Critics' Voices

MUSIC 50th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION (Blue Note). JAZZ MASTERPIECES (Columbia). A digital swingfest! Two of the foremost chroniclers of American jazz have opened their vaults to bring some of the most outstanding performances of the past six decades to a new generation of listeners -- as well as to older fans who never heard the originals sound so good. Blue Note's five-volume anthology samples the works of such greats as Sidney Bechet, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock. Columbia's offering, the latest

release in its three-year-old jazz reissue series, features historic albums by Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, Eddie Condon, Benny Goodman and Roy Eldridge.

DANNY ELFMAN: BATMAN MOTION PICTURE SCORE (Warner Bros.); PRINCE: BATMAN MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK (Warner Bros.). Two Batman albums? If this seems like Cowled Crusader overkill, be advised that these records bear absolutely no resemblance to each other: Prince's Batman is a phantasmagorical reinterpretation of the movie; Elfman's score is the film's actual symphonic underpinning.

The Prince material is, well, batty. Several of his songs appear in the film, but Prince uses the album to retell the story and recast himself as the Dark Knight's alter ego. If that seems weird, no one seems bothered. The Batman sound track hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart, and contains some of Prince's wildest and most soulful work since Purple Rain.

Elfman's score not only matches Prince's but surpasses his with its dark chords and swooping orchestral romanticism. Elfman's Batman sets a new standard for film scores. Only a superhero could do better.

MOVIES

JOHNNY HANDSOME. A rarity among crime thrillers, this film is as intelligent as it is well made. A supposedly reformed underworld character (Mickey Rourke) plots an elegant caper against some double-crossing crooks, under the eye of a savvy, cynical cop (Morgan Freeman).

QUEEN OF HEARTS. On a next-to-nothing budget, this criminally pleasurable panorama depicts a teeming gallery of Italians in postwar London. Funny, ambitious and a mite too long, Queen of Hearts laces pearls on a shoestring.

IN COUNTRY. A Viet Nam vet (Bruce Willis) reconciles himself to his niece (radiant Emily Lloyd) and his country. Sounds like your basic TV movie, sunk by noble intentions. But here well meaning translates into well done.

THEATER

ORPHEUS DESCENDING. In this gothic erstwhile flop by Tennessee Williams, brilliantly reconsidered by director Peter Hall, Vanessa Redgrave returns to Broadway for the first time in twelve years and proves herself to be the greatest actress in the English-speaking world.

SOUTHERN CROSS. Playwright Jon Klein uses characters as diverse as General Sherman, Elvis and Martin Luther King Jr. to evoke the sweep of a region's history in this epic world premiere by Atlanta's Alliance Theater.

BOOKS

THE BELLAROSA CONNECTION by Saul Bellow (Penguin; $6.95). The Nobel laureate's second appearance of the year in a paperback original, this absorbing novella once again retails the dislocations -- wrenching, comic or both -- of being Jewish in America.

THE REVISED ENGLISH BIBLE (Oxford and Cambridge University presses; $19.95; $21.95 with Apocrypha). What? Another Bible? This mostly felicitous British rendition updates the New English Bible of 1970, shedding thees and thous and many male nouns and pronouns. More important, some quirky Old Testament ! readings from the 1970s have gone to Sheol now that the traditional Hebrew text is back in scholarly fashion.

POODLE SPRINGS by Raymond Chandler and Robert B. Parker (Putnam; $18.95). After 30 years of big sleep in the Chandler literary estate, a barely started Philip Marlowe novel is successfully completed by one of the mystery master's best imitators.

TELEVISION

AND A NIGHTINGALE SANG (PBS, Oct. 15, 9 p.m. on most stations). Joan Plowright plays the matriarch of a working-class British family during World War II in this adaptation of C.P. Taylor's play, which launches a new season for Masterpiece Theater.

THE WORLD TODAY (CNN, debuting Oct. 16, 6 p.m. EDT). Ted Turner's 24-hour news channel made its reputation by being around when the networks weren't. But now it tackles Rather, Jennings and Brokaw on their own turf, with a new hourlong evening newscast.

ROXANNE: THE PRIZE PULITZER (NBC, Oct. 16, 9 p.m. EDT). The sensational divorce trial is the jumping-off point for this TV-movie look at life-styles of the rich and salacious.

ART

FRANS HALS, National Gallery of Art, Washington. The great 17th century Dutch portraitist's bravura brush-work and piercing insight still bring figures to startling life. Incredibly, this is the first major show devoted to him outside the Netherlands. Through Dec. 31.