A TREE IS A TREE

A re-run of a famous moving picture director's career has a very personal touch and the appeal of the technical side of movie-making. Bitten by the bug at an early age in Texas, he sold tickets, ran the projector and shot his own pictures, learning the hard way about cameras, lights, action -- and story. His brashness carried him to New York then to Hollywood, where he went from the short type of story to the feature picture and where, with Peg O' My Heart, with Laurette Taylor, he was far up the ladder. The Big Parade was another marker; The Crowd, Hallelujah on to Duel In The Sun -- the problems of each and the incidents of production are all discussed along with the theory and practice of films and audience response. Elinor Glyn, Lillian Gish, Garbo, Hearst and Marion Davies, Goldwyn, Chaplin, and many, many others are part of his story which makes the wheels within wheels of the moving picture studio understandable and entertaining. Without the lofty approach of Flaherty, this however holds its own in cinematic reporting.