WEEKEND TV : ANN-MARGRET ANCHORS ‘GRENVILLES’

“The Two Mrs. Grenvilles” is fabulous hokum, four hours of corking-good corn starring Ann-Margret as a showgirl-turned-socialite-turned-drunken neurotic.

It airs in two parts, 9-11 p.m. Sunday and Monday on NBC (Channels 4, 36 and 39).

The volatile pairing of Ann Arden (Ann-Margret) and blue blood Billy Grenville Jr. (Stephen Collins) is the soul of this melodrama, which is based on a book by Dominick Dunne. When their eyes meet across a crowded room at El Morocco in 1944, you have the feeling you may not be watching great literature. And when she sings to him as they dance to romantic music, there’s no longer any doubt.

You have to admire the restraint, though, of director John Erman and Derek Marlowe, who wrote the script. A full 10 minutes pass before Ann and Billy wind up in bed.

Here is a story of tragedy, betrayal, loneliness, self-indulgence, classism, high society, smoky dialogues, philandering and needlepoint. Ann’s marriage to Billy is opposed by the other Mrs. Grenville, Billy’s ritzy, old money, snobbish mother (Claudette Colbert) and triggers 20 years of bitterness and animosity between the two women.

There’s not a lot here without Ann-Margret. This is your basic poor-girl-with-a-past-crashes-rich-family tale, but one lifted above mediocrity by an actress who is at her lustiest and sultriest, somehow giving credibility to a caricature. When Ann-Margret coos, “Come to mama,” she gets your attention.

It’s a rich performance, enhanced by nice support from Colbert and Collins. And there’s a dandy little cameo in Part II by Sian Philips as a vacuous Duchess of Windsor exulting over a funeral as if it were the social event of the season.

“The Two Mrs. Grenvilles” starts slowly but gets better and better. And so does Ann-Margret, who makes an especially pathetic widow, pale and empty while aging gracelessly. The younger Mrs. Grenville drowns herself in sex and booze, her eyes getting hollower and hollower until finally there is no longer anything there.

“Can I buy you a drink?” she’s asked by a man on an ocean liner. “Anybody can buy me a drink,” she replies, wearily. Sad, but also fun.