At the Movies; MERRIMENT WITH DUDLEY MOORE
The New York Times Chris Chase
/vi-assets/static-assets/favicon-d2483f10ef688e6f89e23806b9700298.ico
''ARTHUR,'' starring Liza Minnelli and Dudley Moore, opens today (and is reviewed on page C10). ''Arthur'' has the feeling of an old Depression-era movie, the kind people went to so they could lose themselves in fantasy and sit in the dark dreaming of Roll-Royces and mansions and silk sheets and champagne.

Mr. Moore says it is just this feeling of ''merriment and escape'' that Steve Gordon, who wrote and directed ''Arthur,'' wanted to convey. When Mr. Moore first read the script, he couldn't believe it. ''Ten laughs a page,'' he says. ''Instead of one laugh every 10 pages.''

After Mr. Moore was offered the part - ''there were actors who would have killed to do it,'' he says - Mr. Gordon got nervous. Mr. Moore talks like Prince Charles, and Arthur is an American. ''Steve kept phoning me up and saying, 'are you sure you can't do an American accent?' I told him if I tried, it would be the most distorted performance. I'd just be worrying about my a's and r's.''

Among the surprises of ''Arthur'' is another Englishman, Sir John Gielgud, playing a snobbish, fond, extremely funny valet-philosopher. Mr. Moore, who had never before worked with the 77-year-old Sir John, found the experience wonderful. ''He was always coming out with these sweet, corny theatrical anecdotes, and he's got a sort of mucky schoolboy sense of humor. I mean everybody thinks he reads Chaucer all day, and in fact, he loves reading Harold Robbins. He's a very unpretentious man.''

Mr. Moore is unpretentious too. For years, he was unable to take himself seriously as star material, and he played only farcical characters. After ''10,'' he suddenly found himself a leading man, for which he credits psychotherapy. ''It took years to get me to a point where I felt I could be myself on film. It's the usual boring Freudian stuff. I came out onto a plateau of relative sanity. I felt able to say in my personal life, this is who I am, folks. I could also do the same professionally.''

These days, the evangelical Mr. Moore finds himself encouraging other people to ''do what they want to do,'' a lecture he finds ''obvious,'' but one he can't seem to stop giving.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.