The Mae West Murder Case

The latest Hollywood-in-its-heyday caper from Baxt ( The Noel Coward Murder Case et al.) is long on camp but short on humor. In 1936, with the extravagantly endowed and spoken star of the title at the height of her power at Paramount, four Mae West impersonators (one a woman) are murdered. LAPD detectives Villon and Mallory, two dim bulbs, call on megawatt Mae to warn her. Accompanied by Villon and Mallory as bodyguards/musclemen, bossy and fearless Mae attends a Halloween ball at a Hollywood drag palace. After the club owner and a script girl are murdered at the ball, the star zeroes in on the killer, aided by the dull coppers. Preposterous in its resolution, laced with such anachronisms as ``grope therapy'' and a Superman costume three years before the man of steel was introduced, this froth is flat--and no tribute to the multi-dimensioned West. (Dec.)