----------------------------Original message---------------------------- John McInnes writes: <<I find my opinion of the series dropping with each installment (though in its defense, I thought the description to Welles as "the first director-star" was a reference to his *starring* in KANE as well as directing, rather than to his lofty status as a director). >> I appreciate John's attempt salvage SOME intellectual honesty from this series, but I must point out that Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, William S. Hart, Noel Coward and many, many others preceded Welles in this regard as well. It is typical of the scholarship of this series (which also had one participant refer to "Kane" (1941) as a 1949 film!) that such thoughtless hyperbole could get past the producers. Although it pains me deeply to add to Larry Jarvik's ammunition, there is no doubt that the series, especially in light of its cost, is a major embarassment. Brownlow & Gill, Turell & Killiam, Richard Schickel and others have brought the tv documentary on the cinema too far to be overshadowed by this (so far) turkey. Gene Stavis, School of Visual Arts - NYC