THE BIG O

Counterculture columnist Albie Marx must have been popping downers since Nice Guys Finish Dead (1992): he's positively sedate in this second caper. But everybody else is crazier than ever. Cindy Greene, Albie's informant against scamming L.A. banker Franklin Dart, is hysterically convinced that Dart's called in his goon Sonny Fabiano to kill her; Sonny's girlfriend Nicole Keyser, lately seen leaning on Dart, wants Albie to autograph her 20-year-old copy of his bestselling Roger Wellington Rat; Bridgett Horcheck, ex-daughter-in-law of Dart's Beverly Hills lawyer Sy Horcheck, is blowing hotter than hot and colder than cold on Albie, presumably ambivalent about whether she wants him to give her the big O; and that other big O, Dodgers' pitching sensation Oscar Hamilton, credits his no-hitter over the Giants to his abduction by aliens. Since it's Albie at the eye of the storm, you can be sure that the byzantine scam that connects all these zanies will implicate every authority figure from Sheik Anwar to Gregory Huston, the Republican candidate for the state house. Debin focuses the manic energy of his slapdash debut without losing any of Albie's raffish charm. You'll feel guilty next time you reach for your necktie or your pearls.