Story of movie My Summer Story : My Summer Story, originally released in theaters as It Runs in the Family, is a 1994 film that follows the further adventures of the Parker family from 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.
| My Summer Story | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
(under the original title, It Runs in the Family) | |
| Directed by | Bob Clark |
| Produced by | Rene Dupont |
| Screenplay by | Jean Shepherd Leigh Brown Bob Clark |
| Based on | In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash and Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters by Jean Shepherd |
| Starring | Charles Grodin Kieran Culkin Mary Steenburgen |
| Narrated by | Jean Shepherd |
| Music by | Paul Zaza |
| Cinematography | Stephen M. Katz |
| Edited by | Stan Cole |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
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Running time | 85 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15 million |
| Box office | $70,936 |
The opening of the film makes direct reference to the events of A Christmas Story, and the ending narration strongly parallels it. However, because the cast of the original film 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. Charles Grodin stars as the Old Man (Mr. Parker), Mary Steenburgen plays Mrs. Parker, and Kieran Culkin plays Ralphie. Shepherd provides the narration, just as he had done for A Christmas Story.
Screenplay
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 plot lines, one each for Ralphie, his father, and his mother, followed by one involving him and his dad on a fishing trip. His quest 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". Meanwhile, his dad has a series of skirmishes with his hillbilly neighbors, the Bumpuses, and all forty-three Bloodhounds named Big Red. He calls in Barkley, the family dog, to distract the Bumpuses' hounds when he comes home from work. When he gets out of the car, he accidentally steps in dog poop. Ralphie's mom would like to finally get something other than a Ronald Colman gravy boat on dish night at the local cinema. Scut, the main bully, is demoted, with a new head bully ruling over him.
Ralphie does eventually get a top just as powerful as the bully's. They both end up disappearing into the sewer, never to be seen again.
- Charles Grodin as Mr. Parker, the Old Man
- Mary Steenburgen as Mrs. Parker
- Kieran Culkin as Ralphie Parker
- Christian Culkin as Randy Parker
- Whit Hertford as Lug
- Chris Owen as Scut Farkus
- Geoffrey Wigdor as Flick
- David Zahorsky as Schwartz
- Tedde Moore as Miss Shields
- T.J. McInturff as Grover Dill
Mixed reviews have appeared about the film. 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 therefore 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 "if you squint just right, My Summer Story is actually reasonably good", while criticizing the casting, but praising Shepherd's narration as "easily 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, really". 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 very few theaters, the film grossed under $71,000.
PBS also made a series of TV movies prior to the theatrical film, based on the Parker family for American Playhouse, including Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss, The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters, and The Phantom of the Open Hearth.
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