About

Known credits:
41
Birthday:
1932-09-06
Place of birth:
Tilbury - Essex - United Kingdom
Website:
N/A

Derek Ford

Overview

Derek Ford (6 September 1932, Essex – 19 May 1995) was an English film director and writer, most famous for sexploitation films such as The Wife Swappers (1970), Suburban Wives (1971), Commuter Husbands (1972), Keep It Up, Jack (1973), Sex Express (1975) (also filmed in a graphic hardcore version), What's Up Nurse! (1977) and What's Up Superdoc! (1978).

Ford began as a writer in collaboration with his brother Donald Ford (died 1991), originally for radio before progressing to television (The Saint, Adam Adamant Lives!) and film (The Yellow Teddy Bears, The Black Torment, A Study in Terror and Hell Boats). Ford's first foray into directing, Los Tres Que Robbaran Una Banco, made in Spain in 1961 was an unhappy experience, around the same time Ford entered sexploitation when he was asked to re-edit and film additional sequences for a Swedish sex film called Svenska Flickor I Paris, eventually released as Paris Playgirls.

Ford's directing career began proper in the late sixties when he entered into partnership with producer Stanley Long, resulting in three films including the massively successful The Wife Swappers, released in America as The Swappers with the tag line "remember when all the guy next door wanted to borrow was your lawnmower?".

Ford's early seventies films were mainly shot in London and Maldon, Essex where he lived, while hardcore scenes meant for the European versions of his films were shot in secret at his own house, with his then wife Valerie acting as assistant, wardrobe & makeup. Interviewed in the book, Keeping the British End Up, fellow director Ray Selfe referred to Ford as "a male nymphomaniac", and themes of swinging, wife swapping and outwardly respectable people living double lives run throughout Ford's work.

In the 1970s the two most well-known Ford films in America were Groupie Girl (1970) and Sex Express (1975) starring Heather Deeley. Released as Diversions in the U.S, Sex Express premiered in the Kips Bay area of Manhattan and was nominated for best foreign film by the Adult Film Association of America.

In Italy he directed Erotic Fantasies (1978) aka Proibito erotico and back in England he quit as the director of Don't Open till Christmas (1984). In the mid-eighties after his divorce, Ford was left to bring up his two children on his own. At this time he attempted to find more mainstream work and dissociate himself from his past, but what little work came his way would drag him back to exploitation film. He directed La Casa delle Orchidee (The House of Orchids) in Italy in 1983, in which (returning to the themes of The Wife Swappers) a group of Italian women join a 'dare club', and co-directed a Hills Have Eyes rip-off in Sweden called Blood Tracks[1] which also features a brief cameo role from Ford as a location scout for a rock video (Ford's only other known acting role is as "Circus Santa Claus" in Don't Open Till Christmas). He was also involved in writing a never-made softcore sitcom called Park Lane. Ford's final film, The Urge to Kill, starring Peter Gordeno & Sarah Hope-Walker has never been given an official release, although clips from it appear in the 2005 documentary The Wild, Wild World of Dick Randall, and several bootlegs of it have surfaced over the years.[2] The film was eventually given an official DVD release in France on 1 April 2014 by the Uncut Movies label.

Known for

Acting

1984 The Making of a Horror Film Actor Self N/A
N/A

Directing

1989 The Urge to Kill Directing Director 58
Average
1983 The House of Orchids Directing Director 58
Average
1978 What's Up Nurse Directing Director 58
Average
1978 What's Up Superdoc! Directing Director 58
Average
1978 Forbidden Erotica Directing Director 58
Average
1976 Diversions Directing Director 59
Average
1975 The Girl from Starship Venus Directing Director 58
Average
1974 Commuter Husbands Directing Director 59
Average
1974 Keep It Up, Jack! Directing Director 58
Average
1972 Suburban Wives Directing Director 58
Average
1971 Secret Rites Directing Director 58
Average
1970 I Am a Groupie Directing Director 58
Average
1970 The Wife Swappers Directing Director 58
Average
1969 A Promise of Bed Directing Director 58
Average

Writing

1995 The Casting Couch Writing Writer 59
Average
1989 The Urge to Kill Writing Writer 58
Average
1984 Don't Open Till Christmas Writing Writer 57
Average
1978 What's Up Nurse Writing Writer 58
Average
1978 What's Up Superdoc! Writing Writer 58
Average
1976 Diversions Writing Writer 59
Average
1975 The Girl from Starship Venus Writing Writer 58
Average
1974 Commuter Husbands Writing Writer 59
Average
1974 Keep It Up, Jack! Writing Writer 58
Average
1974 Venom Writing Writer 58
Average
1973 The House That Vanished Writing Writer 58
Average
1972 Suburban Wives Writing Writer 58
Average
1970 I Am a Groupie Writing Writer 58
Average
1970 The Wife Swappers Writing Writer 58
Average
1970 The World at Their Feet Writing Writer 59
Average
1969 A Promise of Bed Writing Writer 58
Average
1968 Corruption Writing Screenplay 58
Average
1967 Son of the City Writing Writer N/A
N/A
1965 A Study in Terror Writing Screenplay 59
Average
1965 A Study in Terror Writing Original Story 59
Average
1965 Primitive London Writing Writer 59
Average
1964 The Black Torment Writing Screenplay 58
Average
1964 Saturday Night Out Writing Writer 58
Average
1963 The Yellow Teddy Bears Writing Screenplay 58
Average
1962 Stork Talk Writing Writer N/A
N/A

Editing

1973 The House That Vanished Editing Supervising Editor 58
Average