ALTMAN BRINGS SLY WIT TO COUNTRY-HOUSE MYSTERY.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

Merchant and Ivory having evidently taken the year off, the English acting community found an unlikely sponsor in, of all people, curmudgeonly American director Robert Altman. And it could hardly have made for a more delightful movie match than ``Gosford Park,'' an assiduously acid class farce done up as a manor-house murder mystery.

Based on an idea by Altman and ensemble member Bob Balaban and scripted by Julian Fellowes, ``Gosford'' borrows elements from Agatha Christie, ``Upstairs Downstairs'' and Jean Renoir's humanist classic ``Rules of the Game.'' But even though the result is as thoroughly British as it can be, the filmmaker's trademarks - his irrepressibly jaundiced attitude and astounding ability to orchestrate dozens of featured players into a coherent whole, while allowing each actor individual shining moments - make it unmistakably Altman as well, and a freshly imagined companion to such pieces as ``M*A*S*H,'' ``Nashville'' and ``The Player.''

To be completely honest, ``Gosford'' falls just short of those pictures' masterpiece status. But only because, critically smart as it is, the new film's agenda is first and foremost to entertain. And that's an ethic many a poorer Altman project could have benefited from greatly.

Set at a country estate in the autumn of 1932, the movie spends its first half introducing us to a hunting party of upper-class twits, their accompanying servants, a bemused visiting American or two and everybody's multifaceted - though all essentially money-based - problems.

If you can't begin to differentiate the characters as well as Altman, his wonderfully surveillance-minded cinematographer Andrew Dunn, adroit editor Tim Squyres and all the remarkably precise actors do. But the roster alone is enough to give a taste of the fine work in store.

The rich Brits include Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, Charles Dance, James Wilby and - playing real-life movie star of the period Ivor Novello - a genuinely gracious Jeremy Northam. The servant class is represented by Alan Bates, Helen Mirren, Eileen Atkins, Richard E. Grant, Emily Watson, Clive Owen and young Kelly Macdonald, who plays a newly hired maid through whose unaccustomed eyes most the weekend's bizarre power rituals are observed.

Also attending are the aforementioned Balaban as a gay Hollywood producer researching an upcoming Charlie Chan flick (and, amusingly, in constant pursuit of a telephone line back to the Coast) and his suspicious Scottish valet (an unusual Ryan Phillippe).

It takes about an hour for all of these folks, and a number of others, to clarify their needs and resentments. Then somebody stabs Gambon's Sir William, the hateful master of Gosford Park. And since just about everybody in the house has a good reason for doing so, the constabulary is called. With his long pipe and trench coat, the local inspector (Stephen Fry) clearly believes that he's Sherlock Spade, but in reality proves a spectacularly unobservant dolt.

Actually, any viewer who pays even minimal attention should figure out who the culprit is well before the movie ends. But that person's motives are much trickier to deduce - and the tragic reason for that gives what could have been just nasty good fun some real dramatic weight.

But it's treat enough simply to watch Altman skewer the wretched, European superiority games that more expansive directors like Renoir and James Ivory examine more compassionately. Altman's meaner view of behavior and social contexts is no less human, just accurate in a less forgiving way. And sometimes, this slyest of American auteurs clearly understands that withholding forgiveness can be one of life's most sophisticated pleasures.

``GOSFORD PARK''

(Rated R: sex, mild violence, language)

The stars: Eileen Atkins, Bob Balaban, Alan Bates, Stephen Fry, Michael Gambon, Richard E. Grant, Derek Jacobi, Kelly Macdonald, Helen Mirren, Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen, Ryan Phillippe, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, Emily Watson.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Robert Altman. Written by Julian Fellowes, based on an idea by Altman and Balaban. Produced by Altman, Balaban and David Levy. Released by USA Films.

Running time: Two hours, 17 minutes.

Playing: Cineplex Century Plaza, Century City; Sunset 5, West Hollywood; NuWilshire, Santa Monica.

Our rating: Three and one half stars

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

(1) Maggie Smith, left, Natasha Wightman, Tom Hollander, Geraldine Somerville, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jeremy Northam and Bob Balaban in the class farce/manor-house murder mystery ``Gosford Park.''