THE ACTOR

Hollywood, where the Kileg lights show up some of the harsh lines in the lives of Dan Prader, a bygone western star, Lilldil- his wife, and Harold Heston- their son-who has ade his own way up as a director under another name. Dan, still a fine figure of a man of fifty, lives it up whenever he gets a paycheck for a stunt job which is all he is now hired to do, comes home to face the lashing fury and later forgiveness of Lilldil. An offer to do a dangerous cliff jump for Harold's studio is too good to turn down, but when Harold is assigned to direct the picture he is afraid of the job for his father (whom he hates), and for himself if Dan is killed. Dan makes the jump, and it is Harold who saves him when he blacks out in the water; in so doing, Harold has a new appreciation of Dan and the family circle is drawn together.... A coarse-textured portrait of a man (not for most women or children either) whose ham heroics and rutting appetites still leave something to be respected- courage and a childlike openness of heart.