Addams Family

A few years back, American Movie Classics showed Floyd Mutrux's marvelous American Hot Wax but prefaced it with a warning that it had been edited for content and modified to fit the TV screen. Thinking the other night about this jubilant homage to the early days of rock and roll, I thought I'd go online and order a copy of the DVD, so I could see the movie as it was meant to be seen, unedited and in letterbox format. No go. The film isn't available on DVD. Last week, while preparing to teach my film class, I went online to order a copy of The Jazz Singer, the 1927 Warner Bros.

Paul Rudnick, proud owner of two new Outer Critics Circle awards for his AIDS-inspired off-Broadway hit "Jeffrey," describes the kind of character that moved him to mock the dread plague:"Oh, you brought the wrong diet soda," he whines, mimicking a hospital martyr milking a bedside vigil to the max. "Not that robe -- that's the ugly robe . . . I've read these magazines."With "Jeffrey," Mr. Rudnick has made a fatal disease hilarious; he has accentuated the positive in HIV-positive; he has satirized the saturnalians who cruise the clubs, the gyms and even the memorial services of the dead.

VIDEO'Addams Family'fTC"The Addams Family" isn't a movie, it's a re-enactment of a few dozen brilliant Charles Addams New Yorker cartoons with some dim filler material. Still, the participants seem to be having an infectiously delicious time, particularly Anjelica Huston as Morticia, those blazing cheekbones turned to alabaster by the makeup. Raul Julia is just OK, and Christopher Guest is somewhat misused. PG-13. ** 1/2 . "The Last of the Mohicans" is beautiful and damned, a rip-roaring re-creation of the French and Indian War of 1757 as imagined by James Fenimore Cooper and reinvented by Michael "Miami Vice" Mann.

LOS ANGELES -- Picture a woman in gardening garb, a smile on her face and telephone to her ear matter-of-factly telling the person on the other line that "He's in the garden."Is she talking about hubby? One looks through the woman's French doors to a garden with a freshly dug grave.This is the art of the late cartoonist Charles Addams, whose twisted look at life delighted readers for 60 years.Among his creations are the characters that serve as the basis of the television series "The Addams Family" from 1964 to 1966, an animated version in the 1970s and now the movie.

A trip to the movies is supposed to mean a reprieve from television. But a night at the multiplex won't seem much different from a night in the living room, as more and more classic television shows make their way to the big screen.We've had "Star Trek" and its sequels, "Dragnet" and "The Untouchables," to name a few, but at last count there were more than a dozen projects in development based on hit television shows of the '50s and '60s, including "The Fugitive," "Hawaii Five-0," "Mission: Impossible," "The Beverly Hillbillies," "The Little Rascals" and even a live-action version of 'The Flintstones.

On one of the walls of Walt Ritchie's office in an old Philadelphia mansion is a poster of "The Addams Family." Morticia, Gomez, Lurch, Uncle Fester . . . the whole gang. Mr. Ritchie didn't put it there. His predecessor did. Sort of came with the job. Truth is, Mr. Ritchie never saw the once-popular TV series, "not even the reruns."In fact, Mr. Ritchie hadn't yet touched his first Lincoln Log when "The Addams Family" was on in the mid-1960s."I watched 'The Munsters,' " he says.The poster isn't hanging in Mr. Ritchie's office just for kicks or to hide a hole.

THE ADDAMS FAMILYOriginal Motion Picture Soundtrack (Capitol 98172)Whenever a box-office smash spins off a top-selling theme song, it's only natural that interested fans would look for it on the soundtrack album. But if you're hoping to snag a copy of Hammer's new hit, "Addams Groove," don't bother heading to the record store for "The Addams Family," because it's not on there. (Nor is it on Hammer's "Too Legit to Quit," unless you buy your copy on cassette). Instead, what you get is a smidgen of Vic Mizzy's original TV theme, a version of "Mamushka" sung by Raul Julia and Christopher Lloyd, and a whole lot of semi-dramatic orchestral music by Marc Shaiman.

Tonight's highlight: an intriguing look at politics, American style, on PBS."Melrose Place" (8 p.m.-9 p.m., WBFF, Channel 45) -- In an episode postponed by last week's World Series game, you'll meet three new characters tonight: Greg Evigan, as a rehab clinic owner; Kelly Rutherford, as a mystery woman and David Charvet, as somebody's son. Fox."Her Costly Affair" (9 p.m.-11 p.m., WBAL, Channel 11) -- Bonnie Bedelia is a university professor who decides to have a fling with one of her graduate students.

Finally, an election that means something.The stakes are high: four solid hours of election-night TV on Nickelodeon.And the choice is clear: "The Addams Family" or "The Munsters." Gomez or Herman? Morticia or Lily?" 'The Munsters' was actually a friendlier family show," insists Butch Patrick, who played Eddie, the youngest member -- and only werewolf -- of the family that took up residence at 1313 Mockingbird Lane on CBS from 1964 to 1966. "People come up to me and mention that they liked the show as kids, whereas 'The Addams Family' had more of a darker side, the humor was a little more macabre."

The notion is enough to induce nausea in film snobs everywhere, but the statistics don't lie: Television feeds the movie business one blockbuster spinoff idea after another.Consider that "Wayne's World," a feature plucked from a recurring "Saturday Night Live" routine, bolted from the blocks in February. It followed the success of the classic sitcom-inspired "The Addams Family" in November. And there was also the moneymaker, "Star Trek VI."In 1989, "Batman," once a camp 1960s series phenomenon, scared up about a quarter-billion in box office revenue in the United States alone.