Daily News from New York, New York • 253

"I i Friday 23 of her fellow workers, she proves adept at fending off Hart's advances. Hart's abusive treatment sends all three to the nearest bar and they end up having an "old fashioned pot party" together and fantasizing ways of getting rid of their piggish boss. Parton imagines herself as a boss lady, who can swing a lasso faster than Annie Oakley and who eventually ties Hart to a spit and roasts him over the coals. The funniest and best sequence in "Nine to Five" is Tomlin's partially animated fantasy, in which she, dressed exactly like Snow White, chirps along with a flock of disapproving Disney-like birds while adding poison to Hart's coffee. The next day, Tomlin, by mistake, actually puts rat poison in Hart's coffee and their fantasies begin to come terrifyingly true no fool," says Tomlin at the height of her panic.

"I've killed the boss. You think they're not going to fire me "for Tomlin definitely steals the show with her wonderfully wry, deadpan pronouncements. Parton has a folksy, down-home charm that is impossible to resist, not to mention certain physical attributes that will doubtlessly be appreciated by the fans of "jiggle" television and the rest of the male population. Fonda must play it mostly straight, but her comic timing is Impeccable. "Nine To Five" still offers the best laughs of any movie this season thanks largely to Coleman's rubber-faced performance as the all-time office heel.

But it's a pity that a movie with executive potential, should wind up settling for the typing pool. Kathleen Carroll NINE TO FIVE, Jana Fonda, Lily Tomlln, Dolly Parton. Dlractad by Collii Hloslm. At tha Criterion, Sutton and RKO Uih SI. Runnlna lima: 1 hour, 51 minulaa.

Ratad PO. "The word that expresses my philosophy is explains Franklin Hart, a corporate vice-president who believes secretaries should stay In their place. "Of course, you girls never got a chance to play football." Maybe not But Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton make a terrific team in "Nine to Five," playing secretaries who are determined to tackle their male chauvinist boss and score a goal for women's lib. There is only one problem. With players of this caliber, one naturally expects a higher class of comedy.

Unfortunately, director Colin Higgins writer Patricia Resnick tend to fumble the ball and what could have been a sharply-focussed satire on sexist attitudes in the corporate world turns into a flabby farce. "Nine to Five" works efficiently for the first half hour as it takes aim on its subject Fonda, as a recent divorcee re-entering the job market, is seen beginning her new job, wearing a fussy suit and a hat that would have been the suggested wardrobe for a Katherine Gibbs graduate 20 years ago. Tomlin, a 12-year-veteran of the secretarial pool who bitterly resents Hart (Dabney Coleman) for ignoring her requests for a promotion, takes Fonda around, but then leaves her to cope with the mysteries of a Xerox machine. Parton is considered to have a cushy job as Hart's Drivate secretary, but, despite the suspicions "Nine to feu V.V (j JttRMaaKa4 Dabney Coleman and Dolly Parton In fencing match The Jazz Singer' should have been left in peace hopping the next jet out. Catlin Adams as Rivka the wife is stuck with the silly assignment of being a whiny, depressing sad sack who thinks Eldridge St.

is Paradise enow. "I always liked being married to a cantor," she says. "Did you ever think that there might be something else just as thrilling?" Jess thunders at her. In real life she certainly would. She probably would have all the shops on Rodeo Drive memorized in a week.

Lucie Arnaz, a vivacious bundle who obviously learned a lot about show business at the knees of Lucy and Desi, brings the only uptempo spirit to the movie, even though she's not once allowed to express it in song and dance. She manages to make credible her role cs Molly, first Jess's' manager and then his lover, even though the role, as written, is instantly recognizable from a hilhdred other show biz his film debut as the jazz singer would be more appropriate in today's He even rises above being contrived into blackface at one point, but the soundtrack album does him far better service as a vehicle. Laurence Olivier is the father who just wants to continue the family tradition of raising an endless line of cantors. "You can't change what has always been," he says. "That's how you know where you stand." Don't blame Olivier for taking on the role of this stodgy stick-in-the-mud.

