These Old Broads [Import]

Debbie Reynolds's daughter--Carrie Fisher, a noted Hollywood script doctor--cowrote this television movie as a sort of Grumpy Old Women, so the story goes. Viewed in that light, this 91-minute lark is entertaining, if frequently inane. It's the story of the professional reunion of three feuding costars (Reynolds, Shirley MacLaine, Joan Collins) after their '60s musical becomes a cult hit decades later. The fun part is the skewering of their real lives that these actresses good-humoredly allow. Reynolds plays a Vegas casino-owning diva who showcases her own talent and allows her dolt of a husband to run the business side of things--a state of affairs not too different from her real Vegas days. MacLaine offers a comic version of her legendary spiritual persona with such zingers as "My inner child is having such a tantrum." And Joan Collins makes fun of her choice of men with a mobster boyfriend instead of that litigious young husband of some years back. Elizabeth Taylor makes a goofy cameo appearance as the actresses' agent, and Fisher has a lot of fun staging a verbal catfight between the agent and Reynolds over a man named Freddie. (In real life Liz infamously stole Carrie's dad, Eddie Fisher, from then wife Debbie.) All pretty good. But why the framing with MacLaine's "adopted" son, inhabited by the unfunny Jonathan Silverman; and why the too-broadly caricatured producer? Only the daughter knows. --Kimberly Heinrichs