VETERAN STARS, AGING SCRIPTS 'MISSING PIECES,' 'STORM IN SUMMER' SHOWER US WITH CLICHES.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

Our acting veterans, Hollywood's living legends, can imbue and burnish their performance with a lifetime's worth of wisdom, experience and regrets. Having likely lived through every emotion imaginable, these performers, if given the right material, could give us performances bordering on the profound. Which makes it awfully vexing when the only acting opportunities available to our most seasoned thespians are in clunky and perfunctory genre exercises.

Cases in point: Oscar winner James Coburn in ``Missing Pieces'' and multiple Emmy winner Peter Falk in ``A Storm in Summer,'' airing tonight on CBS and Showtime, respectively. The stories are hackneyed and old-fashioned - ``Storm in Summer'' was written by Rod Serling for a society that existed more than 30 years ago - and the stars can simply shift into cruise-control, knowing that their simple presence is better than the movie deserves.

In ``Missing Pieces,'' Coburn stars as grizzled cowboy Atticus Cody. When his son - who years earlier was responsible for the death of Cody's wife and his mother, and who has lived with the guilt ever since - commits suicide in Mexico, Atticus ventures down south to investigate. There, he encounters his son's ex-girlfriend (Lisa Zane), who's acting mysteriously, or simply may be flaky, or both.

Atticus is a shrewd, feisty old coot, but to be fair, any moron could solve the mystery before him - evidence all but shows up with a giant neon sign reading ``CLUE'' on it. Is something tucked under a bed? Atticus will conveniently be thrust beneath it to find it. Does Atticus need some wheels? Quick, look under yon tarp - it's a motorcycle! Worse, the twists offered up in the script aren't even as clever as the ones you'll no doubt concoct while sitting through the film.

FALK BASICALLY plays himself in ``A Storm in Summer'' - and he's gotten so crusty you could slather him with pie filling. Falk's Abe Shaddick, a colorfully curmudgeonly deli owner in upstate New York, is forced, against his will, to take care of Herman (Aaron Meeks), a 9-year-old black child from the inner city. He, of course, relents; the two, naturally, become buddies, learning they, no surprise here, have more in common than they could have guessed - and then the tear-jerking begins.

When Rod Serling wrote this back in the late '60s, he was addressing a much different audience, one for whom liberal guilt was probably a burgeoning, refreshing experience, one that would find this take on such an issue appropriately insightful. (There's a wholly unconvincingly written and staged confrontation between the two and some biker hippies).

Today, even though the story remains set in 1969, the material seems on the simplistic side even for an after-school special. Moreover, director Robert Wise makes no efforts to give the material a cinematic feel - it plays out like a pretty talky, static stage play.

Meeks is a fresh performer who covers a lot of difficult emotional terrain credibly, and Falk growls gruffly and agreeably. Nastassja Kinski's brief appearance as a glamorous social worker - don't ask - is noteworthy mainly for the way her wig and her American accent vie for the title of Most Ridiculous, and Andrew McCarthy, as Abe's ne'er-do-well nephew, gives the sort of performance you or I would give, given an indifferent director.

Only Ruby Dee, in a nothing role as Herman's grandmother, offers some real passion - and she's gone after about five minutes. The best this ``Storm'' can offer is mere drizzle.

GUSTAVE FLAUBERT opened quite the can of worms with ``Madame Bovary,'' the classic saga of a restless woman rebelling against provincial mores. A semiautobiographical work inspired in part by his own mistress, Flaubert's work has been considered everything from an early feminist manifesto to a relentlessly cruel, even misogynist screed - its publication also prompted an obscenity trial (Flaubert was acquitted). The book has inspired at least four film incarnations, the most recent a rather drab 1991 French version, leaning toward the feminist interpretation, starring a miscast and wholly operatic Isabella Huppert in the title role.

``Masterpiece Theatre's'' handsomely sumptuous adaptation, airing in two parts tonight and next Sunday, splits it right down the middle interpretively and gets it just right, resulting in a complicated portrayal in which all sides have their sympathetic moments.

Frances O'Connor, recently so winning in the film ``Mansfield Park,'' plays Emma Bovary as a ravishingly impetuous and at times petulant woman who feels constricted by her older, mediocre, somewhat clueless but affectionate husband Charles (a fine, subtle performance by Hugh Bonneville). She strays extravagantly and amorally over the lines of decorum to amuse herself. This, of course, involves much luxuriant lovemaking with whatever strapping young gent crosses her path. (Husbands, the message here seems to be, don't take your wife to high-society functions.)

Heidi Thompson's script is literate and often witty; Tim Fywell's direction moves at a stately pace and is both lushly romantic and bitterly unflinching. When a humble villager must have his leg amputated because Emma unwisely badgered Charles into performing an experimental operation with disastrous consequences, Emma wonders to herself, ``What have I done?'' She's not worried about the poor legless lout, though - she's kicking herself for having married such a loser. Sly turns such as this keep ``Madame Bovary'' disarmingly entertaining.

THE FACTS

--The show: ``Missing Pieces.''

--What: Telefilm about a father investigating his son's mysterious suicide in Mexico.

--The stars: James Coburn, Lisa Zane, Paul Kersey.

--Where: CBS (Channel 2).

--When: 9 tonight.

--Our rating: Two stars

--The show: ``A Storm in Summer.''

--What: Tearjerker about an elderly Jewish deli owner befriending an African-American child from the inner city.

--The stars: Peter Falk, Aaron Meeks, Nastassja Kinski, Andrew McCarthy, Ruby Dee.

--Where: Showtime.

--When: 8 tonight, also Feb. 22.

--Our rating: Two and one half stars

--The show: ``Madame Bovary.''

--What: ``Masterpiece Theatre'' rendition of the Gustave Flaubert classic.

--The stars: Frances O'Connor, Hugh Bonneville.

--Where: KCET.

--When: 9 tonight. Part 2 at 9 p.m. Feb. 13

--Our rating: Three stars

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo: (1) James Coburn is a cowboy who investigates the death of his son, whose ex-girlfriend is played by Lisa Zane in ``Missing Pieces.''

(2) Aaron Meeks, left, and Peter Falk become friends in ``A Storm in Summer,'' a Showtime movie scripted by the late Rod Serling.

(3) Hugh Bonneville and Frances O'Connor make a not-so-happy married couple in ``Masterpiece Theatre's'' ``Madame Bovary.''

Box: THE FACTS (see text)