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them. He was a perfect director for
Hart.
Hillyer was in his mid-twenties, but
behind him lay an adventurous career.
He had been a track star at Drake
University, a newspaperman in New
York, and a short story wri,ter. He
drifted into the movies via Ince and
was a cameraman and stunt-man
before he wrote scenarios. Hillyer is
still active and today directs the Cisco
Kid and the I Led Three Lives series
for TV.
The Hart pictures that Hillyer di-
rected began wi,th The Narrow T rail.
Hart, Gardner Sullivan & Lambert Hillyer Riddle Gawne had Lon Chaney and
BRANDING BROADWAY (1918)
lovely Katherine MacDonald in sup-
port. The Poppy Girl's Husband
against Hart for breach of contract. was not a Western but a "Blackie
Although Ince was a full partner in Daw" story shot on location in San
Hart's first sixteen Artcraft produc- Francisco, in which Hart played a
tions, Ince' s contributions were zero.
He didn't even have a say in the
Pinto Fritz & Hart in PINTO BEN
cutting room.
After Hart left Triangle that com-
pany flooded the country with his old
pictures under different titles, and
sometimes buil,t up two-reelers into
features. A dummy company called
W. H. Productions was formed to
handle them. Hart obtained from
the Federal Trade Commission a rul-
ing that the former titles must be
displayed along with the new ones.
At Triangle Hart had directed his
own films wi,th Cliff Smith, a cowboy,
as his assistant. At Paramount-Art-
craf t he met Lambert Hillyer, who
had written several stories especially
for Hart. When Hart found out that
Hillyer also directed, he asked for and
got him. In three and a half years
Hillyer directed twenty-five of Hart's
Artcraft pictures and wrote sixteen of