THE gentleman who wrote to this newspaper recently complaining about the number of repeated films on ATV and TVB will be pleased to hear that Flipper (World, 9.30pm) has not been shown, at least in my memory, although someone will no doubt write to correct me.
That's the good news. The bad news is that Flipper, about a boy who finds an injured dolphin and nurses it back to health (a sort of aquatic The Yearling, with suntans), is marginally less entertaining than Bambi. It's harmless enough, typical wholesome family affair, but too innocent to ever be gripping.
It did, however spawn a sequel and a television series. The sequel, Flipper's New Adventure, saw our piscine friend thwart an escaped convict's attempts to blackmail a millionaire. How can a dolphin do this? Watch and be amazed.
In Flipper, colourfully filmed in and around the Florida Keys (the sequel branched out to the Bahamas), there is not much plot to get your head around. Boy befriends sick dolphin; boy's fisherman father is unhappy because sick dolphin might infect his fish ponds.
It ends happily ever after, but you probably could have guessed that. Chuck Connors plays dad and Luke Halpin plays son.
WITH Throw Momma From The Train (Pearl, 9.30pm) Danny DeVito made a surprisingly assured directorial debut hampered only by a weak script.
Why surprisingly? Somehow it's hard to believe that a man shaped like DeVito could ever command the rapt attention of actors and crew. DeVito stars as Owen Lift, a childlike 40-year-old bachelor whose life is totally dominated by his mother (Anne Ramsey, in a brilliantly ugly performance).
