'Slight Case' has substance

Love those old movies? Especially the high-contrast film noirs, with their seedy private detectives, devious femmes fatale, rain-slick streets and double-cross twists?

So does movie critic Terry Thorpe. And so do the folks who placed him at the heart of the delicious, ''Columbo''-like comic suspenser ''A Slight Case of Murder,'' debuting on TNT Sunday night.

A light touch makes this ''Slight Case'' more substantial than most of the would-be noir homage flicks, which can get bogged down in their reverence.

Not only does Sunday's script by star William H. Macy and director Steven Schachter (adapted from the Donald E. Westlake novella ''A Travesty'') refrain from beating us over the head with too many overt noir references, but it mischievously concedes the ones it makes.

Courtesy of Gramercy Pictures William H. Macy, seen here in "Fargo," wrote the first script for "Slight Case."

Why not? Macy's complex Thorpe character teaches a film class. He can ask the students to consider why it's always nighttime and raining.

He can bond with investigating police detective Adam Arkin by answering whether it was Raymond Massey or Basil Rathbone in ''The Pearl of Death.''

He can explain his initial reaction to Arkin's bombshell wife, Julia Campbell, by saying she looks like the cover of a 1943 Liberty magazine.

The references are specific enough that they aren't just referential, they reflect and propel the story. And they're updated, too.

''Don't worry,'' Macy confides to the creatively peeping camera (which even gets to play that subjective point-of-view trick from Robert Montgomery's noir gem ''Lady in the Lake'').

''I know this looks like a scene out of 'Notorious.' I'm not Claude Rains. I'm more like John Cassavetes in 'Rosemary's Baby.'"

No, he's more like William H. Macy, that treasure of indie films like ''Fargo'' (he played the scheming car salesman), ''Boogie Nights'' (Little Bill) and ''Searching for Bobby Fischer'', not to mention such TV turns as ''ER'' (Dr. Morgenstern) and ''Bakersfield, P.D.'' (the deranged cable system employee who took the captain hostage). Macy's greatness is that he's casually calculating and comic, chaotic and calm, likable and loathable.

Maybe it's that Midwestern face, exploited to its fullest in ''Fargo,'' the red hair, blue eyes and pale skin of an ambiguous everyguy, who just happens in ''Slight Case'' to have committed a murder.

Or was it an accident? Does it matter?

Macy does the movie thing anyway, and scrambles to conceal his contact with the victim. This, of course, snowballs. Before long, he's playing ''Columbo'' by helping Arkin and his short-fuse partner, James Pickens Jr., try to solve the cranky case.

Ah, but then there's James Cromwell, as that ever-too-present private eye.

Cromwell's lanky figure - so pastoral in ''Babe,'' so loose-limbed in ''Star Trek: First Contact'' - is looming here. Boy, does he wear a hat well.

He's an ominous '40s refugee, whose office still has a transom over the door. But blackmail sums have gone up, of course, to keep pace with inflation.

Macy's whole '90s world has that new/vintage flavor. Cab driver Vincent Pastore (the beloved Pussy on ''The Sopranos'') is an old Warner Bros. supporting player, except he wants to critique ''L.A. Confidential'' vs. ''Titanic.'' (You know which wins.) Girlfriend Felicity Huffman (''Sports Night,'' and Macy's wife) is watching ''The Thin Man'' on TV when the subject of That Murder comes up in bed between them.

Yet - and this is the key - they behave in recognizably '90s ways. Except for Cromwell's outright homage, they're modern folks living an old story in a contemporary style. Arkin's cop, for instance, is much more laid-back than those boring-in officers of old.

And he's got a very contemporary hobby into which Macy gets roped. (No spoilers!) Besides that, one key twist involves spotting a central character on TV. Another features dueling faxes.

''This is hard!'' confides Macy to his co-conspirators, who would be us.

''I have a newfound respect for actors.''

And I have one for screenwriters, at least when they're this deft. ''A Slight Case of Murder'' is a crackerjack suspenser and comedy. Moments of hilarity mix with several of true menace.

You don't know whether to laugh or cringe at Macy's most outlandish efforts on his own behalf. Just when you think you know how far he'll go, he goes further - or retreats a few paces.

''Now I'm the first to admit,'' he comments, ''my moral position is a bit tenuous.''

But so is ours. Who're we cheering for? Macy, the cutthroat critic? Really. His crimes are piling up.

But he's taken us into his confidence.

Arkin, the unyielding investigator? He's so stolid, so dull, so dumb.

Or is he? The final twist is a doozy.

Too bad this isn't ''Columbo.'' I'm ready for next week's episode.

09-15-99