By Erin Free
FilmInk salutes the work of creatives who have never truly received the credit they deserve. In this installment: writer, producer and director Joe Camp, who created the beloved family film franchise Benji.
We have previously discussed in the Unsung Auteurs column the concept of “quality”, and the seeming belief in some critical circles that in order to qualify as an auteur you need to produce highly detailed, deeply personal work of an artful or “hip” nature. You know, like the films made by beloved darlings such as Wes Anderson, David Lynch, Sofia Coppola or Jim Jarmusch. Our read on the concept of a cinematic auteur, however, is somewhat different. To us, an auteur is a director (or producer or writer or even actor) with a notable continuing sense of style, or a returning roster of thematic or narrative concerns.
We don’t believe these thematic, stylistic or narrative concerns, however, need to be of a high-minded nature, which is why we’ve included commercially focused filmmakers like Betty Thomas, Stewart Raffill, Kirsten Smith & Karen McCullah and several others in the Unsung Auteurs column. In short, we don’t believe that an auteur has to be “cool”, and that when film critics say things like “this is hardly the work of an auteur filmmaker”, well, sometimes, we just have to agree to disagree with them. To take this train of thought right to the end of the line, could anyone deny that famed movie bottom feeder Edward D. Wood Jr – with his preponderance of cashmere sweaters, kinky femdom, cross dressing, Bela Lugosi, and other whack ephemera – is not an auteur? Yes, his films are terrible (but often very enjoyable…which means they can’t really be terrible, can they?), but few filmmakers could “boast” works as obviously their own as Ed Wood’s, and that’s what an auteur is, right? A filmmaker with an identifiable style or body of work.
All of which brings us to Joe Camp, a filmmaker far more talented and thoughtful than Ed Wood, but one whose work is perhaps even more instantly recognisable as his own. In fact, we would argue that Joe Camp actually has one of the most instantly identifiable oeuvres of any filmmaker in the history of cinema. Sure, Tarantino has his pop culture-flavoured insouciance, Scorsese has his religiously wrought anxieties, De Palma has his Hitchcock histrionics, and Kurasawa has his epic death and honour vibe, but Joe Camp is even more singular than that. Pretty much every film this guy has made stars a loveable pooch! And not just a pooch, but a pooch of the same breed! Yep, that’s right: Joe Camp kicked off his career with the smash hit family film Benji, and he remained happily and successfully in the cinematic dog house right up until his death in March this year. Sorry, movie hipsters…that is a goddamn auteur right there!
Born in 1939 in St. Louis, Missouri, Joe Camp always had an interest in filmmaking, and desperately wanted to enroll in UCLA’s film school, but never quite got there. Instead, he studied in Memphis before taking on a variety of jobs, including work as a field advertising crew member for pharmaceutical giant Procter & Gamble and performances as a stage magician. Camp, however, always had his eye on the cinematic prize, and has said that he came up with the idea for what would become his game-changing, pooch-starring hit Benji while watching the animated Disney classic The Lady & The Tramp. Finding a way into Hollywood via a college friend, Camp got his concept for a dog-centred family film in front of all the right people, but the idea was rejected, despite the American film industry’s long history of success with animal-centric fare. Undeterred, Camp dipped into his marketing, advertising and business background, and set up his own production and distribution company to make and release the film. That daring move paid off handsomely.
Written and directed by Joe Camp, 1974’s Benji starred the extraordinary Higgins, who was believed to be a mix of Miniature Poodle, Cocker Spaniel, and Schnauzer, and easily rates as one of the most expressive and engaging dogs to ever grace a cinema screen. Those who grew up in the 1970s will very likely have a true soft spot for the sweet, funny and easily entertaining Benji, which follows the adventures of the eponymous stray pooch, who bewitches and enchants nearly the entire population of a small American town, and even helps two children escape the clutches of a band of bank robbers. Benji is a kids’ flick through and through, but it’s an utter delight, never becoming too saccharine, and boasting modesty and unassuming warmth as two of its greatest assets. Tellingly, US entertainment bible Variety called the film “a very superior piece of family fare. Its star is a dog, ragtag in appearance and with a winning way that should endear it to every audience fortunate enough to catch the picture.”
As well as being a sweet, wonderfully engaging movie, Benji was also a monster hit. Shot for just $500,000 with no big-name movie stars whatsoever (the biggest expense was likely country star Charlie Rich, who sang the film’s gorgeous, Oscar nominated theme song “I Feel Love”), Benji went on to rake in $45 million at the box office, and rated as one of the top ten hits of the year. It was an absolute financial boon for rights owner Joe Camp, who went on to write, produce and direct several Benji sequels, most of which starred the progeny of the original film’s star Higgins, and which varied in quality (full disclosure: we haven’t seen them all!), though most rate safely as solid family fare. Benji took an unlikely and very entertaining trip to Greece in 1977’s For The Love Of Benji, and then continued to entertain kids through the likes of the always Camp-directed Benji’s Very Own Christmas Story (1978), Benji Takes A Dive At Marineland (1981), Benji, Zax & The Alien Prince (a pretty off-piste TV series from 1983), Benji The Hunted (1987) and Benji: Off The Leash (2004).
