The Other Michael Moore

I see that Michael "Micky" Moore has written his memoirs, My Magic Carpet of Films: A Personal Journey in the Motion Picture Industry, 1916-2000. Moore's name turns up on many famous films, because he started as a child actor in silent films, became a prop master at Paramount and moved up to being an assistant and second-unit director, working in that capacity from the '50s through the '90s. He was usually credited as "Michael Moore," sometimes as "Michael D. Moore."

Here's his filmography; among the films on which he worked as assistant or second-unit director were: The Indiana Jones movies, The Man Who Would Be King, Son of Paleface, Patton, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Ten Commandments and many Hal Wallis productions at Paramount. Wallis also let him direct one Elvis Presley feature, Paradise: Hawaiian Style. Not much of a movie, but he got to direct Marianna Hill, and that's a good thing.

He did a few directorial jobs after that, but mostly worked second-unit. I haven't read his book yet, so maybe he'll tell a different story, but I think of him as an example of someone who would rather be a terrific second-unit director than a mediocre director. I'm looking forward to the book.