The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 172

doe AngeU State Friday. IXwmhrr 10. itottPart VI 21 RICHARD PRYOR AS A RICH KID'S TOY' Baftw Jg anas jtemrjgjft fJHft JftjSSfcsasal ft fJMHVttnfc EM fltt IS kSHHIM wcoMQs a TAtmm it veto much going for it in the combination of Pryor and lis sure-fire premise that there was no need to lay everything on with a trowel. "The (rated IKJ for some gamy diulogue and situations) was more when it was less. SMURFS IN PRIME-TIME SPECIAL "The Smurfs Christmas Special." featuring the little blue people from NBC's Saturday morning series, will be presented next Monday at 8 p.m.

on NBC (Channels 4 and 3y. This is the Smurfs' third prime-time special since they made IheirTV debut in September, 1981. pafl cgrggra 2EED laughs. Bui il winds down under the weighl of Us heavy-handed attempts at satire. Gleason isn't merely strong-willed tycoon but a monster of Southern -fried nouveau nche vulgarity.

bigot who support the KKK and a husband who dumps unwanted wives into mental institutions, (We wonder if one of them is Schwartz's nevL-r-mentioned mother.) would lake a Bunuel to vernp laughs out of such a character, and "The Toy" is determinedly a broad very broad brighl-hed thigh-slapper. And his latest wife (Teresa Ganzel) is such an extremely sexist caricature of the bosomy dumb blonde that she's enough to make you cringe. Gleason is meant to be hilarious in his villainy, just as Ganzel is in her stupidity and sexiness, but their characters are so exaggerated that they seem merely pathetic. (As skilled as Gleason is, he can't keep this tyrant's expressions of supposedly genuine love for his son from congealing. More welcome are Wilfrid Hyde-White as Gleason's ancienl, martini -loving butler and Annazette Chase as Pryor's lady, an activist lawyer.

'The Toy" is on firmer ground when it deftly acknowledges that (H there's a recession on and (2) that it's more hurtful to blacks than to whites. It had so 33 STARTRCKH THC WRATH Of KHAN OVER 1500 TITLES ON RITA A VHS Jam I Ujr fwda't WORKOUT TIMEx BANDITS DUMBO lit J9l ROCKY By KKVIN THOMAS. Timrs Stalt Writer Three years ago I here was an appealingly modest French comedy called "The Toy." in which Pierre Richard, the tall blond man with one black shoe, became the plaything of a spoiled rich kid With Richard I'ryor in the Ul'e role, this Ray Stark production has taken "The Toy" (citywidc) and turned it into an "Annie" without In other words, an original of some charm, devised by the prolific Francis Veber, has been done in by sheer overkill. That's a shame, since Pryor is inspired casting, giving the central joke an extra twist because he's black and because he's doing all his wonderful stuff. He's a journalist too long out of work with loo big a mortgage, and he's doing a cleaning job at a department store when he's spotted by the small son (Scott Schwartz) of Jackie Gleason, who owns the store and practically everything else in south-central Louisiana.

It seems that Gleason has Sch warts at home only one week a year, and during that time the boy can have anything he wants to amuse him and what he wants is Pryor. With foreclosure looming. Pryor, faced with a fee he can't resist, signs on for a week with Gleason's minion Ned Beatty as Schwartz's toy. Of course, beneath his brattiness. SchwarUs is just another poor little rich boy who's smart enough to realize that his dad will buy him anything in order not to have to bother with him himself.

Pryor and Schwartz play off each other beautifully, with Pryor giving the child love and attention he's never known (but with each lender moment underlined by Patrick Williams' smarmy score). As long as director Richard Donner and writer Carol Sobieski she adapted "Annie" for Stark, too stick to the Pryor-Schwartz relationship. "The Toy" buzzes along, getting good HAROLD AMAUDC V1 fin GOLDEN 7a AtUfiL Tj 535 i ROCKY III at A Charlie Brown Festival B. nci VkWoOc THE TO A Columbia release of a Ray Stark production from Rular. Producer Phil Feldman.

Director Richard Donner. Screenplay Carol Sobieski; baaed on film by Franca Veber. Aaaoc. producer Margaret Booth. Camera Lanlo Kovacs.

Production designer Charles Rosen. Music Patrick Williams. Costumes Moss Mabry. Richard Pryor's wardrobe by Alice Daniels. Stunt coordinator Bobby Porter.

Film editors Richard Hams, Michael A. Stevenson. Featuring Richard Pryor. Jackie Gleason, Teresa Ganzel. Wilfrid Hyde-White, Ned Beatty.

Scott Schwartz. Annazette Chase, Tony King. Don Hood. Karen Leslie-LylUe. Virginia Capers, B.J.

Hopper, Linda McCann. Ray Spruell. locker Fonlelieu, Stuart Baker-Bergen. Running time: 1 hour. 42 minutes.

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