My Summer Story
| My Summer Story | |
|---|---|
Theatrical film 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
|
|
|
Running time
|
85 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15 million |
| Box office | $70,936 |
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.
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.
The film takes place in the summer of 1941, after the events of A Christmas Story, which took place in the December of 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.
...
Wikipedia