‘Golden Child’--Has Glow of a Summer Rental; Double Shot of Whoopi in ‘Purple’ and ‘Flash’

Video rentals invariably drop off in the summer as people focus on outdoor activities. Consequently, video companies usually save their top titles for other seasons.

But this year there will be more appealing titles than usual. For instance, Paramount’s “The Golden Child,” starring Eddie Murphy, will be out July 8. The cost is worth noting. At $79.95 rather than $29.95, it’s not priced for sales. Unlike other Murphy films, Paramount apparently figured that fans wouldn’t be eager to own this one, about a social worker hunting for a youngster with supernatural powers. It wasn’t a real blockbuster in the theaters, but it should be a hot rental.

July 8 is also the release date of another movie, Warner Video’s “The Color Purple,” that’s also destined to be a rental smash. Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover, it’s about the metamorphosis of a Southern black woman. So far it has grossed nearly $100 million.

Next week’s major releases are “Heartbreak Ridge,” starring Clint Eastwood, and “Streets of Gold,” featuring Klaus Maria Brandauer. In the week of May 24: “Wanted Dead or Alive” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.”

NEW RELEASES: Touchstone’s “The Color of Money” should dominate the rental market for the next month or two. It not only features Paul Newman’s Oscar-winning performance but also, most important for the rental market, co-stars Tom Cruise, who has an army of devoted young female fans. He’s the big attraction in “Top Gun”--the biggest hit in video history.

Directed by Martin Scorsese, “The Color of Money” is a dramatic update on Fast Eddie Felson, the pool shark who retired at the end of “The Hustler,” director Robert Rossen’s 1961 classic. Felson is now a liquor salesman who becomes the financial backer of a young hustler (Cruise) traveling with his girlfriend (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) on the pool-hall circuit. Newman played Felson in the original, losing the 1961 Oscar to Maximilian Schell (“Judgment at Nuremberg”) in what some film historians still call one of the great injustices in Oscar history.

Most critics raved about Newman and Mastrantonio--a best supporting actress nominee--but had a problem with Cruise’s performance. As an actor, they argued, he’s better than usual in this one but still pales next to Newman.

Paramount’s “Children of a Lesser God,” an intense drama about a stormy affair between a maverick speech therapist (William Hurt) and a defiant young deaf woman (Marlee Matlin), was, according to most critics, one of last year’s best movies. Matlin won the best actress Oscar over favorite Kathleen Turner. The movie was also nominated for best picture, best actor (Hurt) and best supporting actress (Piper Laurie, who plays the deaf woman’s mother).

HBO’s “Mona Lisa” boasts a performance by Bob Hoskins that won him every major acting award except the Oscar. He plays a brutish ex-con who chauffeurs a high-class London call girl (Cathy Tyson). Their raging love-hate relationship is the heart of the movie, a critical favorite. He spends part of the movie rummaging through the underbelly of London searching for her junkie girlfriend. The twist at the end isn’t a big surprise but still packs a wallop. The Cockney accents are hard to understand at times; you’ll be using your rewind button frequently.

Vestron’s “Tai Pan,” an action/adventure movie set in Hong Kong in the 1800s, was a horrible flop. Critics hated it and fans didn’t go to see it. Bryan Brown and Joan Chen star as the lovers. If you’re willing to wade through bad dialogue and performances, there’s a great typhoon sequence. The film was a setback for Brown, who was on his way to becoming a major star. Reportedly, Vestron’s purchase of the expensive video rights for this movie, which doesn’t look like a home-video hit, is one reason for the company’s current financial crisis.

Media’s “Firewalker” is liable to disappoint some Chuck Norris fans who are gluttons for action. It’s relatively light on action and rather heavy on comedy. For that reason, Norris fans didn’t flock to this movie, which is about a trio--Norris, Lou Gossett and Melody Anderson--hunting treasure in the jungles of South America. But because star power is so important in the rental market, this should be a rental hit.

OLD MOVIES: MCA has just released two of the best movies of the ‘40s--”Double Indemnity” (1944) and “The Lady Eve” (1941)--at $29.95. Both star Barbara Stanwyck. “Double Indemnity,” co-starring Fred MacMurray, is a tawdry tale of an insurance fraud. “The Lady Eve,” a comedy directed by Preston Sturges, features Henry Fonda as a well-heeled bumbler who falls into the clutches of a card shark (Stanwyck).

Some Fred Astaire fans prefer his dancing with Eleanor Powell to his more acclaimed work with Ginger Rogers. In “Broadway Melody of 1940” (MGM/UA, $29.95) his dancing with Powell is exemplary, particularly the “Begin the Beguine” number. The plot, about the competition between dancing partners (Astaire and George Murphy), is slight but the Cole Porter score, including “I Concentrate on You,” is great.

Fans of the Astaire-Rogers team will enjoy “Roberta” (1935, MGM/UA, $29.95). Though it’s considered one of their least interesting movies (they play supporting roles to Irene Dunne and Randolph Scott), it was their breakthrough film. It lacks the charm and wit of other Astaire-Rogers movies, but you can see in this early dancing collaboration their first steps toward stardom. The best numbers are “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” and “Lovely to Look At.”

“Dancing Lady” (1933, MGM/UA, $29.95) is well known to trivia buffs because it’s Astaire’s first movie. But it’s also an underrated backstage musical--tacky but fun. Joan Crawford plays an ambitious hoofer who has romantic entanglements with Clark Gable and Franchot Tone.

CHARTS (Compiled by Billboard magazine).

TOP VIDEOCASSETTES, RENTALS 1--”Ferris Bueller’s Day off” (Paramount).

2--”Stand By Me” (RCA/Columbia).

3--”Top Gun” (Paramount).

4--”The Fly” (CBS--Fox).

5--”Legal Eagles” (MCA).

TOP VIDEOCASSETTES, SALES 1--”Top Gun” (Paramount).

2--”Jane Fonda’s Low Impact Aerobic Workout” (Karl-Lorimar).

3--”Callanetics” (MCA).

4--”Jane Fonda’s New Workout” (Karl-Lorimar).

5--”Scarface” (MCA).