Buffalo Girls

 ((Sun. (30), Mon. (1), 9-11 p.m., CBS))

By TONY SCOTT

Filmed in New Mexico and England by de Passe Entertainment and CBS Entertainment Prods. Executive producer, Suzanne de Passe; producers, Sandra Saxon Brice, Suzanne Coston; director, Rod Hardy; writer, Cynthia Whitcomb; based on the novel by Larry McMurtry.
 
Cast: Anjelica Huston, Melanie Griffith, Gabriel Byrne, Peter Coyote, Tracey Walter, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Jack Palance, Chalayne Woodard, John Diehl, Liev Schreiber, Andrew Bicknell, Paul Lazar, Russell Means, Reba McEntire, Sam Elliott, Geoffrey Bateman, Julie Bevan, Peter Birch, Michael Eiland, David Garver, Jane Goold, Robert Harnesberger, Jerry King, Daphne Neville, Robin Nicholas, J. Michael Olivia, Richard Simpson, Hanley Smith, Boots Southerland, Hannah Taylor-Gordon.
 

Larry McMurtry's droll novel about friendship between two women and their men in the American West of the mid-'70s, even with Suzanne de Passe's esteemed "Lonesome Dove" name attached, doesn't much work as adventure, drama or as comedy. It's Calamity Jane's fanciful tale about fanciful people and incidents that aren't fanciful enough -- until the story's tied up.

Calamity Jane (Anjelica Huston, pretending to be a man nobody would consider as such) is writing her story to her baby, Janey, daughter of Wild Bill Hickok (Sam Elliott), whom Jane supposedly loves and who bites the dust. Jane, after handing the infant over to an Englishman, goes about her business of poking around the Old West with cronies like Ragg (Tracey Walter), Bartle Bone (Jack Palance) and No Ears (Floyd Red Crow Westerman). Her best friend, fictional character Dora (Melanie Griffith), a bordello owner, loves Blue (Gabriel Byrne) but refuses to marry him. Instead, she marries young Ogden (Liev Schreiber).

Wandering onto the set, Buffalo Bill (Peter Coyote) recruits nearly the whole bunch of adventurers to go to England as part of his traveling Wild West Show. Sakes alive, it even beats watching Custer's Last Stand, as Jane does, or getting caught up in a blizzard.

Telefilm lampoons the great Indian Chief Sitting Bull (Russell Means), but lends quirky dignity to Westerman's No Ears, an Indian whose ears were sliced off in a massacre. Characters meet coincidentally, get angry at each other (though they're really pals), say things like they're feeling "lower than the scum at the bottom of the pond," and they're all dressed up in costume designer Van Broughton Ramsey's horse-opry duds.

But no one's going to believe in 'em. First three quarters of the four-hour opus, Cynthia Whitcomb's teleplay struggles to amuse, but the dialogue's pedestrian, the people insistent on being outlandish, while "Jesus" is dropped in twice as an expletive.

Director Rod Hardy doesn't summon up much life until Buffalo Bill lands in London. Part one's Western hijinx ricochet between silliness and determinedly odd characters; in part two, the opus wisely shuttles between action in London and the West, and a becoming sentiment takes over as characters are disposed of.

Huston works valiantly to make Calamity, who even gets a Stella Dallas bit in , credible, or even interesting, but it's a no go. Griffith plays her role to varying effect, not always convincingly, sometimes winsomely. Reba McEntire limns Annie Oakley with restraint, Elliott plays Hickok unflinchingly, and Byrne's Blue has a ring of true characterization.

Schreiber creates a sympathetic, stalwart Ogden, while Coyote underplays Buffalo Bill. Palance and Walter do their best to make the two codgers amusing; it's a tough assignment, and doesn't really work out until a moving last journey.

Cary White's design is successful. Some stock footage doesn't pan out but David Connell's camerawork is otherwise acceptable. Other tech credits suffice.

Camera, David Connell; editor, Richard Bracken; sound, David Brownlow; music, Lee Holdridge; production designer, Cary White.