Writing

Derek Ford

Born 1932-09-06 · Tilbury - Essex - United Kingdom

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.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

The Girl from Starship Venus poster
4.2

A young Venusian girl lands on Earth to explore the planet. She lands in Soho in London, UK where she has ample opportunities to research sex on Earth.

The Girl from Starship Venus

1975

The Girl from Starship Venus poster
4.2

A young Venusian girl lands on Earth to explore the planet. She lands in Soho in London, UK where she has ample opportunities to research sex on Earth.

The Girl from Starship Venus

1975

A Study in Terror poster
6.2

When Watson reads from the newspaper there have been two similar murders near Whitechapel in a few days, Sherlock Holmes' sharp deductive is immediately stimulated to start its merciless method of elimination after observation of every apparently meaningless detail. He guesses right the victims must be street whores, and doesn't need long to work his way trough a pawn shop, an aristocratic family's stately home, a hospital and of course the potential suspects and (even unknowing) witnesses who are the cast of the gradually unraveled story of the murderer and his motive.

A Study in Terror

1965

Corruption poster
5.8

A surgeon discovers that he can restore the beauty to his girlfriend's scarred face by murdering other women and extracting fluids from their pituitary gland. However, the effects only last for a short time, so he has to kill more and more women. It is ultimately a killing spree which ends with considerable death and disaster.

Corruption

1968

The Wife Swappers poster
4.4

Six stories involving wife and husband swapping/swinging, are described in titillating detail while analyzed by a pseudo psychologist.

The Wife Swappers

1970

The Wife Swappers poster
4.4

Six stories involving wife and husband swapping/swinging, are described in titillating detail while analyzed by a pseudo psychologist.

The Wife Swappers

1970

Venom poster
4.9

A Nazi scientist and a woman known as a "spider goddess" attempt to develop a nerve gas made from spider venom.

Venom

1974

The Casting Couch poster
8.3

An unprecedented anthology of never-before-told true stories by and about some of Hollywood's most interesting stars, legends, and wannabes, and takes readers inside Hollywood's inner sanctum to show how casting decisions are made, who makes them, and who has the final word.

The Casting Couch

1995

Secret Rites poster
3.7

Pseudo-documentary about black magic and the study of witchcraft with a rare appearance by real-life occultist Alex Sanders.

Secret Rites

1971

The Black Torment poster
5.9

A lord returns to his manor with his new wife, to hear rumours that he had already secretly returned and had committed several murders. Has he lost his mind, or is something dark afoot ?

The Black Torment

1964

What's Up Superdoc! poster
3.7

A doctor fathers 837 brilliant sons through an artificial insemination program, and every woman wants a donation.

What's Up Superdoc!

1978

What's Up Superdoc! poster
3.7

A doctor fathers 837 brilliant sons through an artificial insemination program, and every woman wants a donation.

What's Up Superdoc!

1978

The Yellow Teddy Bears poster
5.0

A clique of girls in an English school wear a small yellow teddy bear on their uniform to signify that they have lost their virginity. Linda, the girls' leader, fears she may be pregnant from her window cleaner boyfriend, "Kinky", an aspiring pop singer. Desperate, and unable to confide in her parents, she must wrestle with her conscience and decide what course of action to take. Meanwhile, a concerned teacher learns the significance of the yellow teddy bears, and in trying to help the girls in question, puts her own career in jeopardy.

The Yellow Teddy Bears

1963

Suburban Wives poster
3.0

Seven stories of marital infidelity, told from the women's point of view. A spicy satire of modern manners and mores. Newspaperwoman Sarah relates the separate stories of eight married couples. The husbands are satisfied with their lot, but the wives are not. Sarah describes a situation in which dissatisfied and bored middle-class housewives seek excitement and adventure outside their marital homes and beds.

Suburban Wives

1972

Suburban Wives poster
3.0

Seven stories of marital infidelity, told from the women's point of view. A spicy satire of modern manners and mores. Newspaperwoman Sarah relates the separate stories of eight married couples. The husbands are satisfied with their lot, but the wives are not. Sarah describes a situation in which dissatisfied and bored middle-class housewives seek excitement and adventure outside their marital homes and beds.

Suburban Wives

1972

Don't Open Till Christmas poster
4.9

It's just days before Christmas in London, but not everyone is full of good cheer - as a maniac with a pathological hatred of Santa Claus stalks the streets, butchering any man that’s unlucky enough to be wandering around dressed as Old Saint Nick.

Don't Open Till Christmas

1984

A Promise of Bed poster
2.8

Three part comedy. A fading sex symbol attempts to win the lead in a movie by seducing the son of a film producer. A depressed middle aged loner whose suicide attempt is interrupted by the arrival of a hippy girl.An avid sex film fan and taxi driver, crashes his cab after being distracted by the leggy charms of his latest passenger.

A Promise of Bed

1969

A Promise of Bed poster
2.8

Three part comedy. A fading sex symbol attempts to win the lead in a movie by seducing the son of a film producer. A depressed middle aged loner whose suicide attempt is interrupted by the arrival of a hippy girl.An avid sex film fan and taxi driver, crashes his cab after being distracted by the leggy charms of his latest passenger.

A Promise of Bed

1969

The World at Their Feet poster
6.8

The 1970 finals saw the emergence of probably the greatest team the world has ever seen, in the all-conquering form of Brazil. Pelé was playing in his last finals and his touch, vision and goal prowess combined with Jairzinho's amazing feat of scoring in every round, propelled the Brazilians to an irresistible 4-1 final victory over an overwhelmed Italy.

The World at Their Feet

1970

What's Up Nurse poster
4.8

When Dr. Robert "Sweeney" Todd arrives to fill his post at a new hospital, he is shocked to see the lengths that the nurses go to in caring for their patients.

What's Up Nurse

1977

What's Up Nurse poster
4.8

When Dr. Robert "Sweeney" Todd arrives to fill his post at a new hospital, he is shocked to see the lengths that the nurses go to in caring for their patients.

What's Up Nurse

1977

Saturday Night Out poster
6.0

Five seamen and a passenger are intent on making the most of the 14 hours they will spend in London.

Saturday Night Out

1964

I Am a Groupie poster
3.4

A bored teenage girl decides that she wants to meet rock stars, and the best way to do that is to become a groupie. She finds herself going on the road with a rock band called Opal Butterfly, and soon discovers that being a rock band's groupie isn't as glamorous or exciting as she thought it would be.

I Am a Groupie

1970

I Am a Groupie poster
3.4

A bored teenage girl decides that she wants to meet rock stars, and the best way to do that is to become a groupie. She finds herself going on the road with a rock band called Opal Butterfly, and soon discovers that being a rock band's groupie isn't as glamorous or exciting as she thought it would be.

I Am a Groupie

1970