We miss Bob Clark. Though Clark was an American there was a good stretch were he certainly felt like he was one of us here in Canada, producing most of his early films here and populating them with a raft of Canuck talent. For a good long while Clark's sex comedy Porky's was actually the top grossing Canadian production of all time. And so his loss was felt pretty hard here but that's being mitigated by a series of excellent posthumous – though they weren't originally planned as such – DVD releases from Anchor Bay and Critical Mass, two of which hit shelves this week.
Up first and needing no introduction – sadly due to the horribly bad recent remake – is Black Christmas. Now widely recognized as the first true slasher film Black Christmas hit screens a solid four years before Halloween and boasted a pair of Canuck actresses who would go on to become major screen stars among the group of sorority girls preyed upon by a mysterious killer: Andrea Martin from SCTV and Margot Kidder, who would soon become Lois Lane. It's a shame that the remake couldn't due the original justice but this original version stands up well, receiving here a strong anamorphic transfer and a good selection of bonus features.
Now, while this version will likely end up standing as the definitive edition of Black Christmas - with Clark gone there can't be any substantive new bonus features made for it – it is a film that has been widely available on different formats for a while. Which means this release is certainly worthwhile but not the one fans are likely to get excited for. That honor belongs to Murder By Decree, a film that is surprisingly receiving its first DVD release only now.
The film that marked Clark's transition from hard genre fare to more diverse offerings – you can't really call it a move to the mainstream considering post-Murder titles include Porky's and A Christmas Story - Murder By Decree stars Christopher Plummer as Sherlock Holmes tracking Jack the Ripper and boasts not only sterling set design and production values but also a fantastic support cast that includes Donald Sutherland, James Mason, David Hemmings and Sir John Gielgud among others. That this has never been available before is truly surprising but it's been given solid treatment now with a good transfer, a well written essay, the original poster art, one of the final commentary tracks Clark recorded before his death and assorted other bits and bobs.
This is a masterpiece... especially when you put it in perspective that at the time, this was all new stuff-- the point-of-view of the killer, the killer's in the house, and of course the twist ending! There's a documentary about Bob that's supposed to be coming out soon called Clarkworld (see story in Variety from Nov. 21st in Cynthia Littleton's blog). It looks like it focuses on "A Christmas Story" but also stuff on "Black Christmas" and some of Clark's earlier horror flicks like "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things"... I bet this could be an early look at what's going to appear on the next Black Christmas release!