Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 6, 1994 TAG: 9411040056
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TOM SHALES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
But CBS loves to stage reunions that recall happier times at the ailing network, so two ``Cagney and Lacey'' movies will air this season - the first of them, ``Cagney and Lacey: The Return,'' on tonight. Don't cancel any quilting bees or mah-jongg games in order to catch it.
The film, written by Terry Louise Fisher (of ``L.A. Law'' fame) and Steve Brown, brings the two female New York police detectives back in a laggardly, perfunctory way. They are supposedly hot on the trail of a big gun smuggler, but the trail never even gets warm, and the bad guy gets away at the end.
Most of Cagney and Lacey's time is spent mooning and whining over their enormous repertory of personal problems and generic anxieties. These two have such heavy hearts it's a wonder they can drag them around. Their reunion comes off as not only woeful but begrudging; it takes the writers almost the entire first half of the movie just to get them working together again.
Chris Cagney, played by Sharon Gless, is now officially Chris Cagney-Burton, married to a dull stiff of a millionaire played by James Naughton. She's still in law enforcement, but now as a special assistant to the district attorney's office. Assigned to help investigate the disappearance of a load of guns from a barge, she attempts to lure the retired Mary Beth Lacey, played by Tyne Daly, back for one more caper.
About 40 minutes into the film, Cagney finally says to Lacey, ``I need your help on a case.'' Ten more minutes pass and she implores, ``Come work with me.'' Since we know they're going to work together anyway, why the coy, delaying tactics? Let's get these women back into a patrol car and on the road.
Before this can happen, Lacey's plump hubby, Harvey (John Karlen), has a heart attack at a party and keels over in a heap. Fortunately Cagney is at the party and knows CPR, so she revives Harvey and he is whisked off to the hospital, where Lacey soon begins a soulful bedside vigil. Her husband's illness creates a financial burden, which helps prompt Lacey to go back to work.
Time is wasted on such hackneyed sequences as Lacey looking for jobs and being turned down and then, when she does finally decide to go back to the police force, huffing and puffing her way through training exercises. The movie is about 80 percent filler and 20 percent story.
Cagney and Lacey broke a barrier as the first female duo to head a crime show. But their status as feminist icons is a little shaky. In the movie, Cagney keeps saying she knows who the guilty party is not through clever detective work but by instinct and gut feeling, which sounds like another way of saying ``feminine intuition.'' She cries repeatedly and has hot flashes, which prompts Lacey to say Cagney is going through menopause and Cagney to deny it with the tasteless line, ``You can set your watch by my periods.''
On the good side, other members of the old C&L team are back for appearances, including Martin Kove as Isbecki, Al Waxman as Samuels and Carl Lumbly as Marcus Petrie. You may have seen the comely Lumbly as the hero of the Fox action series ``M.A.N.T.I.S.,'' but if you have, consider yourself part of a viewing elite. Only about 36 people nationwide are watching that low-rated flop.
It's also commendable that producer Barney Rosenzweig has made a two-hour cop movie with almost no violence. A fatal shot is fired early in the film, but offscreen. Even in a climactic showdown, Cagney fires mainly warning shots and mayhem is minimal.
But in this age of ``NYPD Blue'' and ``Homicide: Life on the Street,'' something about ``Cagney and Lacey'' seems very quaint and anachronistic - not just old hat, but ancient hat. A couple of reverential references to President Clinton don't help, either. Clinton is popular in Hollywood (if nowhere else) so his name is dropped into scripts much more often than George Bush's ever was. ``Bill called,'' Cagney's husband tells her in a hushed and awestruck tone. ``Bill''? Give me a break!
Washington Post Writers Group
by CNB