TV Locks May Be Popular Holiday Gifts

With the furor over TV violence escalating, the parent lock should prove popular this holiday season.

*

It’s a feature built into the TV, or available as a separate device, that allows parents to lock certain channels or shut down the TV completely. When they’re not around, the kids won’t be able to watch the Playboy Channel or whatever other channel might be considered inappropriate. The channels are easily locked through code numbers punched in on the remote control device.

If parents don’t want the kids watching TV at all when they’re not there, they can either lock the TV altogether or only for a certain period of time.

This feature has been around for years but was only available on high-end TVs marketed by companies such as Mitsubishi. It’s since trickled down to low-end sets. For just under $400, for instance, you can buy a 20-inch JVC model equipped with parent lock.

Or the Magnavox TV Allowance, which sells for $100, could be the answer. It’s a small box, equipped with numbered buttons and a tiny screen, that can be hooked up to a TV or video-game player. You can program the unit to allow specific amounts of viewing time over a certain time period--say 10 hours a week--or to confine the viewing time to specific times of the day.

Fellini and Phoenix: The deaths of Italian director Federico Fellini and actor River Phoenix last weekend have prompted some video retailers to display Fellini’s and Phoenix’s movies prominently. Phoenix’s films are rather easily available, but you may have trouble finding Fellini’s.

Since there’s not a big market for foreign-language films, many smaller video stores--particularly those outside major urban areas--don’t carry them. Even some otherwise well-stocked stores don’t have them. If you do find Fellini movies, it’s preferable to rent the Italian versions with English subtitles. But if you can’t deal with subtitles, seeing a dubbed Fellini is better than not seeing one at all.

If you’re tempted to try a film or two in the River Phoenix section, your best bets are “Stand by Me” (1986), one of the better films in the coming-of-age genre, and “Running on Empty,” the excellent 1988 drama about ex-’60s radicals still on the run, which features what is arguably his finest performance.

Universal Horror: Halloween may be over for the rest of us, but for fans of B-movie horror flicks, it’s a year-round holiday. They’ll love the collection just released by MCA/Universal, priced at $15 each. The best of the bunch is “Island of Lost Souls” (1933), with “Invisible Agent” (1942) and “The Ghost of Frankenstein” (1942) not far behind. Fans of “The Mummy” series, which features Lon Chaney Jr., will love “The Mummy’s Tomb” (1942), “The Mummy’s Ghost” (1944) and “The Mummy’s Curse” (1944). Some horror fans like bad low-budget movies for their camp value. They should be tickled by these “Mummy” flicks.

Here are some new releases: “Who’s the Man?” (Columbia TriStar, no set price). Sloppy genre mix--rap comedy and action/mystery--featuring Dr. Dre and Ed Lover, hosts of “Yo! MTV Raps,” as comical Harlem barbers who become cops tackling a murder mystery and a real-estate scam. Amusing barber shop sequences are jarringly integrated with scenes of violence.

“A Far Off Place” (Disney, no set price). Terrific adventure for youngsters about 9 to the mid-teens. A pair of teens (Reese Weatherspoon and Ethan Randall) on the run from ivory poachers trek across the Kalahari Desert guided by a canny young Bushman.

“Extreme Justice” (Vidmark, $93). A covert team of L.A. cops with their own code of justice track vicious hoodlums. Good idea turned into a routine urban-action drama. Stars Lou Diamond Phillips and Scott Glenn. The bloody action sequences--the real lure for fans of the genre--are well done.

“Two for the Road” (FoxVideo, 1967, $20). Classic-film fans have long been waiting for this gem, which was in limited release in the early days of video. Trying to stall the downward spiral of their marriage, a squabbling couple (Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney) look back on their years together. Stanley Donen directed this witty, insightful look at relationships.