The last precious pearl inFellini's necklace of show business films (Variety Lights, The WhiteSheik, La Strada, 8 1/2, and The Clowns), Ginger and Fred is at once afond tribute to vaudeville and a withering assault on the meaninglessopulence of commercial television. Masina and Mastroianni play a danceduo whose act of forty years ago imitated Astaire and Rogers. These weremodest artistes who, if not brilliant, at least shared an honest livingcontact with their audiences. They are brought out of retirement toperform on a Christmas TV special called "This Is For You."The show is a glitzy monstrosity, an eerie Italian counterpart of theworst aspects of the Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson, and Oprah Winfreyshows. As "Fred" puts it, the TV giant has feet of clay. Thenotion of "variety," so meaningful in the popular theater ofFellini's youth, has been transformed by television into an insanemish-mash. Guests include the inventor of edible ladies' panties, akidnap victim minus a finger, a woman who has left her husband for anextraterrestrial, and lookalikes of Woody Allen, Proust, and Kafka."This Is For You" is so sleazy that Masina and Mastroianni,however clumsy their dancing, look dignified, even charming bycomparison.-Seymour Chatman