Battle of Amy Fisher TV Movies, Part 2

That war of the TV movies about the Amy Fisher scandal has been transferred to video.

All three films about the teen-age Fisher, who’s in jail for shooting the wife of her alleged lover, Joey Buttafuoco, aired within a week of each other a few months ago and got good ratings. Now the trio is due on video about the same time too.

The first two will be out March 31: ABC’s “The Amy Fisher Story,” with Drew Barrymore, on Capital/ABC video, and the CBS version, Columbia TriStar’s “Casualties of Love,” starring Alyssa Milano. Turner Home Entertainment is releasing NBC’s “Lethal Lolita,” with Ed Marinaro and Noelle Parker, on April 7.

The Turner version was due out the same time as the others, according to some media reports, but Steve Chamberlin, Turner’s executive vice president, said it wasn’t possible for his company to get it out any sooner than April 7. There was considerable jockeying of dates to get them all out at the same time.

“No one wanted to be last,” said Chamberlin.

To make the movies more attractive, all have added extra footage--some of it sexy--with the Turner version also featuring a 20-minute jailhouse interview with Fisher. Barrymore has said that the extra scenes in her version were filmed with a body double.

The video companies, counting on those extra sex scenes as audience lure, may be in for a surprise. “The additional footage is just a few minutes in each case--not enough to really make anybody want to see it again,” said Tower Video’s product manager, Vicky Mehring. “The Columbia version goes into more detail about the shooting--as if anyone wanted to see that in more explicit detail.”

What’s strange about these releases is that they’re all priced relatively expensively, as potential rentals--$60 (Columbia TriStar) to $90 (Capital/ABC and Turner). “It would have made more sense if they had been in the $10-to-$14 range,” Mehring said.

She does not believe the videos will be popular among renters.

“No way,” Mehring said. “The Columbia TriStar version has already been on TV twice. And there’s no major star-power in any of the movies. The media and . . . TV media magazine shows have milked the story for all it’s worth.”

She said that Tower probably will only stock one version of each film per store. “This is TV overkill that’s been turned into video overkill,” she said. “They were just on TV a few months ago. We know how it ended. We got sick of it while it was happening. Who wants to look at it now?”

New Releases

“Mr. Baseball” (MCA/Universal, no set price). In this predictable, marginally entertaining, culture-clash comedy Tom Selleck stars as an oafish, lazy American baseball player who’s traded to an uptight Japanese team. Naturally, both the player and the team do some major-league adjusting during the pennant race. Unless you’re a Selleck fan, don’t bother.

“Mediterraneo” (Touchstone, $100). This Italian entry won last year’s foreign language film Oscar, but dozens of movies were better than this pleasant, heart-warming little comedy about Italian soldiers stuck on a Greek island during World War II. Acting and script just passable.

“Candyman” (Columbia TriStar, no set price). An unusual horror film in two respects: The killer, a bloodthirsty demon (Tony Todd) who hacks up victims with a hook, is black and the setting is a Chicago ghetto. Otherwise, a slow, fairly routine gorefest. The only plus is Virginia Madsen’s campy performance as a blond heroine.

“Of Mice and Men” (MGM/UA, $95). The 1939 film about kindly, retarded farm worker Lenny (Lon Chaney Jr.) and his buddy/protector George (Burgess Meredith) during the Depression was melodramatic and overwrought but is still a classic, driven by Chaney’s performance. The new one, with John Malkovich as Lenny and director Gary Sinise as George is prettified and overacted by all concerned.

“Mistress” (LIVE, $93). An engaging little comedy--largely overlooked by movie audiences--loaded with funny bits, centered around the making of a low-budget movie. It’s sort of an homage to character acting with Robert De Niro, Eli Wallach and Danny Aiello playing investors who are trying to get their mistresses the lead role.

“Berkeley in the ‘60s” (PBS, $80). A giddy and fairly accurate exercise in nostalgia, including all the notorious events, that’s mostly of interest to Berkeley students of that era. Mixing interviews with former students with footage of those tumultuous days, this documentary, for those who weren’t part of the collegiate radical scene, may seem smug and romanticized.

“How Green Was My Valley” (FoxVideo, 1941, $20). Set in a glamorized, Hollywood version of a gritty Welsh mining town, director John Ford’s best picture Oscar winner, about a family in turmoil, now seems fake and corny in spots. But it’s still ultimately moving, thanks to well-written characters and the first-rate acting of Walter Pidgeon, Donald Crisp and Roddy McDowall.

Upcoming on video

“Mr. Saturday Night,” “Pure Country” and “Captain Ron” (March 24); “Pinocchio” (next Friday); “Under Siege” (March 31); “Consenting Adults” and “Husbands and Wives” (April 7); “Passenger 57,” “The Public Eye,” “Sarafina!,” “Hero” and “The Mighty Ducks” (April 14); “Night and the City” (April 21); “Bob Roberts” and “Dr. Giggles” (April 28), and “Trespass” (May 5).