Short Takes

CINEMA

Eddie and The PAC Rats

EDDIE MURPHY IS AN UNLIKELY FRONT man for a bald satire of political action committees. But THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN has the star updating Mr. Smith Goes to Washington with heaps of '90s cynicism and '60s righteousness. Thomas Jefferson Johnson (Murphy) is no saintly Jefferson Smith from the Frank Capra classic; he is a shakedown artist improbably elected to Congress who is tempted, then troubled, by corrupting PACS and perks. A pity that director Jonathan Lynn (My Cousin Vinny) lacks the daredevil touch for a blend of 60 Minutes and Saturday Night Live. Murphy still has his supernova smile and a gift for acute accents -- Chinese, Yiddish, white-bread, soul-food -- but this frail, do-gooder comedy seems a holding action until Fast Eddie regains his stride.

TELEVISION

Battle Royal

MARITAL SEPARATIONS, A FIRE AT WINDsor Castle and now CHARLES AND DIANA: UNHAPPILY EVER AFTER -- it has been a rough year for the royal family. ABC's new docudrama (Dec. 13) starts with the 1981 royal wedding and goes downhill from there. Its sympathies are plain: Diana is the down-to-earth outsider forced to endure a stuffy new life-style (when she pops into the palace kitchen for orange juice, the staff is horrified). Charles is merely a wuss; the real heavies are his priggish parents, forever sniffing about royal propriety. Despite the oversimplification, this TV movie is surprisingly likable, thanks mainly to Roger Rees and Catherine Oxenberg, who portray the couple with more verve and warmth than they perhaps deserve.

BOOKS

That Deadly Charm

FOR ELICITING THE MENACE THAT LURKS in familiar surroundings, there's no one like Patricia Highsmith. RIPLEY UNDER WATER (Knopf; $21) is her fifth novel featuring the fastidious, charming murderer Tom Ripley, now living the life of a country gentleman in France. But this time Ripley plays the mouse; the cats are two creepy new American neighbors who seem to know his darkest secrets. Part of the pleasure of reading Highsmith comes from her evocative descriptions of place, whether small French villages or Tangier or London. Even so, they are but momentary diversions from the sense of foreboding and the most terrifying question of all: Why do we hope the psychopathic Ripley will prevail?

MUSIC

New Delights from An Old Master

FOR LISTENERS WHO THINK OF VIVALDI as merely the composer of The Four Seasons and several hundred indistinguishable concertos, VIVALDI'S FAVORITES, VOL. 1 (ESS.A.Y) could be the most pleasurable, sensibility-cleansing surprise in a long time. The performers are the Philharmonia Virtuosi, who, since being founded in 1974 by their protean conductor, Richard Kapp, have blended a changing ensemble of players from the New York Philharmonic with talented younger musicians in a common pursuit of polished eclecticism. These six concertos, for diverse combinations of instruments, are utterly distinctive and absorbing. Favorite Favorites: the exuberant Concerto in C Major and the poignant Largo in the G Minor.

MUSIC

Diva Does Dolly

WELL, OF COURSE WHITNEY HOUSTON IS No. 1 on the charts again. Listeners are parched for the pretty art of balladeering, and Houston's rich soprano intelligently mines the emotions -- romantic or spiritual, strong and subtle -- in her power-pop arias. The album for her new film, The Bodyguard, includes choice cuts from Curtis Stigers, the S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. and Joe Cocker, but mostly it's a showcase for Houston's mature vocalizing. Her triumph is a reading of Dolly Parton's I Will Always Love You, which she builds into a deathbed declaration of tenderness and release; you can hear life ebbing as the passion to bid farewell soars. The voice is a musical instrument too. Houston's is a Strad.