Blank page upon entering either settings form or node-images form (node task)

Problem:
admin/settings/node-image produces blank page. No errors are generated (checked with different page; no messages);
node/x/images same problem

Server: php5, apache2.2, linux Fedora Code 4, drupal 5.1

Bug traced to function _node_images_mkdir_recursive

Erronous function call on line 798 (line 5 inside function definition):

if (!file_check_directory(implode("/", $dirs), $mode, $form_item)) {

drupal 5.1 function file_check_directory: first parameter is a pointer. You can't point to the result of a function (appearantly)

Solution: put function result in a variable first;

$dir = implode("/", $dirs);
if (!file_check_directory($dir, $mode, $form_item)) {

pseudo-patch:
@798
- if (!file_check_directory(implode("/", $dirs), $mode, $form_item)) {
+ $dir = implode("/", $dirs);
+ if (!file_check_directory($dir, $mode, $form_item)) {