A look inside Hollywood and the movies incorporating Outtakes, Cinefile and Production Chart. : YOU ARE HERE : Mambo-ing Down Hyphenate Ave.

Talk about your hyphenates. New York art dealer-Pace Gallery owner and sometime-movie producer, sometime-actor Arnold Glimcher is moving into his next phase: sometime-director.

He’s right here in L.A. these days shooting “The Mambo Kings,” a film based on Oscar Hijuelos’ Pulitzer Prize-winning book “The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love.” The story of two Cuban brothers trying to make their way in New York’s music world, the movie stars Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas and features, among others, Desi Arnaz Jr. and musicians Tito Puente and Celia Cruz.

“It’s possible to have more than one interest,” insists Glimcher, who’s making his directing debut with this project. “I’ve been a painter and did summer stock . . . this (directing) is a hybrid of both of those . . . a synthesis, if you will.”

Glimcher had a small role in the not-well-received 1982 Robert Benton film, “Still of the Night,” which starred Meryl Streep and Roy Scheider. More significantly, he was a producer on “Gorillas in the Mist.”

Glimcher also happens to be the man that Creative Artists Agency chief exec Michael Ovitz turns to when he’s adding to his art collection. It’s an important connection, Glimcher would be the first to admit. Ovitz “is a very good friend and my agent,” Glimcher says. But when it comes to his work in movies, Glimcher says it’s director Benton who has been “the most encouraging. He’s been my mentor.”

The visual-art background that Glimcher brings to movies has served him well, at least in the view of “Gorillas” screenwriter Anna Hamilton Phelan. “On the ‘Gorillas’ shoot, Glimcher was incredible, involved in every phase of production. With such a visual eye, he’d even rearrange the props on the set. Arnold was wearing more than a producer’s hat even then . . . so I’m not surprised he moved on to directing.”