TV REVIEW : WILLIAM WYLER FOCUS OF ‘AMERICAN MASTERS’

Anyone who doesn’t think it was a thrill being an old-time Hollywood studio hand should make time for “Directed by William Wyler,” the latest installment in PBS’ “American Masters” series airing tonight at 8 on Channel 50 and at 9 on Channels 28 and 15.

The hourlong documentary offers a delightful--if not particularly probing--glimpse of Wyler, one of Hollywood’s most artful craftsmen who reminisces about his 50-year-long love affair with the movies.

It’s an affair worth remembering. Nominated for Oscars a remarkable 12 times (he won three), Wyler used to take the late Lillian Hellman to work on his motorcycle; argue in his sleep,with Sam Goldwyn and once made Sir Lawrence Olivier do 63 takes of the same scene, repeatedly advising him, “That was lousy. Do it again.”

Director Aviva Slesin and interviewer A. Scott Berg, who embarked on the project six years ago, got to Wyler just in time. The director died in July, 1981, just days after his segments were filmed.

On camera, Wyler has the air of a kindly grandpa--wry, witty and refreshingly free of pretense. His actors remember a sterner side--Bette Davis had to do more takes than even Olivier, and she still insists Wyler botched one of her big scenes from “The Letter.”

Many of Wyler’s peers are on film here, including John Huston (a wartime film-making comrade), Gregory Peck and Hellman, who’s even feistier than Davis. (After seeing Wyler’s big hit, “Mrs. Miniver,” Hellman said she told the director she thought it was “a piece of junk.”)

The most shrewd analysis comes from pal Billy Wilder, who admits Wyler was an enigma--”he wasn’t a particularly studious man, he had no idea of Strindberg . . . yet there was an instinct in him that told him when it was right.”

The critical jury is still out on Wyler, whose films were never as intense as Welles’, as sweeping in scope as Ford’s or as cynically funny as the ones made by Wilder. But thanks to a generous assortment of clips, we get to see his finest directorial moments, from the welcome-home embrace from “The Best Years of Our Lives” to the bravura tracking shot that opens “The Letter.”

Wyler’s exceptional stock company is also on display--both in interviews and on film, including Audrey Hepburn in “Roman Holiday,” Barbra Streisand in “Funny Girl” and Olivier in “Wuthering Heights.”

They all look great, which perhaps is the best tribute to Wyler of all. As Wyler himself admits, his films lack a weighty artistic signature. But as he self-effacingly notes: “When you get personally involved in the story, something gets on the screen that makes it human and real.”