James Garner and Miss Field are able comic actors, but they can’t be much better than the corny material

MANY years ago there used to be a series of short subjects titled – I think – ”Screen Snapshots,” which allowed the underprivileged in movie theaters to see how responsible Hollywood stars behaved at home, in private moments that were alternately playful and solemn. You didn’t have to believe in the truth of the scenes to be beguiled by the sight of a loving Joan Crawford teaching her children how to swim or listening to them recite the Lord’s Prayer.

”Murphy’s Romance,” which opens today at the Baronet and other theaters, is rather like a cheerless chapter of ”Screen Snapshots” that shows us not how Hollywood’s great and near-great play, but how they goof off when they’re supposed to be working. The movie is as pretty as a picture, mildly amusing and as phony as a laugh-track.

It’s only astonishing for being the work of serious and talented people -Martin Ritt, the director; Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch, the writers, and Sally Field, the Oscar-winning actress, the team responsible for ”Norma Rae.” ”Murphy’s Romance” could be a pilot for the kind of television series that gets axed in midseason.

The film means to be a May-September romance about a spunky, divorced woman of 33, Emma Moriarity, and a small-town druggist, Murphy Jones, a widower and a grandfather. Yet the way it’s cast, with the 40-ish Miss Field as Emma and, as Murphy, James Garner (who, even with patently dyed black hair, doesn’t look elderly), the romance dwindles down to something more like a June-July affair.

The setting is an idealized little Western town called Eunice, to which Emma, accompanied by her spunky 12-year-old son, Jake, comes to make a new life after the failure of her marriage. At first Emma has a tough time on her rented ranch, where she hopes to make her living by boarding and training horses.

She’s denied a bank loan because she’s a woman. In spite of all the spunkiness around – and it’s waist-deep on this otherwise muck-free ranch – it looks like curtains until the insistently eccentric Murphy Jones buys a horse and boards it with Emma and Jake. After that, the other citizens of Eunice quickly follow Murphy’s lead until Emma’s barn is S.R.O.

The numbing serenity of Murphy and Emma’s still-platonic romance is briefly interrupted by the appearance of Emma’s ex-husband, Jack Moriarity (Brian Kerwin), a handsome, friendly, young ne’er-do-well, who moves onto the ranch and, he hopes, back into Emma’s life. If you know your sitcoms, you won’t be surprised how things turn out.

Mr. Garner and Miss Field are able comic actors, but they can’t be much better than the corny material, the occasional one-liners and an overall sunniness that refuses to set. Also good are Mr. Kerwin, a new actor of real promise, and Corey Haim, as Emma’s staunch, unthreateningly wise son.

The best thing in the movie is the set for an old-fashioned, all-American, small-town drugstore, complete with a marble soda fountain and a druggist who makes lemon Cokes with as much care as he fills prescriptions.

”Murphy’s Romance,” which has been rated PG-13 (”special parental guidance suggested for those younger than 13”), contains some vulgar language and has a portrait of a father who’s not a perfect role model. Pastel Portrait MURPHY’S ROMANCE, directed by Martin Ritt; screenplay by Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch, based on the novella by Max Schott; director of photography, William A. Fraker; edited by Sidney Levin; original score by Carole King; produced by Laura Ziskin; released by Columbia Pictures. At Baronet, Third Avenue at 59th Street; Bay Cinema, Second Avenue at 32d Street; New Carnegie, 225 West 57th Street, and other theaters. Running time: 107 minutes. This film is rated PG-13. Emma MoriartySally Field Murphy JonesJames Garner Bobby Jack MoriartyBrian Kerwin Jake MoriartyCorey Haim Freeman CoverlyDennis Burkley MargaretGeorgann Johnson BessieDortha Duckworth AlbertMichael Prokopuk Larry Le BeauBilly Ray Sharkey

A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 17, 1986, Section C, Page 5 of the National edition with the headline: FILM: FIELD AND GARNER IN ‘MURPHY’S ROMANCE’. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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