Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 71

-1 Ann Landers, 3-D Television, 6-D Movies, 12-D Comics, 21-D 0 MCoJ section FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1985 E) ST. PETERSBURG TIMES 'tuft off Mcoca': into the heart REVIEW fe moui2 1 Out of Africa Cast: Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria Brandauer Director: Sydney Pollack Screenplay: Kurt Luedtke, based on Out of Africa and other writings by Isak Oinesen, Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller by Judith Thurman and Silence Will Speak by Errol Trzebinski Rating: PG; mild profanity, violence, sexual suggestion Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes Theaters: Countryside 6, Pinellas Square, Sunshine Mall, Tyrone SquareS Excellent Vary good Good- Mediocre Poor Sfeivarf, fleet; It's A Wonderful Life. The 1 1 film versions of 4 Christmas Carol do not include the elegant George C. Scott production CBS 'commissioned last year and repeats at 8 p.m. Sunday directly opposite Mickey's Christmas Carol, the oddly lighthearted Disney version, on Channel 8.

Other secular traditions appear as follows: Holiday Inn, tonight at 8 on cable's WGN and Saturday at 1 1 :30 p.m. on Channel 10; Miracle on 34th Street, Christmas Eve at 8:05 p.m. on WTBS; It 's a Wonderful Life, Saturday at 8 p.m. on CBN, Sunday at 10:35 a.m. on WTBS, Christmas Eve at 8 p.m.

on Channel 44, i Christmas Day at noon on CBN and Christmas night at 1 2:30 on Channel 28. And Jean Shepherd's A Christmas Story probably has the charm to become a classic; it's all over cable's pay channels. Bleak House finally gets cracking in part 3, as Lady Dedlock hires Urchin Jo for a guided tour and Richard blows up at loving cousin John. Channel 3 airs the installment at 9 p.m. Sunday and follows it immediately with part 4, at 10.

KARL VICK By HAL UPPER St. Patarabura Tlmat Mm Critic There's a moment in Out of Africa when time practically freezes. It's when adventureraviatorhunter Denys Finch Hatton washes Baroness Karen Blixen's hair in the Africa bush, when she leans her head back, smiling, not to feel the water run through her hair, but the warmth and strength of his hand cradling her neck. TIME STOPS. At that very moment, we feel the love Blixen and Finch Hatton have for each other.

And it's exponentially more exciting than anything we could expect from two aristocrats in the 1920s. Out of Africa is an epic romance as big as the continent itself. Its cinematic beauty turns it into A Passage to India for the nation of Kenya and at 2 hours, 35 minutes it moves with Passage' gait, which may be too slow for some moviegoers. It is a brilliant film, rich with verdant landscapes and the aura of grandeur. Most startling is that Out of Africa is based on one woman's 17-year residence in British East Africa (now Kenya) as a coffee grower, wife of a syphilitic adulterer and lover of an adventurer whose breed has all but died out.

Out of Africa is screenwriter Kurt Luedtke's distillation of Isak Dinesen's (Karen Blixen's pseudonym) Our of Africa and Shadows on the Grass, biographer Judith Thurman's Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller and Errol Trzebin-ski's biography of Finch Hatton, Silence Will Speak. UNDER Sydney Pollack's direction, it becomes more than a portrait of a woman, It serves as a tribute to an unspoiled landscape and a continent that was raped by colonialism after World War I. Quite often, Pollack and cinema-tographer David Watkin film their characters from the distance in the African veldt, so their images appear like insignificant specks in a panorama teeming with wildlife. Please see 4-D Unlvarul Our theater line-up remains virtually unchanged this 'weekend. We have the dueling Dickenses: A Christmas Carol at the Tampa Players (ends Sunday) and A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley at the Asolo State Theater (runs through Dec.

28). A turn from the traditional at Asolo is Greater Tuna, the best little send-up of Texas in Florida. And at the American Stage Company in St. Petersburg, the curtain will descend for the last time Sunday afternoon on Love Alice, the grafting of Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor onto a television situation comedy setting. Don't fret: the Tampa Players, the Playmakers, the American Stage Company and Asolo all open new productions in January.