Joe Camp did, however, veer from the world of Benji on occasion. His funny 1976 family flick Hawmps! starred western legends like Slim Pickens, Jack Elam and Denver Pyle, and followed an 1854 US Cavalry fort’s experiments into the possibility of replacing horses with camels, while 1979’s The Double McGuffin featured Ernest Borgnine, Elke Sommer and Orson Welles (!) in a tale of a group of kids caught up in some breezy crime-related shenanigans. Camp also took Benji into entertainingly unexpected territory with the funny 1980 comedy Oh Heavenly Dog, in which Chevy Chase’s murdered detective is reincarnated as you-know-who, and then embarks on a journey to expose his killer. Camp adds some refreshing wrinkles here, and though it was a box office disappointment, Oh Heavenly Dog (which co-stars Jane Seymour at her absolute loveliest) is still very entertaining.
With his warmly engaging, family-focused, pooch-centric canon dominated by Benji (and the dogs that have played him, like Higgins and his daughter, Benjean), the late Joe Camp may very well be – sorry, film snobs – the ultimate Unsung Auteur…
If you liked this story, check out our features on other unsung auteurs John Patrick Shanley, William Peter Blatty, Peter Clifton, Peter R. Hunt, Shaun Grant, James B. Harris, Gerald Wilson, Patricia Birch, Buzz Kulik, Kris Kristofferson, Rick Rosenthal, Kirsten Smith & Karen McCullah, Jerrold Freeman, William Dear, Anthony Harvey, Douglas Hickox, Karen Arthur, Larry Peerce, Tony Goldwyn, Brian G. Hutton, Shelley Duvall, Robert Towne, David Giler, William D. Wittliff, Tom DeSimone, Ulu Grosbard, Denis Sanders, Daryl Duke, Jack McCoy, James William Guercio, James Goldstone, Daniel Nettheim, Goran Stolevski, Jared & Jerusha Hess, William Richert, Michael Jenkins, Robert M. Young, Robert Thom, Graeme Clifford, Frank Howson, Oliver Hermanus, Jennings Lang, Matthew Saville, Sophie Hyde, John Curran, Jesse Peretz, Anthony Hayes, Stuart Blumberg, Stewart Copeland, Harriet Frank Jr & Irving Ravetch, Angelo Pizzo, John & Joyce Corrington, Robert Dillon, Irene Kamp, Albert Maltz, Nancy Dowd, Barry Michael Cooper, Gladys Hill, Walon Green, Eleanor Bergstein, William W. Norton, Helen Childress, Bill Lancaster, Lucinda Coxon, Ernest Tidyman, Shauna Cross, Troy Kennedy Martin, Kelly Marcel, Alan Sharp, Leslie Dixon, Jeremy Podeswa, Ferd & Beverly Sebastian, Anthony Page, Julie Gavras, Ted Post, Sarah Jacobson, Anton Corbijn, Gillian Robespierre, Brandon Cronenberg, Laszlo Nemes, Ayelat Menahemi, Ivan Tors, Amanda King & Fabio Cavadini, Cathy Henkel, Colin Higgins, Paul McGuigan, Rose Bosch, Dan Gilroy, Tanya Wexler, Clio Barnard, Robert Aldrich, Maya Forbes, Steven Kastrissios, Talya Lavie, Michael Rowe, Rebecca Cremona, Stephen Hopkins, Tony Bill, Sarah Gavron, Martin Davidson, Fran Rubel Kuzui, Elliot Silverstein, Liz Garbus, Victor Fleming, Barbara Peeters, Robert Benton, Lynn Shelton, Tom Gries, Randa Haines, Leslie H. Martinson, Nancy Kelly, Paul Newman, Brett Haley, Lynne Ramsay, Vernon Zimmerman, Lisa Cholodenko, Robert Greenwald, Phyllida Lloyd, Milton Katselas, Karyn Kusama, Seijun Suzuki, Albert Pyun, Cherie Nowlan, Steve Binder, Jack Cardiff, Anne Fletcher ,Bobcat Goldthwait, Donna Deitch, Frank Pierson, Ann Turner, Jerry Schatzberg, Antonia Bird, Jack Smight, Marielle Heller, James Glickenhaus, Euzhan Palcy, Bill L. Norton, Larysa Kondracki, Mel Stuart, Nanette Burstein, George Armitage, Mary Lambert, James Foley, Lewis John Carlino, Debra Granik, Taylor Sheridan, Laurie Collyer, Jay Roach, Barbara Kopple, John D. Hancock, Sara Colangelo, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Joyce Chopra, Mike Newell, Gina Prince-Bythewood, John Lee Hancock, Allison Anders, Daniel Petrie Sr., Katt Shea, Frank Perry, Amy Holden Jones, Stuart Rosenberg, Penelope Spheeris, Charles B. Pierce, Tamra Davis, Norman Taurog, Jennifer Lee, Paul Wendkos, Marisa Silver, John Mackenzie, Ida Lupino, John V. Soto, Martha Coolidge, Peter Hyams, Tim Hunter, Stephanie Rothman, Betty Thomas, John Flynn, Lizzie Borden, Lionel Jeffries, Lexi Alexander, Alkinos Tsilimidos, Stewart Raffill, Lamont Johnson, Maggie Greenwald and Tamara Jenkins.
