Daily News from New York, New York • 168

ffOCDGCD i -v uV -1 i. Jr -v v. cularly pretty sight. The cartoonist eventually returns to the scene of the accident to search for his missing limb which, as spooky hissing sounds alert the audience that something is dreadfully amiss, lies hidden in the thick grass, the fingers curving ominously into a clenched fist The cartoonist finds only his ring and, now that he can no longer draw Man-dro, the fierce-looking hero of his comic strip, he decides to move to Northern California to teach at a college for perpetual drop-outs who appear to be incapable of reading even comic books. ALONE IN A REMOTE, rainswept mountain cabin, a most suitable place for such nightmarish happenings, he finally admits to himself that he's been having frequent black-outs.

"Blackouts are nothing to fool with," warns a young psych professor. In the meantime, the unwashed hand (which is astonishingly effective in that it moves faster than the eye) is lurking under blankets and tables, ready to pounce on anyone who arouses the cartoonist's inner rage. Is the hand merely a figment of the artist's increasingly overwrought imagination or is it merely acting out the evil impulses of another one of Holly- By KATHLEEN CARROLL Vi THE HAND. Michael Cain. Andrea Marc ov led.

Directed by Oliver Stone. At RKO Cinerama 1. RKO MIX St. Twin and Manhattan 1. Running tlma: I hour, mlnulet.

Rated R. "The Hand" is a fairly tantalizing psychological thriller, made with a far greater artistic flair than your average, everyday fright movie. Oliver Stone, the writer-director of this gloomy tale about a murderous severed hand, clearly has potential as a filmmaker, but he is as yet no match for the showy Brian De Palma, the most likely successor to the grand master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, when it comes to terrorizing an audience. Horror movie addicts may not find "The Hand" sufficiently scary, but Stone is able to sustain an atmosphere of menace, particularly in the earlier scenes. Based on Marc Brandel's novel, "The Lizard's Tail," the movie begins as a successful cartoonist (Michael Caine) bickers witty his obviously restless wife (Andrea Marcovicci) about her demands for more freedom.

In her anger, the wife guns the motor of their car and his drawing hand is sheared off by a passing truck. All that is left is a bloody stump, which is not a parti Andrea Marcovicci and Michael Caine in The five finger exercise wood's full-blooded pyschopaths? The answer is provided by Viveca Lindfors who, as an overly smug pyschiatrist, turns out to have her hands full with the ex-cartoonist. Caine does a convincing job of portraying the antihero's gradual mental deterioration while the lovely Marco vicci displays a combination of cruel selfishness and genuine yearning that marks her as a newly liberated woman, but the characters are disappointingly thin. The most refreshingly original character Is the brazen campus seductress, played by Annie McEnroe, a real discovery. BAM 'Oedipus' JIM LOWE QdgEZ is rarely regal By DOUGLAS WATT Jiv- mm; 4 Xr WW1 It was this week in cinema history, back in 1934, that Shirley Temple appeared in her first feature film.

So let's board the Good Ship Lollipop and Stand Up and Cheer, not only Little Miss Marker but all the other tots and teens who once stole movie scenes. 1. In what movie did Jackie Cooper appear with both Wallace Beery and George Raft? 2. In the 1936 version of "The Children's Hour" called "These Three," what young actess played the malicious student? 3. What other child star appeared in "Bright Eyes" with our Shirley? 4.

Mickey Rooney, Jackie Cooper and Freddie Bartholomew appeared together in what 1936 flick? 5. Who was both "The Lost Angel" and "Tenth Avenue 6. What child singing star appeared with the great W.C. Fields in "Never Give a Sucker an Even 7. What then-very yoling performer appeared or at least is said to have appeared, however briefly in "Tillie's Punctured Romance" with Charlie Chaplin and Marie Dressier before growing up to be one of the comedic greats of the century? nd that was'way back in 1914, folks.

8. "The Kid" made a star of what child performer? 9. Who played Katharine Hepburn's younger sister in "The Philadelphia 10. Okay, for the Young Hollywood Hall of Fame, match the name with the film: "BeauGeste" Bobby Driscoll "Pigskin Parade" Billy Halop "Angels with Dirty Faces" Shirley Temple "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" Judy Garland "Stowaway" Donald O'Connor "Treasure Island" Hayley Mills "TigeBay" Terry Kilburn (Answers ca page t) OEDIPUS THE KINO.

Soohoclee' tragedy In a new version by Stephen Sere and Dlfkln Clay. With Joe Morton, Sheila Allen, Ben Halley Michael Orotf, Gerry bimmin, member of the BAM Theater Company. Directed by Emily Mann. Set by Mine Chs Lee. Costume by Jennifer von Mayrhauter.

Ushtlna by Arden Flneherhut. At the Brooklyn Academy et Muilc. Emily Mann, the director of last night's BAM Theater Company production of "Oedipus the King" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, is quoted as having said, when presented with the Sophocles tragedy, "I panicked. I said no one knows how to do this play, no one really knows how to do the It may well have been a veiled prophecy straight from Apollo, for this "Oedipus" is pretty much of a drag. The blame isn't wholly hers.

She has directed the movement cleanly and attractively in a deep, spare, chastely off-white setting by Ming Cho Lee with the artfully simple costuming and stark white lighting, is handsomely in keeping with the drama. But even granting that her choice of perform mers was limited to members of this season's uneven repertory company, her control over the acting is decidedly shaky. The evening might have been retitled "Oedipus the Kid" or "Kid Oedipus," for Joe Morton, though a familiar figure on local stages for many years now, looks and acts a very youthful Oedipus Rex. And while he is an actor who speaks with commendable clarity and is able to arouse sympathy, he is lacking in the eloquence and stature the part demands. He does rise to the occasion in Oedipus' anguished speech after having blinded himself, but is less effective in the broken ruler's subsequent and equally heartfelt words to his daughters.

THERE IS ONE CONSISTENTLY admirable performance, and that is Michael Gross' account of Tiresias, the stubborn and sadly reluctant old prophet from whom the mockingly disbelieving Oedipus forces the awful secret early in the game. Ben Hailey Jr. as the Priest, brings size and richness to his acting, though his performance is always in danger of getting overripe and mannered. Sheila Allen gives a professional but perfunctory reading of Jocasta, and her plain but becoming gown Joe Morton in title role of "Oedipus the King" and boyish haircut hardly add to the impression of her being Oedipus' mother as well as what might be termed a semi-grandmother under the circumstances. Also small-scaled, as well as out of place in its easy conv ersationmal way, is Gerry Bamman's Leader of the Chorus, the latter a meager contingent of four in this production.

Richard Jamieson, the Creon, brings a sincere air to the part, and that's about all, his speech tending to slur into indistinguishability when he's turned the other way. Jerome Dempsey's Messenger and Domninic Chianese's Shepherd are adequately played. Though drained of much power in this performance, it is still so relentless a piece of theater that its spell cannot be entirely lost Stephen Berg and Diskln Clay have wisely taken a conservative approach in their new, shortened version. By the way, the play, performed uninterrupted, is being given upstairs in the Leperq Space, the company's other production, Brecht's "Jungle of Cities," running concurrently In the regular downstairs theater..