`Incident In A Small Town': M&M Boys Are Winners

"The Family Secret: Incident in a Small Town," "CBS Sunday Movie," 9 p.m., Channel 7. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Walter Matthau and Harry Morgan are becoming the "Odd Couple" of TV - CBS' "Incident in a Small Town" marks the third time the two have played law partner/friends since their debut in "The Incident" in 1991, set in Colorado during World War II.

Their second film, "An Incident in Baltimore," took place shortly after the end of that war, and their newest collaboration, "Incident in a Small Town" is set in the early 1950s and takes place in a small town in Illinois.

Good deployment

Cindy Myers' script makes use of their two characters - Morgan, as the precise, self-disciplined Judge Bell, and Matthau, as the rumpled lawyer, Harmon Cobb - but has skillfully woven them into the fabric of an off-beat story.

The focus is on Lily Bell, the judge's estranged daughter, played by Stephanie Zimbalist, and her young son, John, played by Nick Stahl.

Lily has told her son his father died in World War II - a story that falls apart when Frank, a handsome stranger, comes to town and tries to reestablish his relationship with Lily. A quarrel between the two leads to murder, Lily's call for help to her father and an eventual reconciliation between Lily, her father and her son.

Interesting characters

But what sounds routine in the retelling is kept interesting through Myers' ability to create characters. Lily is allowed to be more than just a victim; John is shown to be a young boy with complex emotions, and Frank, the villain of the piece, played by David Erman, has his good moments, as well.

Also contributing to the film's success are another feisty judge, played by Bernard Behrens, and a young assistant district attorney, played by Lori Hallier.

Credit must also go to veteran producer-director Delbert Mann who gets not only interesting performances from the newcomers to the cast but keeps his stars, Morgan and Matthau, from overacting and dominating the proceedings, thus making "Incident in a Small Town" more than just a star vehicle for two old pros. ------------------------------------------------------------------- It's a masterpiece "Unnatural Pursuits," A&E movie, 5 and 9 p.m. Sunday. -------------------------------------------------------------------

Playwright Simon Gray ("Butley") has crafted a fabulous, semi-autobiographical script about an alcoholic/workaholic playwright addicted to cigarettes - and given actor Alan Bates a showcase role, and their collaboration has resulted in `"nnatural Pursuits" earning an International Emmy for Best Drama.

Small wonder! "Unnatural Pursuits" is definitely "Masterpiece Theatre" quality - only it's turning up on cable because it's quite a bit racier than PBS ever gets. It's also wildly funny, thanks to Bates' performance and to Gray's wicked chronicle of a British playwright's trials and tribulations as theater companies in Los Angeles, Dallas and New York have a go at his most recent play, which was only a lukewarm hit in London.

The playwright, Hamish Partt , believes if he can only get a chance to work the play over again he can improve it. But in the process, his adventures in America nearly do him in.

Good character mix

It's not solely Bates' show. "Unnatural Pursuits" is crammed with terrific character bits, played by a variety of performers, from Bob Balaban of "Seinfeld" as a paranoid L.A. director to John Mahoney ("Frasier") as a New York theater `"ngel." Also notable are Richard Wilson as Hamish's mentor, an imperious London director named Hector Duff, David Healy as the mayor of Dallas and Paul Zimet as a skateboarder who haunts Hamish.

Gray sometimes goes over the edge - there are bizarre musical numbers and some scenes that could be construed as hallucinations of Hamish's fevered, alcohol-soaked, smoke-ridden mind. But it adds up to a rich stew of comedy that theater buffs should find hilarious.

Little competition ------------------------------------------------------------------- "In the Line of Duty: The Price of Vengeance," "NBC Sunday Movie," 9 p.m., Channel 5.

"French Silk," "ABC Sunday Night Movie," 9 p.m., Channel 4. -------------------------------------------------------------------

NBC and ABC offer weak competition Sunday night. The NBC fact-based drama, is well-done but basically just another film about the dedication of the L.A. police department to find the creep who killed one of its own.

It stars Michael Gross as the victim, Dean Stockwell as his buddy and Mary Kay Place as Gross' stalwart wife. There's nothing particularly special about it, although there's nothing wrong, either.

Still, it's better than ABC's "French Silk" potboiler - one more attempt to keep daytime star Susan Lucci happy by throwing her a prime-time bone.

This fictional thriller, set in New Orleans, concerns the death of a rabble-rousing televangelist who is out to destroy Lucci's lingerie company, a kind of fictional Victoria's Secret. Shari Belafonte is wasted in a ludicrous role as a model with a yen for a boring congressman (Jim Metzler) while Lee Horsley gives a tired performance as a homicide detective who falls for Lucci.

Monday movies ------------------------------------------------------------------- "My Name is Kate," "ABC Monday Night Movie," 9 p.m., Channel 4. "To My Daughter, with Love," "NBC Monday Night Movie," 9 p.m., Channel 5.

"Mantis," "Fox Night at the Movies," 8 p.m. Monday, Channel 13. -------------------------------------------------------------------

"Mantis," which has all the earmarks of a pilot film, is what NBC's "Viper" would have been if they'd gotten it right. It, too, has a supercar that flies about, but its superhero, Mantis, played by Carl Lumbly, is a lot more interesting than the hero in "Viper."

Sam Hamm's script is easy to follow as it focuses on a mayoral contest in fictional Ocean City with the chief of police attempting to stir up trouble between gangs in order to project himself into power.

You've seen all this before but, under Eric Laneuville's lively direction and with energetic performances by Bobby Hosea and Gina Torres as the good guys and Steve James as the smooth baddy, "Mantis" is great fun - a TV cartoon with real actors that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Good viewing

`My Name Is Kate" is better than I expected. Star Donna Mills also produced and like Diana Ross' recent vehicle about madness, this offers Mills plenty of chances to chew scenery as an alcoholic who makes life miserable for her husband (Daniel J. Travanti) and her two children.

But George Eckstein's script takes a pretty serious look at alcoholism and, more importantly, serious looks at attempts to deal with it. Eckstein has given his actors something with which to work - characters with believability - and director Rod Hardy has drawn good performances from all of them, especially Mills, who does some of her best work ever as the woman who refuses to face her illness. Travanti also scores in an almost wholly unsympathetic role as her husband.

"To My Daughter, With Love" will probably be a lot more popular with viewers - it's a real tearjerker about a young husband whose wife suddenly dies and leaves him to raise their small daughter.

But aside from its obvious performances by Rick Schroder as a supposed adult who behaves as if he were going on 13, and Ashley Malinger's calculated performance as the child, what is particularly annoying is that the unreality of everyone's behavior obscures the telling of what could have been a moving story.

As it is, the problems between Schroder, his daughter, and his in-laws, played by Linda Gray and Lawrence Pressman, are the sorts of things that could have been settled in a few minutes by intelligent adults.