Newman’s ‘Color of Money’ Is Top Cassette Rental While His Golden Oldies Are Crowding the Shelves

Touchstone’s “The Color of Money” is currently the nation’s most popular rental. And while Paul Newman’s Oscar-winning performance as pool shark Fast Eddie Felson is one of its attractions, Newman fans know this isn’t his best performance.

The word in Hollywood was that he didn’t win the Academy Award--his first for an individual performance--for this film but for all those other great performances, which are available on videocassette. Here are some samples:

Newman nearly won an Oscar for CBS-Fox’s “The Verdict,” playing an alcoholic lawyer who resurrects his life and career through a medical negligence case. In this gritty, expansive role, he gives his finest performance since the ‘60s. The 1982 courtroom drama was directed by Sidney Lumet.

Newman was also good in RCA/Columbia’s “Absence of Malice,” an engrossing, 1981 probe of journalistic ethics, but that role wasn’t one of his meatier ones. Anyway, as the reporter who writes the questionable story about his activities, Sally Field overshadows him.

Most Newman fans contend that he did his best work in the ‘60s. It’s a tossup whether he was better in Key Video’s “The Hustler,” the 1961 forerunner to “The Color of Money,” or Paramount’s “Hud” (1963).

His Fast Eddie in “The Hustler” is a slightly easier, more showy role, requiring high energy and lots of macho charisma. Playing the heel in “Hud” was tougher. It’s a quieter, reflective role. He projects his machismo more subtlely in “Hud”--and more powerfully.

His most popular roles were probably in this two movies with Robert Redford, CBS-Fox’s “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) and MCA’s “The Sting” (1973). Though both demonstrate his skill in light comedy, neither ranks with his best acting efforts.

This week Warner Video released two Newman oldies, “The Silver Chalice” (1954) and “The Left-Handed Gun” (1958) at $19.98. “The Silver Chalice,” a plodding biblical epic, was Newman’s screen debut. Even then he had a strong screen presence and star quality. “The Left-Handed Gun” is director Arthur Penn’s talky, psychological version of the Billy the Kid story. Newman plays Billy as James Dean or Marlon Brando would have played him in the ‘50s--as tortured and insecure. It’s Billy the Kid as a juvenile delinquent. In this movie, which is Penn’s feature-film directorial debut, you can see the beginnings of the macho style that became Newman’s trademark in the ‘60s.

COMING MOVIES: MCA’s “ ‘night, Mother,” starring Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft, and the racy French-Canadian comedy/drama “The Decline of the American Empire” are out next week. Three sure rental hits--”Hannah and Her Sisters,” “Round Midnight” and “Little Shop of Horrors” debut the week of June 14.

“No Mercy,” with Richard Gere and Kim Basinger, is out June 25. “Crimes of the Heart” will be released July 1.

MGM/UA’s “The Assault,” winner of the best foreign-language film Oscar, is scheduled for July 14 release. Unfortunately for purists, only the dubbed version will be available.

NEW RELEASES: Critics were mixed about Warners’ “The Mosquito Coast”--directed by Peter Weir--and fans weren’t enthusiastic about it either. For moviegoers, the problem was the hero (Harrison Ford), who isn’t very likeable. Also, they apparently didn’t really want to see Ford, who normally plays affable heroes, playing against type, though his performance was generally lauded by critics.

In this bleak look at the consequences of obsession, Ford plays a surly, eccentric, domineering inventor who’s fed up with America and civilization in general. His solution is to relocate his family in the wilds of Central America. The big question in the low-key character study is when will his family get fed up with him. Not as quickly as audiences apparently do.

Lorimar’s “The Morning After,” directed by Sidney Lumet, is another instance of the critics and audiences liking a star performance but generally disliking the movie. Jane Fonda received raves for playing a drunken, wise-cracking ex-actress who gets mixed up in a murder. It’s her juciest fallen-woman role since “Klute” in 1971.

After a night of drinking the actress wakes up next to a corpse. A hayseed ex-cop (Jeff Bridges) comes to her aid. Their budding affair is the heart of the movie. The thriller subplot, most critics charged, is underdeveloped. Figuring out whodunit isn’t difficult.

CHARTS (Complied by Billboard).

TOP VIDEOCASSETTES, RENTALS 1--”The Color of Money” (Touchstone).

2--”Peggy Sue Got Married” (CBS-Fox).

3--”Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (Paramount).

4--”Children of a Lesser God” (Paramount).

5--”Legal Eagles” (MCA).

6--”Top Gun” (Paramount).

7--”Stand By Me” (RCA/Columbia).

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

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

3--”Callanetics” (MCA).

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

5--”Sleeping Beauty” (Disney).

6--”Scarface” (MCA).

7--”The Sound of Music” (CBS-Fox).