MOVIE REVIEW : BETTING TALE TURNS OUT A WINNER

Richard Brooks’ “Fever Pitch” (citywide) lives up to its title in capturing the frenzied existence of the compulsive gambler.

It also resembles its subject in its hit-and-miss quality: Some scenes pay off, others don’t. But it never lets up, and the result is a film that’s always a pleasure to watch even when it’s defying credibility at every turn or moving so fast it’s hard to keep track of what’s going on.

Ryan O’Neal, in top form, stars as a Pulitzer Prize-winning, $34,000-a-year (after taxes) sports columnist for the Herald Examiner, who’s doing an awesomely exhaustive series on gambling in America. Eventually we realize that O’Neal has become a compulsive gambler himself in his need “to know how it feels living on the edge.” And he’s created an alter ego in print, a “Mr. Green,” for whom he even manages to con his editor (John Saxon) into signing an $8,000 (!) voucher.

“Fever Pitch” plunges us into a vivid, intoxicating world of race tracks, Gardena poker palaces and Las Vegas, recorded in all its gaudy, nonstop, neon-flashing pop-architecture glory by cinematographer William Fraker.

Ensconced in MGM Grand luxury, O’Neal is so eager to hit the tables that he passes up the on-the-house charms of pretty waitress Catherine Hicks. On his tail, however, is strong-arm enforcer William Smith, working for ruthless professional gambler Chad Everett, to whom O’Neal is seriously in debt.

To his rescue--or so it seems--comes the suave Giancarlo Giannini, internationally renowned high roller never far from a phone or a special lady with a remarkable suntan. Class, Giannini tells O’Neal, is not crying when you lose--and not laughing too hard when you win. But O’Neal is losing at a rapidly escalating rate.

In a sense, the schizophrenia O’Neal sees in himself with his Mr. Green characterizes the film. “Fever Pitch” is determinedly hard-edged, yet sentimental at the core. It’s breathtakingly dynamic, the breakneck pacing heightened by a terrifically intense and moody Thomas Dolby score, yet its didactic, rat-tat-tat tabloid journalism tone is more reminiscent of the Winchell era than of the hip Herald Examiner of today, which O’Neal represents.

Yet for all the fantasy plotting, “Fever Pitch,” composed almost entirely of short takes, comes through with some sharp, smartly acted vignettes. They offset cloying moments involving O’Neal’s precocious daughter (Bridgette Andersen) and awkward ones involving non-professional actors.

On the plus side there’s Timothy Blake, a distractingly bosomy lady for whom poker has become an aggressive sexual turn-on; Chad McQueen, a kid who insists he’s landed behind bars not because he’s gambled but because he lost , and Pearl Shear, a widow who regards a poker palace as a refuge in her advancing years. Brooks even brings in Gamblers Anonymous, only to stand its precepts on end at the film’s finish. Luckily, the film’s almost documentary-like detailing of the whole world of gambling, its paraphernalia and its denizens, proves a firm anchor for our interest.

Playing that sports columnist must have been like running a gauntlet for O’Neal, rushing as he does from one punchy scene to the next. Never does he--or the film--lose momentum, however, and he involves us in his plight as a likable though deeply flawed man.

Not surprisingly, “Fever Pitch” (rated R for some violence and some strong language) finally belongs to the man who made it, Richard Brooks, veteran Hollywood maverick who long ago learned to trust his own instincts--win or lose.

‘FEVER PITCH’

An MGM/UA presentation. Producer Freddie Fields. Writer-director Richard Brooks. Camera William Fraker. Music Thomas Dolby. Production designer Raymond G. Storey. Executive music producers Quincy Jones, Tom Bahler. Stunt coordinator Billy Burton. Technical advisers Morrie Jaeger, John Boni. Film editor Jeff Jones. With Ryan O’Neal, Catherine Hicks, Giancarlo Giannini, Chad Everett, Bridgette Andersen, John Saxon, Hank Greenspun, William Smith, Keith Hefner, Rafael Campos, Patrick Cassidy, Cherie Michan, Tom Schanley, William Prince, Tony March, Stu Black, Johnny Sekka, Steve Danton, Timothy Blake, Pearl Shear, Chad McQueen, Bobby Jacoby.

Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

MPAA-rated: R (under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian).