Dunaway, Falk Combine For A Winner In This `Game'

----------------------------------------------------------- "It's All in the Game," "ABC Sunday Night Movie," 9 p.m., Channel 4. -----------------------------------------------------------

Who better to write a "Columbo" script than Mr. "Columbo" himself, Peter Falk? The answer is: nobody. And Falk, who knows Columbo better than anyone, has had great fun with the script for "It's All in the Game."

I don't know if Falk wrote the script with Faye Dunaway in mind but she's perfect for the role of Columbo's adversary in this entertaining enterprise, one which keeps the familiar aspects of the Columbo character while giving it some new twists.

Dunaway teases Columbo

Dunaway plays a glamorous Beverly Hills socialite who first crosses Columbo's path when Dunaway's handsome gambler lover is shot. Columbo is quite enchanted with the character played by Dunaway and they carry on an engaging flirtation, which Dunaway hopes will keep Columbo from suspecting she had anything to do with the murder.

It would spoil the fun to tell more than this for half of the fun is in watching the story unfold; the other half comes from observing two pros at work. Falk has never been better as Columbo; he seems to enjoy having another performer of equal caliber against which to play. It's also fun to watch Columbo smitten with one of his suspects.

As for Dunaway, she's never been more fun. It's too bad she didn't have a chance to exhibit this playfulness and comic timing in her late, and pretty awful, CBS series, "It Had To Be You." (Part of the problem may have been that it's a lot more fun to do comedy with Peter Falk than Robert Urich!)

Also in the cast, under Vince McEveety's smooth direction, are Armando Pucci as Nick, the gambler; Claudia Christian, as another woman in love with Nick and Bill Macy as Nick's crotchety landlord.

"It's All in the Game" reminds you that TV movies can be fun and entertaining, after all, instead of just a succession of gloomy docudramas. (See what follows)

TWO FROM CBS

----------------------------------------------------------- "No Child of Mine," "CBS Sunday Movie," 9 p.m., Channel 7. -----------------------------------------------------------

CBS sticks with the familiar docudrama format with "No Child of Mine," about a grandmother who feuds with her daughter when the daughter puts one of her newborn twins up for adoption.

It's a lot more complicated than that, however, since one of the twins has Down syndrome and the mother wants it adopted by a couple who operate a home for children thus afflicted.

What saves this movie, makes it quite entertaining, actually, is a stand-out performance by Patty Duke as the grandmother. She's the despair of her daughter, played by Tracy Nelson, and we tend to sympathize with her at first because Grandma can be very bossy. Not that she means to be; she's just one of those efficient, overbearing people who know things will be done best if they do them.

But as the film progresses, whether by design or happenstance, one begins to side with Grandma. Nelson's character, which tends to whine a bit, IS inefficient and DOES need help most of the time.

Quite a mix

Indeed, she gives up her Down syndrome child because she just can't cope on her own, and her hot-headed husband, played by Markus Flanagan, doesn't seem to be much help either. Then there's the home operated by two characters played by Susan Blakely and Marshall Teague who are so saintly and noble that it's difficult to believe they're for real.

Grandma, who pleads that she can give the baby as much love as it will get in what she refers to as "an institution," eventually resorts to legal measures to try and get her way - and the culmination of the battle comes when the whole family goes on national television and the audience sides with Grandma!

The ending isn't very convincing - all of a sudden Grandma becomes the epitome of Sweet Reasonableness - but that doesn't obscure the fact that Duke gives one of her best performances. Even when being her bossiest and most outrageous, you can't help liking her. Also making a strong contribution, under Michael Katleman's direction, is G.W. Bailey as Grandpa, a role soundly written and intelligently performed.

----------------------------------------------------------- "Conviction: The Kitty Dodds Story," "CBS Tuesday Movie," 8 p.m. Tuesday, Channel 7. -----------------------------------------------------------

CBS' second docudrama this week is about an abused wife who arranges to have her husband killed - for which she is put in prison for life. But when we first meet Kitty, she's escaping from prison and eludes authorities for several years, during which she meets and falls in love with a man who truly loves her but knows nothing of her past.

Back behind bars

Through a fluke, she's unmasked and returns to prison while her new husband joins others in trying to get her sentence reduced.

It's an interesting movie because of its performances - Veronica Hamel is convincing as Kitty and Kevin Dobson is likable as the man who stands by her. Mark Ralston is hateful as her abusive husband, while Keith Coulouris is good as a friend who joins with Kitty in plotting the first husband's demise. Michael Tuchner's direction does a good job of holding this sprawling, complicated story together.