
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 31, 1993                   TAG: 9307310294
SECTION: SPECTATOR                    PAGE: S-1   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: MARK DAWIDZIAK KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TALK ABOUT TALENT - `FALLEN ANGELS' IS LOADED

If Showtime's anthology series, "Fallen Angels," falls out of favor, it won't be for lack of talent. Start with the executive producer, Sydney Pollack, who directed a little summer theater-film hit called "The Firm."

Then look at the directors assembled for the first six episodes of the series Showtime will premiere Sunday at 10 p.m. They include Tom Cruise (making his directorial debut), Tom Hanks, Steven Soderbergh ("sex, lies and videotape") and Jonathan Kaplan ("Love Field," "The Accused").

If you're still not impressed, look at the stars: Gary Oldman ("Dracula," "JFK"), Isabella Rossellini ("Wild at Heart," "Blue Velvet") and Laura Dern ("Rambling Rose," "Jurassic Park").

Filled with bluesy musical rifts and clouds of cigarette smoke, "Fallen Angels" is a half-hour tip of the fedora to such murky film noir classics as director John Huston's "The Maltese Falcon," Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity" and Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil." "I can't think of early movies, particularly black-and-white movies, and not have noir images pop into my head," says Pollack, whose directing credits include "Tootsie" and "Out of Africa." "I mean, they just have some kind of primal appeal."

The appeal of the series to Hanks and Rossellini was the opportunity to work in a quality project - without working for three months, then waiting a year for the results to hit theaters. The typical "Fallen Angels" episode took five days to shoot.

"If it's bad," Hanks said, "well, it's over in five days. And if it's good, you get an awful lot of credit for doing it in only five days."

Hanks made his directorial debut on another cable anthology series, Home Box Office's "Tales From the Crypt." When it came time to cast the small role of a clerk in his "Fallen Angels" episode, he called on an old friend - former "Bosom Buddies" co-star Peter Scolari.

"I hadn't worked with Peter since our smash-hit television series went off the air," Hanks says with mock seriousness (the ABC comedy barely lasted two seasons).

When Cruise cast the soft-spoken Rossellini as a scheming sex bomb, she knew how to get in the proper mood: "When Tom called me, I said, `Tom, I do have the perfect bra for the part.' And I did. It did help."

Pollack believes he'll continue to attract names in the same league as Hanks and Cruise because "it's wonderful to make a little miniature movie and not have to have every human being on the face of the earth see it in order for it to be successful."

by CNB