‘Line King’: A Warm Sketch of Hirschfeld

For 70 years Al Hirschfeld’s whimsical caricatures of theater performers and celebrities have enchanted readers, primarily of the New York Times, with whom Hirschfeld, 93, only recently signed a contract. As Lauren Bacall told Hirschfeld at one of the glittery Broadway openings where he’s long been a fixture, “You’re an American institution.” Indeed.

With Susan W. Dryfoos’ “The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story,” he has received the warm, witty and comprehensive documentary he deserves. Dryfoos brings to Hirschfeld’s life and career unique credentials.

Since 1983, Dryfoos, the great-granddaughter of the New York Times’ legendary publisher Adolph S. Ochs, has been director of the paper’s history productions, and her oral history project with Hirschfeld the same year became the basis for this film, some 10 years in the making. When it was completed, her husband, producer Daniel Mayer Selznick, set a deal with Castle Hill to distribute it. (Selznick’s grandfather, pioneer film producer Lewis J. Selznick, made Hirschfeld head of his art department when Hirschfeld was still in his teens.)

In 87 minutes Dryfoos acquaints us with the vigorous, hearty, white-bearded Hirschfeld, who talks easily and humorously of his clearly quite wonderful life, which began in St. Louis in 1903 and included a sojourn in Paris in the ‘20s.

He started out as a sculptor, became accomplished in watercolors and lithographs, but it was his flair for caricature that caught famed Broadway publicist Richard Maney’s attention, thus launching him on the career that continues to this day. It’s awesome to realize that Hirschfeld’s drawings span Florence Reed (in “The Shanghai Gesture,” 1926) to the cast of “Rent” and beyond. (Hirschfeld sketches during rehearsals.)

Hirschfeld has traveled widely and has had many rich and varied experiences, but the professional anchor of his life has been his work for the New York Times, which by the late ‘20s wanted his contributions to its theater section to be exclusive. A Hirschfeld caricature is immediately recognizable for airy, feathery scrollwork and, in its exaggeration of its subject’s features, is notably lacking in cruelty.

Still, not everyone has been happy with Hirschfeld’s likenesses, and the elegant Kitty Carlisle Hart asks with a good-natured shrug, “Why did he have to make me look so ugly?” And when you see the drawing in question you do see what she means.

On the other hand, Carol Channing credits Hirschfeld’s caricature of her for the revue “Lend an Ear” (1948) with establishing her on Broadway. (Hirschfeld says he likes to draw people with highly distinctive features like Channing, Orson Welles and Jay Leno.) Katharine Hepburn sees her features as perfect for caricature and regards Hirschfeld’s treatment of her over the years as hilarious.

After his divorce from the gorgeous showgirl Flo Allen, Hirschfeld in 1943 married Dolly Haas, the beguiling German actress-singer-comedian, a major star in Europe until the rise of Hitler.

Gradually, Haas allowed her career to fade to devote herself to her husband, advising him on his work and hosting many a memorable dinner. She bore him a daughter, Nina, whose name Hirschfeld traditionally “hides” in his work, often innumerable times.

Dryfoos provides exceptional context for her consideration of Hirschfeld’s extraordinary life and work through a thicket of succinct observations from arts critics, friends, colleagues and family--Haas, who died in 1994, is a key contributor--plus some of the freshest archival footage, including Hirschfeld home movies and travelogues, you could ever see.

There is of course a generous sampling of Hirschfeld’s work, which has grown leaner over the years. “The Line King” offers a nod to Margo Feiden, the dynamic, colorful Manhattan gallery owner who deserves more credit than she receives in the film for her longtime role in establishing and promoting Hirschfeld as a serious artist and cultural commentator.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: The film is suitable for all ages.

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‘The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story’

A Castle Hill Productions release of a Times History production. Writer-producer-director Susan W. Dryfoos. Associate producer-editor Angelo Corrao. Creative consultant Daniel Mayer Selznick. Cinematographers Richard Blofson, Jeffrey Grunther. Running time: 1 hour, 27 minutes.

* At selected theaters in Los Angeles and Orange counties.