Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 119

4 movie places CROSSED SWORDS. (PG) Lavish, star-studded, mediocre version of Mark Twain's "Prince and the Pauper." Mark Lester, 21, is too old for the dual role of the look-alike adolescents, prince and beggar, who change places. Oliver Reed's excellent, but other names in the cast- George C. Scott, Rex Harrison, etc. are mainly window-dressing.

"Crossed Swords," at Radio City Music Hall, has the wrong Lester and not enough luster. By Joseph Gelmis The latest screen version of Mark Twain's "Prince and the Pauper" is a production of the European partnership -Alexander and Ilya -that brought us the dynamic "The Three Musketeers" earlier in the 1970s. The director of the "Musketeers" extravaganza-which, you may recall, was divided into two pictures released separately-was Richard Lester. It was also Richard Lester who made "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help" with the Beatles. Lester's erratic, but undeniable, virtuosity brought flair to the "Musketeers" production-gave it thrilling adventure, hilarious slapstick, sophisticated wit, barbed social criticism.

The Lester involved with "Crossed Swords" is Mark (no relation). He's an actor who distinguished himself as the loveable waif of the musical "Oliver" when he was 11. But that was 10 years ago. Now, at 21, Mark Lester is miscast in "Crossed Swords" as a boy-as two boys. "Crossed Swords" is about a beggar boy in the reign of Britain's King Henry VIII who inadvertently switches places with the prince next in line to the throne.

So it means that Mark Lester in the dual leading role is on screen for nearly its entire 113 minutes. Which is a pity, since he's the least interesting person in the cast. The director of "Crossed Swords" doesn't bring much of value to the party, either. Richard Fleischer is a pro who knows the mechanics of his craft but has rarely risen above hack work. Oliver Reed, who brutalized Mark Lester in "Oliver," plays Lester's protector, Miles Hendon, in "Crossed Swords." When Reed's on screen, things perk upemotions get supercharged.

The story idea was a good one when Twain conceived and wrote it and when Errol Flynn matched wits and crossed swords with Claude Rains in the 1937 "Prince and the Pauper" (the Mauch twins played Prince Edward and the commoner, Tom Canty). With a few changes, the story remains the same here. Briefly, the point of the story is that a king-to-be gets a taste of what it's like to be an oppressed commoner and resolves to be a just and humanitarian ruler when he takes his place on the throne. While Lester can--as the "mad" beggar who insists he's the Prince of Wales- cry prince until he's blue in the face without summoning a tear from the viewer's eyes, Reed wrings pathos from the loss of his own inheritance, in a parallel subplot. The movie's most affecting moment comes when Reed, denounced as an imposter when he tries to claim his own estate, empathetically acknowledges the "mad" beggar's claim to be the true prince and humbly kisses his hand.

"Crossed Swords" is not a bad movie. It merely squanders its resources. "Crossed Swords" isn't exhilarating, and it isn't a failure. It simply lacks distinction, style, pizzazz. George C.

Scott is good enough as The Ruffler, ruler of an outcast band of thieves, to make us want to see more of him. Rex Harrison, as the philosophical Mark Lester, above left, and Oliver Labourier, below left, and Juliet Duke of Norfolk, has the panache that the rest of the film lacks. David Hemmings, Raquel Welch and Harry Andrews are faces in the -lost among the scenery, costumes and melees. Charlton Heston is not going to win any acting awards as Henry VIII. But the production is handsomely photographed by Jack Cardiff, a star in his own right.

AND JULIE GO BOATING. (Unrated) Two young women try to prevent a murder that's being committed over and over by ghosts in a haunted house. French metaphysical comedy that's too clever- long (at three hours 13 -for its own good. Excellent performances. Juliet Berto, Dominique Labourier.

Jacques Rivette's "Celine and Julie Go Boating" is dazzling and self-indulgent, yet it adds up to over three hours of cute. Juliet Berto and Dominique Labourier, the two female leads, are charismatic, and director Rivette seems to care more about them than about his audience. "Celine and Juliet Go Boating," at Manhattan's Cinema Studio, is a fantasy about a friendship between two women with mercurial personalities. It's not Reed in 'Crossed Dominique Berto in Celine and Julie too bad when they appear to be improvising, or trying to steal scenes from each other. But, as spectators of a melodrama within their own film drama, they analyze too much, giggle too much, become a tediously self-conscious chorus commenting on a gratuitously complex situation.

