TV REVIEWS : Hepburn Feisty, O’Neal Antic in ‘Man Upstairs’

Producer-director George Schaefer’s persistence in getting Katharine Hepburn to face the cameras for the first time since their 1988 collaboration, “Laura Lansing Slept Here,” has paid off handsomely.

“The Man Upstairs” (on CBS Sunday at 9 p.m., Channels 2 and 8) is a charmer of a movie, at once funny and poignant. It also boasts one of Ryan O’Neal’s best performances.

O’Neal has the title role in James Prideaux’s story, playing a small-time jewel thief named Mooney Polaski who escapes from prison and takes refuge in the spacious attic of the isolated, gracious home of Victoria Browne (Hepburn), a singularly astringent and fiercely independent spinster.

The fun and the sentiment come when the two start getting to know each other and eventually to have impact upon each other in a way that takes both by surprise. The truth, of course, is that these two individuals from radically different worlds are both very lonely, very intelligent people, and although neither ever admits it, they recognize themselves in each other.

Frail but feisty, Hepburn is indomitably gallant and, as Victoria becomes attached to Mooney, she takes on such a glow that the years, even the fragility, start fading away.

Although O’Neal is way overweight these days, his bulk does give him a character actor’s freedom from worrying about looks; it’s pure joy to see him run with the goofy, antic side of Mooney. In any event, the combination of an inspired script and direction that is judicious in the utmost, plus playing opposite none other than Hepburn, has brought out the very best of O’Neal’s often underestimated gifts, both dramatic and comic.