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Faat-aetion etui (wlvel. BOXINOGLOVES: adulti, 1.49; boy' 12-15, 7.49; boys' McGregor Willie Mays Fielder's Glove the splices in between. It Is perfect. And the direction by Sidney Lumet will be appreciated even by those who know little' of the problems of filmmakers. It must be emphasized that the film seems long only because it is long, not because it ever drags.

And Lumet, working with his huge cast, has gotten performances from each that make the characters into individuals. In a cast that is all male except for the two girlfriends and Serpico's mother, that is no small accomplishment. But the highest artistic achievement in "Serpico" comes with the screenplay, adapted by Waldo Salt (he wrote "Midnight and Norman Wexler (he wrote from the book by Peter Maas. Salt and Wexler have produced dialogue that is rife with obscenities, yet is so perfectly naturalistic, so right in its echoing of the way people actually talk, that it never grates on the ear. It should be noted that the dialogue is no more literal than that heard in any'other movie who could stand to listen to the and-uhs and ya" knows we all use? though certainly it is much more so than dialogue heard on the stage.

Still, it sounds like real people talking, and that's what counts in art that is realistic. The film carries an rating, which I wouldn't think it would merit had the same language been used for shock value. All in all, "Serpico" stands as one of the finest films of the year, whether or not one thinks the honest cop seems a bit too righteous and obsessive in his concern over the misdeeds and morals of his Continued from Page B-l ful force at work in his business, why didn't he just quit? Strange behavior It would have been logical, and he certainly had reason' enough. He may have been an eccentric wearing progressively wilder garb, even dress- ing as an orthodox rabbi, when he was working as a. plainclothesman.

He even 'smoked grass and loved opera. Okay, so he's a rebel. But he lost two good women because of his' one-man crusade that became an all-consuming passion. And he lived knowing that he might well lose his life if one of his friends found out he was telling all he knew to any of his superiors who would listen. What's more, he did this for the last three of his five years on the force.

We are given, by way of explanation for his dedication, his sentimental memories of always wanting to be a cop when he was a little boy because the men in blue were the men who knew what was going on in his neighborhood, who were always there when needed. He speaks of the force at times as if it were the priesthood, arid indeed by the end of the picture he's seeming so too-good-to-be-true that we feel maybe the other cops should start calling "Saint Frank." Less debatable than this basic cynicism and I admit that it may be my problem and no one else's is the fact of the film's length. "Serpico" runs two and a quarter hours, and though it's one of the best movies of the year by almost any standard, that's a long time for a cop thriller even one that seesaws between street action and tens indoor drama, and one laced with such dramatic decisions about whether or not to talk to a grand jury. At any rate, for the rest of this let's concentrate on the film's less subjective, more easily appreciated aspects. Al Pacino plays the honest cop, and it's one of the top performances of the year, sure to get an Oscar nomination and all that, even though sometimes he gets a little too intense and we catch him acting instead of just being Frank Serpico.

Everyone else and there are upwards of 100 speaking parts in the film are supporting characters, and it is through them that "Serpico" hits many of its bull's-eyes, at least for New Yorkers. There is a devastating caricature of D.A. Frank Hogan to laugh at, and when Serpico goes to City Hall, the Lindsay aide he deals with will draw a knowing snort from almost anyone acquainted with the over-educated, overpaid, but under-powerful who push pencils and worry more about political winds than people's lives. As for the production, which was put together by Dino de Laurentiis, New York has rarely been photographed and represented with as much truth. Nothing seems plastic or ill-chosen as were so many of the backgrounds for another recent De Laurentiis production, "The Valachi Papers." The cinematography of Arthur J.

Ornitz and the editing of Dede Allen make the film easy to watch. Miss Allen's contribution is so fine and smooth as to often let us forget we are watching a series of shots from different angles; all we see is what we are supposed to see, not noticing Q99 2 lb. Mummy-type Sleeping Bag Ughwelght, comfortable and warml Insulated with Iba. of down; water-repellent, Willie Mays autographed I Genuine leather. Ideal gift for young baseball fans.

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Cueing control. Automatic shut-off. Dust cover Included. Model him in Geneva," Delessert said. "He looked at the books I had done, and liked them." Piaget apparently approved of the surreal approach, because he collaborated with Delessert on two books.

Delessert explained the psychology behind the surrealistic graphics. "A child can comprehend as long as there is a familiar element," said. "Ha goes Extra-soft padded earpieces. 10 ft cable. Model HP7.

WORLD CF BOOKS By ALLEN MACALXAY SUff Wrltar See the book. is a children's book. See the simple pictures. See the little boy. See the little girl; See the tree and the locomotive.

And look at the cow. All children's books have simple pictures. Well, not all. Not, certainly, "Being a new release based on Joe Raposo's words to the song of the same title and featuring surrealistic graphics by Swiss-bom Etienne Delessert "Being a short sermon on the benefits of positive thinking, was first popularized by Kermit, the "Sesame Street" frog. Cover versions of the song have been recorded by Frank Sinatra and Diana Ross, among others, but Hermit's remains the definitive performance.

The words are thoughtful, and don't talk down to the Dick and Jane crowd. Delessert's artwork for. "Being Green" doesn't talk down, either. Delessert is quite familiar with the face and form of Kermit, but he used those merely as a point of departure. "I felt it was necessary to depart from Kermit," he explained, "and do my own interpretations.

So it's not precisely a frog it's a more combined-looking animal with maybe a little chameleon and rhinoceros. I think this has mnr nnrva! So Kermit the frog goes through transmogrification in the book, becoming something: who lives just across the threshold of recognition. This doesn't mean that Delessert's surreal renditions are random, however. Far from it. "Everything was quite carefully planned," he insisted.

"A child must create a world of his own, so the book was planned like a film, with animals that looked like animals but combined in several ways." Planning a book like a film is no coincidence for Delessert, since he and Anne van der Essen have produced children's films together, not only for "Sesame but for European children's television as well. As so often happens, Delessert started doing his thing and achieved some success at it, when he thought it might be best, to get some advice, as George Gershwin once did" when he approached Maurice Ravel with the idea of taking lessons in composition. "When I first started doing this type of work, I was doing it for magazines," he recalled. From there he progressed to doing books, and he decided he should check and see if he was doing it right. So his next step was to consult with Dr.

Jean Piaget who. Delessert said, is considered the world's most important; child psychologist. "I went to 8-track tape deck from one detail to another, then reaches the total effect" This is exactly the opposite of the adult approach. "Adults go from the total effect to th details," Delessert said. "The relationship of the elements is quite important" be insisted.

"A child needs to have recognizable things, things he can comprehend immediately." Delessert's art for children's books includes work in Rud-yard Kipling's "Just So Iooesco's "Story Number 1" and "Story Number Gordon Lightfoot's "The Pony plus several of his own. Anne van der Essen's "The Boy Who Grew with art by Delessert, will be released next spring. "Being Green" is a Golden Book from Western Publishing Co. Inc. It retails for tt.

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