The heroines become witnesses to a time-warp melodrama in a haunted house. They watch as a deliberately stagy murder mystery is repeated ad nauseum. A widower who promised his wife on her death bed that he wouldn't remarry so long as their invalid daughter lived is beloved by two women in the household. One of the women murders the daughter in her bed. Celine and Julie scheme to rescue the girl before she is murdered again, and they plan to take her back to the outside world.

The cast is exceptional. The supporting players include Marie-France Pisier and Bulle Ogier. There are some amusing set pieces, including a particularly impressive magic show at a cabaret. But Rivette's intricate, subtle, elusive films are an acquired taste- like snails, very continental. "Celine and Julie Go Boating" is exotic fare not aimed at the average moviegoer.

preview Numbers at end of each listing represent the movie theater that has the corresponding number on the timetable, which appears on Page 9A. REVIEWS (PG) AIRPORT '77. Down to the sea in shticks. Jack Lemmon navigates. (144) (PG) ANNIE HALL.

Woody Allen's best film. A serious comedy about a neurotic New York comedian who refuses to migrate to California along with the rest of his show biz friends. A bittersweet love story, based on real life, about Allen and his former roommate, Diane Keaton. Funny, sad, personal, honest and gracefully made. (11, 90) (PG) BARBARELLA.

Bawdy science fiction, unsuitable for youngsters. A sort of "Candy Meets Buck Rogers" with Jane Fonda on a sexual odyssey in outer space. Surprisingly comic considering the double entendres and smiling gimmicks (a live machine which kills the victims, an angel whose blindness is cured by Jane's ministrations, (80) BATMAN. It's two nonstop hours of the dynamic duo against the combined forces of the Joker, Penguin, Riddler and Catwoman. Adam West, Burt Ward, Lee Merriweather, Burgess Meridith, Batcopter, Batcar, Batboat, Batcycle, Batcolor.

(120) (R) BETSY, THE. Lurid melodrama, from a Harold Robbins novel, about a Detroit auto empire dynasty. Slick trash. So dreadful it's occasionally funny, often laughable, sometimes dreary. Laurence Olivier is outrageous as the founding father He plays the patriarch at a cantankerous 90 and, in flashback, as a two-fisted lover in his late 40s.

(12, 26, 41, 48, 59, 112, 132, 133, 138, 151, 177, 187, 194, 202) (G) BEYOND AND BACK. An overcooked stew of scientific balderdash that attempts to prove that dying (and, occasionally, coming back from the dead) can be a really terrific experience. You should live so long. Brad Crandal, Vern Adix. (2, 20, 27, 37, 50, 55, 58, 71, 75, 84, 96, 105, 118, 124, 130, 134, 140, 148, 153, 162, 178, 186, 206, 208) (R) BOYS IN COMPANY THE.

The Vietnam War reduced to Hollywood cliches and stereotypes. A decent cast fights gallantly, but loses to an unremittingly profane script. Stan Shaw, Andrew Stevens, James Canning, Craig Wasson. (22, 31, 34, 52, 57, 74, 93, 113, 117, 136, 155, 161, 168, 173, 188) (R) BREAKING POINT. A story about a man (Bo Svenson) and his family who are endangered when he testifies against some underworld killers.

With Robert Culp, Belinda J. Montgomery. (209) (PG) CAR, THE. Evil spirit in shape of a driverless car terrorizes small western town. Silly movie, spun off the "Jaws" formula of sheriff versus monster.

James Brolin. (204) (R) CHOIRBOYS. Sordid view of cops at work and play based on a Joseph Wambaugh novel. (He has disavowed any connection with the movie.) Unredeemable rubbish. Charles Durning, Randy Quaid, Burt Young.

Directed by Robert Aldrich. (3, 125, 142) (PG) CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. UFO thriller First official communication between earth's scientists and aliens. Mediocre script redeemed by superior science fiction special effects. (7, 32, 35, 54, 77, 100, 106, 135, 154, 165, 167) (G) CONCERT FOR BANGLADESH.

Film of a big rock spectacle featuring George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan. The film is strictly amateur night. (120) (PG) COMA. Terrifying idea reduced to routine suspense. Heroine physician discovers that her hospital is turning some patients into living vegetables for profit.

Genevieve Bujold, Michael Douglas, Richard Widmark. (79, 85) (R) DEMON SEED, THE. Sci fi shocker. Supercomputer "rapes" scientist's wife (Julie Christie) to es- Continued on next page.