TV Reviews : ‘Broadway’ and Madonna a Feast to Look at on PBS

Madonna, playing a showgirl flapper and coiffed like a Louise Brooks Kewpie-doll, briefly enlivens the Damon Runyon-inspired “Bloodhounds of Broadway” on “American Playhouse” at 9 tonight (Channels 28 and 15).

There’s little else to trumpet in this movie, which Columbia released theatrically in only five markets last November and pulled after two weeks. But the production, which mangles four short stories by Runyon, is a feast to look at in its depiction of Gotham mad hatters in a Roaring ‘20s New Year’s Eve blowout.

It’s also a chance to visit an unexpectedly endearing Madonna when she was a brunette in a role that, at least short of the upcoming “Dick Tracy,” is arguably her most vivacious look on film.

The gaggle of guys and dolls include Matt Dillon’s pony player, Jennifer Grey’s Lovey Lou songbird, Rutger Hauer’s expiring gangster, Julie Hagerty’s society maven, Esai Morales’ bootlegger, Josef Sommer’s Walter Winchell-like columnist, Madeline Potter’s angelic flower girl and Randy Quaid as Madonna’s hick of a goofy heartthrob.

Plots topple like crashing trays. The film is so scatter-gunned that you can get up and come back 10 or 15 minutes later and not miss a thing. But don’t miss that Art Deco blue-tiled bathroom or those costumes and the faces of the supporting players . The casting by the team of Richard Pagano and Sharon Bialy is rich.

The movie was the feature debut of the late Howard Brookner, who produced, directed and co-wrote (with Colman deKay). Brookner died a year ago of AIDS.