Just be grateful we can continue to enjoy his presence on screen in whatever he chooses to do. It's hard to believe that today there would be such a family to-do over conventional career ambition. These days as soon as sonny got settled in Los Angeles in the world of palm trees, fast lanes and big-buck deals, one can "imagine his wife and his widower dad movies. The cast bump into cliches around every corner, including that old one of the newcomer who asks if he just might sing a few bars and within seconds has everyone nodding awed approval down to the charwoman. This "Jazz Singer" upgrades the charwoman to a recording studio engineer.

Before the movie is over Diamond gets to get versatile by turning mean, growing a beard and lopirg into the desert, where he strips his possessions down to a guitar and mopes around in a country bar trying to re find himself. As in past versions, peace is made and the "Kol Nidre" wraps it up, although this time you may hear a coda, sighs of relief. Diamond deserves a better film debut. Maybe next time out someone will trust him with an original. By ERNEST LEOGR ANDE Vz THE JAZZ SINGER.

Nail Diamond, Lauranct OHvlar, Lucia Arnai. Olractad By Richard laltcnar. Al Zlaa'ald. Runnlna lima: I hour, SO minulaa. Rata PO.

What's a nice Jewish boy like Yussel Rabinovitch doing in California under the name Jess Robin? Being a singer and making a gold album. Also making his good old pop and his faithful wife back on the Lower East Side heartsick. "The Jazz Singer" lives again but it's fighting a severe case of anemia. This third movie version of the 1925 play stars Neil Diamond as the boy who was raised to be a cantor but decides he just can't. These are modern times and he won't let himself settle for the old ways.

This is 1980, going on 1981, and it's hard to settle for a story that was volatile in 1925 but today just sputters. Diamond is a decent enough actor in Qeeszao MEiq S9ra beon dona ksGoFG i 7 a 1 camera. All this proves most inconvenient for Hawn's present husband, who is smart enough to realize that having his wife's former husband running loose as a fugitive could jeopardize his political future. It shouldn't be hard to guess what happens next. Hawn's ex finds refuge in her garage and the movie becomes an overwrought bedroom farce with an increasingly hysterical Hawn trying to keep peace with her husband, while the former man in her life leers at them from his hiding place under a cot "Seems Like Old Times" is thus basically a one joke comedy that has been stretched so far it looks a rejected pilot for a TV sitcom.

There ere some mildly amusing scenes, one in which Hawn entertains the bewildered governor (humorously-played by George Grizzard) at the request of her husband, only to have her ex create instant chaos by dressing up in a butler's uniform and serving her guests her home-cooked chicken in pepperoni sauce. Hawn never loses her bubbly charm, although this role limits her to doing very little more than pulling her hair with comic frustration as she watches her well-ordered life fell apart. Grodin ts once more cast as a straight arrow personality, but he can somehow make the stuffiest bore seem appealing. It is Chase who is becoming tiresome to watch with his constant smirks. In the end, "Seems Like Old Times" goes to the dogs.

Carroll SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES. Ooldla Hawn, ChavK Chaa. Dlracla by Jay Sandrlch. Al Loawl Slata 1 and Naw York Twin I. Bunnint lima: I hour, 41 minulaa.

Ratad PO. Chevy Chase has already been upstaged by a dog this year, namely Benji in "Oh Heavenly Dog," so you would think he would have learned to beware of doing movies with cute, furry beasts. But no. In "Seems Like Old Times," Neil Simon's suprisingly lackluster comedy, an adorable, tiny Yorkshire puppy runs circles around not only Chase, but his co-stars, GoAlie Hawn and Charles Grodin, effectively romping away with the entire mov ie. Hawn, one should explain, is playing a bleeding heart lawyer who believes in championing the underdog and who collects strays of all kinds.

Her house is overrun with dogs to the extent that her husband (Grodin), a strait-laced type who hopes to run for Attorney General of California, takes one exasperated look at the mutts crowding all over their bed and says, "All right, Wild Kingdom or me." Her clients, who are temporarily employed as her servants since no one else would hire them, include illegal aliens, two American Indians, and an ex car thief (who works, naturally, as her chauffeur). And it turns out that her ex-husband (Chase) is another lost soul, a writer who is so unlucky he is forced to rob a bank by two gun-wielding crooks and he ends up practically posing for the security if 2 i a 3 ID CO A Hawn and friends in "Seems Like Old Times".