a Ronald Colman gravy boat, though she accumulates more as Doppler announces the other dishes are unavailable due to 'misshipment'. The frustration of accumulating the gravy boats combined with the events throughout the film get Mrs. Parker over the edge, resulting with her throwing the gravy boat she won at the theater at Doppler's head. All other housewives, encouraged by Mrs. Parker's act, also start raining down the surplus gravy boats towards Doppler, enraged at the frustration and the apparent fraudulent scheme. Mrs. Parker is arrested for the act, though with a relieved smile on her face.
Mr. Parker's plot.
Mr. Parker's plot revolves around his odds with the Parker's hillbilly neighbors, the Bumpuses (or Bumpi, as the Parkers tend to refer them in plural), especially due to their loud overplaying of hillbilly music, obnoxious behavior and the constant harassment on Mr. Parker by the Bumpuses' forty-three Bloodhounds named Big Red. The escalation turns into war when the Bumpuses inaugurate an outhouse bathroom, which Parker clearly perceives as a health code violation. When Mr. Parker attempts forcing the Bumpuses to demolish the outhouse, they respond by having Big Dickie, the largest of the Bumpus family, destroy their house's porch as a show of force. Parker attempts unsuccessfully to torment the Bumpuses with music, which they mistake for Parker calling a night party, prompting him to hurriedly escape to the fishing trip with Ralphie. Mr. Parker does a second attempt, this time with a sound effects record disk simulating a federal bust, but by the time he unleashes the sound disk, the Bumpuses have long moved away. Mr. Parker interprets this as a defeat, and the act earns the ire of the woken-up neighborhood, who strongly suggest to bring the Bumpuses back and be rid of Parker.
Production.
Shepherd had begun work on the film in 1989, after wrapping up production on the television film "Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss". He admitted making the sequel mainly as a money-making enterprise; when he saw the amount of royalties he was making off telecasts and re-releases of "A Christmas Story" compared to his television productions, he walked away from television and vowed to work almost exclusively on films. Because the cast of "A Christmas Story" had aged to the point where they no longer fit their roles, it was entirely recast, with the exception of Tedde Moore, who returns as Ralphie's teacher, Miss Shields.
Reception.
The film received mixed reviews. "Entertainment Weekly" gave it a B+, noting that the film improves on "A Christmas Story", with better pacing and better-defined characters, but found Shepherd's narration to be "oh-so-drolly exaggerated" and "condescending". Robert Butler at "The Kansas City Star" called it "a sequel worth seeing" which revisits the humor of the original.
Upon the release of the film on DVD in 2006, DVDtalk wrote that ""My Summer Story" is reasonably good", while criticizing the casting, but praising Shepherd's narration as "the film's saving grace". Christopher Null at MovieCritic.com referred to the film as a "lackluster sequel" with "little of the same charm" as "A Christmas Story", and not "funny". A 2011 summary of best and worst movies filmed in Cleveland called the film a "dog", which "features none of the original cast" and "none of the original heart".
Released in few theaters, the film grossed under $71,000.
Related works.
Prior to the making of the theatrical film, PBS co-produced a series of TV movies based on the Parker family for "American Playhouse" including "Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss", "The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters", "The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski" and "The Phantom of the Open Hearth".
References.
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