New York's Film Forum will offer a 23 picture retrospective on the works of director Otto Preminger January 2 through January 31.

Though widely remembered as a strict disciplinarian on the sets of his movies, I knew him to be quite charming away from his work. I grew up, in fact, best friends with Erik Lee Preminger, who Otto acknowledged as his son only after the death of Erik's mother, the famed author, TV personality, actress and of course stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. When Gypsy died, Otto adopted Erik, who added his father's name to his own.

Otto’s greatest film was "Laura" in 1944, with Dana Andrews, a forgotten star today, alas, but who performed brilliantly. Other classics he directed included "Bunny Lake is Missing" and "Anatomy of a Murder," usually shown uncut on television and one of the great courtroom dramas of all time.

My favorite, however, is "Daisy Kenyon" from 1947. Not because Henry Fonda, Joan Crawford and the aforementioned Dana Andrews (all of whom I was lucky to have met) starred, but because my father, Leonard Lyons, portrayed himself in a brief scene. ("Unconvincingly," one critic said of his performance!) It was there at the Stork Club, where Walter Winchell, the feared Broadway columnist walked in and muttered a few lines to Andrews. Then in walked my father, Winchell's rival and competitor, and did the same thing.

Whenever the movie is shown on TV, I apprise the portion of the film and immediately call my brothers to alert them, knowing that, if possible, we'll all be watching together, no matter how far apart we are. For a few moments, we're reunited.

Otto Preminger died in 1986,but he remains a revered filmmaker who may have been overlooked a bit by subsequent generations but whose movies are well worth seeing.