I KELLY SCOTT The relationship between Finch Hatton (Robert Redford) and Baroness Blixen (Meryl Streep) is forged in a passionate portrait by Out of Africa director Sydney Pollack. A lavish 'Color Purplo' Review, 4-D J) fiww i 1 1 TT Offl? flu Tl Onstage in A Chorus Line. 'Chorus Line' kicks up its well-worn heels Review, 4-D Cruella De Villa: coats from 0 1 Dalmatians. Back in 1 96 1 when 10 1 Dalmatians was released, Time magazine called it "the wittiest, most charming, least pretentious cartoon feature Walt Disney has ever made." The hyperbole holds true, at least this Christmas, when 10 1 Dalmatians is the best children's feature on the market. Bony-faced Cruella De Ville's scheme to make dalmatian fur coats is about 40 times more exciting than Dudley Moore's elf impersonation in Santa Claus: The Movie and 1 00 times more fun to watch than Mary Steenburgen pretending she has lost the Christmas spirit in One Magic Christmas.

As of today, every major release for the 1 985 Christmas season is on the market. Aside from filling Sylvester Stallone's coffers, you might consider leaving the kids at home and seeing Out of Africa or The Color Purple (please see reviews, this page and 4-D). You'll both enjoy A Chorus Line, and the kids will be more pleased with Jewel of the Nile, which is more of a Tetread than a sequel. Steer clear of Enemy Mine, Spies Like Us and King Solomon 's Mines (which isn't a release but continues to plague the Suncoast). And, consider decorating the tree before dashing out to see Clue, Young Sherlock Holmes or White Nights.

HAL UPPER mm if if Academy Award-winning director Richard Attenborough translated A Chorus Line to the screen, a task that had baffled film makers for a decade. Film critic Hal Upper interviews Attenborough in Sunday's ArtsTravel. Warner The Color Purple focuses on actor Whoopi Goldberg. 'Carousel' is slick production, but real opera offers more REVIEW opera The Florida Opera Rodger and Hammerttein't Carousal. With Judith McCauley (Julie Jordan); Richard White (Billy Bigelow): Maureen Brennan (Carrie Pipparidga): Tom Ligon (Jigger Craigin); Monte Ralatin (Enoch Snow); and Martha Bagwell (Nettie Fowler).

Robert Johanaon, Mage director; Jim Coleman, muiical director. Thuraday evening at Ruth Eckerd Hall; additional performances today, Saturday and Sunday. By MICHAEL FLEMING St. Pataraburg Tlmaa Mualc Critic 1 Two-thirds of the way through the Florida Opera season, and not an opera in sight To make that observation is to take nothing away from the current production of Carousel, which is skillfully sung, affectionately directed and slickly presented. Oscar Hammerstein's book and lyrics still shine (even if they are beginning to show their age); Richard Rodgers' score is a marvel of pacing and balance, and Agnes de Mille's choreography, a canny blend of popular styles with just a touch of ballet Still, I wonder if the company has not taken the easy way out of its financial difficulties.

TO DEAL with this production first: Richard White touches all sides of the troubling character of Billy Bigelow playful, sinister, blustering. He has a sturdy baritone voice, which he can match to any change of mood, as he did in his big scene at the end of Act I. Judith McCauley is not his equal as a singer, but as an actor, she made Julie Jordan lovable, not a bit sappy. Maureen Brennan showed a fine sense of fun in the role of Carrie; Monte Ralstin was a lovable nerd (with a solid, reliable voice) as Enoch, and Marsha Bagwell's Nettie was irresistible. Jim Coleman kept the free-lance orchestra on the alert Opera management had decided not to hire the striking Florida Orchestra musicians.

And stage director Robert Johanson expertly juggled the sentimental moments, the festive production numbers and gave the work's darker undertones their due. THERE WERE some opening-night glitches: trouble with a curtain that refused to rise all the way, a tree that declined to settle into place and some harsh over-miking of both the singers and the orchestra. Altogether, it was a neatly packaged show, apparently brought lock, stock and footlights from the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J. As the company sang at the beginning of Act II: "Our hearts are warm, our bellies are full, and we are feelin' prime." No doubt many in the audience felt the same way, with the holidays approaching. But real opera offers more, and a real opera company knows how to make it sell 8t.

Patartburg Tinwi J08E FONT Actors Richard White and Judith McCauley as Billy Bigelow and Julie Jordan in Carousel..