HOLLYWOOD'S POWER SHIFT; STORY OF HITCHCOCK, SELZNICK SHOWS HOW INDUSTRY CHANGED.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

Three of the century's top media personalities are stars of two documentaries premiering tonight and, befitting their prestige and talents, they make for resonant subjects of non-fiction films.

On PBS, ``American Masters: Hitchcock, Selznick and the End of Hollywood'' explores the unlikely alliance of Hollywood's most hands-on mogul and his singular auteur. The documentary follows the karmically coupled careers of David O. Selznick, the only producer to win back-to-back best-picture Oscars - for ``Gone With the Wind'' and ``Rebecca'' - and Alfred Hitchcock, the man who directed (and subsequently disparaged) the second of those movies, only to eclipse his boss in terms of power and prestige.

As ``American Masters,'' written and directed by Michael Epstein and urgently narrated by Gene Hackman, makes clear, Selznick was born into privilege - he was ``told to live beyond (his) means,'' - and used his position ruthlessly.

He married Irene Mayer, daughter of the head of MGM, yet copulated freely with whomever he fancied. His former secretary offers an amusing anecdote in which she rebuffed his advances, then docilely sat to take dictation for one of the copious memos he issued.

Hitchcock - whose 100th birthday was recently observed - was, on the other hand, a man of modest and conservative origins who initially took a job designing title cards for silent films before making his mark in England as an exemplary filmmaker. When he came to America to work for Selznick - their first collaboration was ``Rebecca,'' which won Selznick his second Oscar (at the tender age of 39). However Hitchcock, as he would be throughout his career, was snubbed for the best director award by the motion picture academy, and the filmmaker was quickly disenchanted by his boss's tentacles-on method of working.

Selznick - representative of the Hollywood executive-heavy mind-set - is more or less vilified, while Hitchcock's ground-breaking methods are championed in the film: The director emerges relatively unscathed by the studio system, free to pursue his personal muses. In the meantime, the egomaniacal Selznick withers away into irrelevance and obscurity.

Their numerous clashes are compellingly and amusingly depicted, and Richard Einhorn's music underscores the resonance of their saga.

Howard Cosell, like Hitchcock, was a maverick, in his case in the realm of sports broadcasting. ``Howard Cosell: Telling It Like It Is'' depicts Cosell's rise from humble but bored union-law attorney to play-by-play man for Little League games to announcer for some of the major sporting events of the '60s and '70s.

Unlike most sportscasters - and, coincidentally, like NBC's Jim Gray, who's currently being excoriated for his pointed interview with disgraced should-be Hall-of-Famer Pete Rose during the World Series - Cosell insisted on content over style in his work and at times suffered greatly for it.

He was a rare, major champion for racial equality in sports but was brought down for what was perceived as a racial slur during a ``Monday Night Football'' broadcast. In his defense, Cosell is shown using the same alleged racial epithet - monkey, which he insisted was a fond moniker that he used to address his own grandchildren - on a white athlete a decade before the controversial incident.

The special both celebrates and pokes fun at Cosell's unique delivery - Billy Crystal describes it as, `a very smart man scolding you with a bad sinus condition''; Woody Allen imagines being forced to make love to him when ``everything he said had that sense of event and crisis to it.'' (In Allen's satire ``Bananas,'' the filmmaker amusingly used Cosell to do play-by-play of a coup in a Latin American country and later during a lovemaking scene.)

Certainly, it was Cosell's fierce intelligence, integrity and sense of drama that made ``Monday Night Football'' must-see TV for many viewers, including myself. The primary shortcoming of this documentary, however, is its paucity of clips - sans voice-over, that is - depicting Cosell and Muhammad Ali's inspired and legendary comedy-team chemistry.

THE FACTS

The show: ``American Masters: Hitchcock, Selznick and the End of Hollywood.''

What: Documentary about the legendary rift between the auteur and the mogul.

Where: KCET.

When: 9 tonight.

Rating: Three and one half stars.

The show: ``Howard Cosell: Telling It Like It Is.''

What: Documentary about the equally beloved and reviled sportscaster.

Where: HBO.

When: 10 tonight.

Rating: Three stars.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) The stormy relationship between director Alfred Hitchcock, left, and mogul David O. Selznick is explored on tonight's edition of ``American Masters,'' on KCET.

(2) HBO's ``Howard Cosell: Telling It Like It Is'' chronicles the broadcaster's influence on televised sports in the '60s and '70s.