"A Christmas Story": Docu on helmer Bob Clark debuts Nov. 29

Clark's own story came to a tragic end in April 2007 when he and his 22-year-old son Ariel were killed in an head-on collision with a drunk driver in the Pacific Palisades area of L.A. Clark (pictured right) was 67.

"A Christmas Story" means so much to my family that the news of their death hit me almost as hard as if it had been a family member. The senselessness of their loss makes it hard to watch the movie now without a lump of coal in my throat from the start. But we will still make a point of watching what my daughter calls "the Ralphie movie" over the Thanksgiving weekend to get us in the proper holiday spirit.

"ClarkWorld" does not dwell on the circumstances of Clark's death. It is a celebration of a wonderfully irascible filmmaker who tried to make the movies as he saw 'em and didn't particularly care what the rest of the world thought, though he never got tired of hearing praise for "Christmas Story."

(My husband and I had the pleasure of heaping some on Clark five years ago at a party and screening at the ArcLight to tubthump Warners' latest DVD release of "Christmas Story." After the screening, Clark led the crowd in a chant to convince Warners brass to give "Christmas Story" a theatrical re-release.)

Abram knew exactly how to capture the real Bob Clark because he worked with the filmmaker for a dozen years, as a production designer and in other capacities. They bonded after meeting at the offices of another indie film outfit, Crystal Sky Pictures,  where Clark's other son, Michael, was working as a p.a. and Clark was developing "Baby Geniuses."

"Bob was a legend in the office," Abram remembers. "Somebody was teasing him about having done 'Rhinestone.' I turned around and said that I actually kind of liked that movie in a weird way. Bob gave me half a glance and said 'It takes all kinds.' From that moment on we became close friends."

For Abram, who is now based in Chicago, putting together the docu was a form of "therapy" for him after the blow of Clark's death. The "ClarkWorld" preem is being held as a benefit for the Cleveland chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

"Bob was my mentor," Abram says. "We spoke just about every day, and it was just such a senseless, tragic loss. I couldn't focus on any other projects that I was doing, and I started thinking that I should do something for Bob, and for myself, to work my way through this."

Like its subject, the docu has a bit of edge to it, as it explores Clark's "faults and demons" and his other work pre- and post-"Christmas Story," Abram says. "But first and foremost we try to entertain the aud and tell Bob's story."

The 75-minute feature includes interviews with friends and colleagues, including Kim Cattrall (who was a Clark fave though she is not in "Christmas Story"), Jon Voight, Mary Steenburgen, Queen Latifah, Olivia Hussey, Richard Roeper and, of course, Billingsley, who gave Clark the performance of both of their careers in playing Ralphie in "Christmas Story." (It's not a stretch to say that Billingsley delivers one of the best moppet movie perfs ever. He is Ralphie, and without his greatness, the pic wouldn't work.)

Abram (pictured above) financed the docu on his own, with help from Lyne Leavy, who was Clark's right hand for years at his Film Classics production banner. They're focused now on getting "ClarkWorld" onto film festival circuit. Abram also would love to see it run on Turner's TBS and TNT, which traditionally run a 24-hour marathon of "Christmas Story" airings starting on Christmas Eve. (Steve Koonin, are you listening?)

Indeed, it was TNT's TBS' frequent airings of the pic that helped give "Christmas Story" its cred as a classic. The movie had a short and unspectacular theatrical run in 1983 because it had the misfortune to be released by MGM during one of the Lion's fallow periods.

But "Christmas Story" proves that a great film can't be destroyed by an inept initial release. Nowadays, triple-dog-dares and "you'll shoot your eye out" are part of the pop culture lexicon. (I also love: "A commercial?! A crummy commercial!" and "Fra-gee-lay" and "It's a clinkerrrrrrr!," to name but a few.) And not that these things really matter but it's super-high on every crix list of the best Christmas pics ever made (With all due respect to Frank Capra, it is the best Christmas movie ever made.)

"With a little luck we'll get it into some film festivals and somebody will catch wind of it," Abram says. He's already talking to one producer's rep about handling the project.

"My whole philosophy behind this project is, do something good and something good will come out of it," Abram says.

Sounds like something Ralphie's old man would've counseled -- before he ran off cursing after the Bumpuses' dogs.