Critics' Choice

TELEVISON

BOB HOPE SPECIAL (NBC, May 24, 8 p.m. EDT). Bob totes his one-liners to Paris to celebrate the French Revolution's bicentennial. Bet he can't top "Let them eat cake."

THE THIN BLUE LINE (PBS, May 24, 9 p.m. on most stations). Errol Morris' hypnotically compelling documentary about a Texas murder case helped win the release in March of Randall Adams after twelve years in prison. Now the "nonfiction feature" makes its TV debut on American Playhouse, the series that originally commissioned it.

ART

INIGO JONES: COMPLETE ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS, Drawing Center, New York City. Designer, painter, mathematician, engineer and antiquarian, Jones (1573-1652) was the greatest royal architect England ever produced. This impeccable show reveals the technical and pictorial skill with which he led English architecture into a new, classically based grandeur and amplitude. Through July 22.

10 + 10: CONTEMPORARY SOVIET AND AMERICAN PAINTERS, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. A double first: an unprecedented joint showcase of younger artists (including Americans David Salle, Donald Sultan and Ross Bleckner) and the first exhibition ever organized to tour museums in both countries. Through Aug. 6.

MASTERPIECES OF IMPRESSIONISM AND POST-IMPRESSIONISM: THE ANNENBERG COLLECTION, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Fifty prime paintings by artists from Van Gogh and Cezanne through Gauguin and Braque, acquired over the past four decades by publisher Walter Annenberg and his wife. Through Sept. 17.

MUSIC

CYNDI LAUPER: A NIGHT TO REMEMBER (Epic). It takes a while for her to find her pace, but when she hits Side 2, Lauper burns up the tracks. Warmhearted, rambunctious and (in the words of one memorable tune) winningly Insecurious.

BEETHOVEN: CELLO SONATAS 3 & 5 (EMI). The late, preternaturally gifted cellist Jacqueline Du Pre exudes sensitivity and breathtaking virtuosity as she teams up with pianist Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich on this digital reissue.

LOUIS ARMSTRONG: THE HOT FIVES & HOT SEVENS, VOLUME III (Columbia). Young "Satch" at the peak of his force and creative genius. Featuring Johnny Dodds, Kid Ory and Earl Hines, these 16 digitally remastered sides from 1927 and 1928 spearhead the latest batch of releases in Columbia's outstanding Jazz Masterpieces series.

BOOKS

T.E. LAWRENCE: THE SELECTED LETTERS edited by Malcolm Brown (Norton; $27.50). David Lean's recently rereleased Lawrence of Arabia is one of the greatest epic films ever made. But its subject remains an enigma. He tells his own story here in letters, nearly two-thirds of them previously unpublished, and illuminates the shadows of his personality.

COLLECTED POEMS by Philip Larkin (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; $22.50). The pre- eminent poet of his time, Larkin died in 1985 at age 63. This collection includes works previously unpublished or unavailable in book form, and documents the triumph of a poet who found his style by lowering his voice.

MOVIES

INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE. The adventure genre may be nearly exhausted, but producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg know how to make the thrills crack like Indy's bull whip. Sean Connery and Harrison Ford find special star resonance in the bond between an aloof father and his heroic, hero-worshiping son.

EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY. Three fellows new in town meet the women of their fevered dreams. Only the guys are off a spaceship, and they've landed in the San Fernando Valley. Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum star in this fizzy, frizzy musical comedy.

THE RAINBOW. Twenty years after cinematizing Women in Love, Ken Russell returns to the questing eroticism of D.H. Lawrence. Given a story worth telling and a heroine (Sammi Davis) worth caring about, Russell can still direct with passion and poise.

LOVERBOY. Delivering pizza in Beverly Hills offers all sorts of erotic opportunities -- and comic ones too -- in this cheeky romantic romp. Patrick Dempsey has the charm and director Joan Micklin Silver the knack to bring off a modern farce in the classic style.

THEATER

ELEEMOSYNARY. Playwright Lee Blessing (A Walk in the Woods) encapsulates feminism through three generations of strong-minded women in a deft, dark off- Broadway comedy.

LARGELY NEW YORK. Lanky, limber Bill Irwin, silent in this 70-minute Broadway sketchbook, owes much to Jacques Tati and Marcel Marceau, but gags about man's obsessive relations with machines still work in a Walkman world.

ARISTOCRATS. Brian Friel's depiction of a gilded Irish clan in decline, sensitively acted off-Broadway, is the best play on view in New York City and merits comparison with Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard.