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Lanky Lauren Bacall does not exactly fit the image of a Washington lobbyist, but she played the part without a hitch last month. As about two dozen lawmakers picked over a buffet lunch at the Capitol Hill home of Representative Bob Mrazek, D-N.Y., Bacall made a pitch for congressional action to prevent owners of classic black-and-white films from colorizing them.

Ever since the "Maltese Falcon" was transformed to color two years ago, big-name directors and actors have trekked to Capitol Hill asking lawmakers to put a halt to the process. Bacall's predecessors included Jimmy Stewart, Burt Lancaster, Woody Allen, Ginger Rogers, Sydney Pollack, Fred Zinnemann, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, among others.

Congress' vote comes just a week after [Ted Turner] announced his latest colorized movie: "Casablanca," one of Hollywood's most popular classics. "Casablanca" in color will air on Turner's SuperStation TBS in November.

Hollywood

Lanky Lauren Bacall does not exactly fit the image of a Washington lobbyist, but she played the part without a hitch last month. As about two dozen lawmakers picked over a buffet lunch at the Capitol Hill home of Representative Bob Mrazek, D-N.Y., Bacall made a pitch for congressional action to prevent owners of classic black-and-white films from colorizing them.

"It's an obscenity that they're colorizing those films," Bacall said in an interview after the lunch. "Great films and classic films should be protected."

Ever since the "Maltese Falcon" was transformed to color two years ago, big-name directors and actors have trekked to Capitol Hill asking lawmakers to put a halt to the process. Bacall's predecessors included Jimmy Stewart, Burt Lancaster, Woody Allen, Ginger Rogers, Sydney Pollack, Fred Zinnemann, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, among others.

But on the other side of the debate, lawmakers are hearing from similarly familiar - if less glamorous - names. Jack Valenti, powerful president of the Motion Picture Association of America, broadcasting mogul Ted Turner and producer David Brown are just three of them. In addition, forces opposing restrictions on colorization - including studios, broadcasters and video dealers - have hired former members of Congress and other well known, influential Washington lobbyists to plead their case.

Both sides' efforts are expected to be put to a final test today, when a Senate-House conference committee votes on a proposal to form a National Film Preservation Board that could discourage both colorization and substantial editing of movies for TV and videocassettes.

Under the proposed legislation, a government-funded National Film Preservation Board - to be comprised of representatives from the film industry - would designate up to 25 movies a year as "national treasures." If any of these films were colorized, or substantially edited for TV, they would have to be labeled and would be prevented from carrying the board's seal designating them as classics.

As the legislation is currently worded, any film edited to fit television's smaller format would fall under those restrictions.

Congress' vote comes just a week after Ted Turner announced his latest colorized movie: "Casablanca," one of Hollywood's most popular classics. "Casablanca" in color will air on Turner's SuperStation TBS in November.

The months of debate leading up to this vote have been a wrenching time for Hollywood, causing sharp rifts between the artists who make movies and the business executives who own them.

A Violent Dispute

"There have been similar disputes in Hollywood," recalls Roger L. Mayer, president of Turner Entertainment Co. and for many years the man in charge of MGM's 3,500-film library. "But nothing quite as violent as this."

At one point during the House battle in June, Valenti said he lost his stomach for opposing Hollywood's creative community.

"I was sick of looking like I was opposing Jimmy Stewart," Valenti said in a recent interview. "I love Jimmy Stewart. I didn't feel comfortable. I felt ungainly, ill at ease."

Valenti hopes today's congressional action will bring the bitter conflict to an end. But proponents of the legislation, particularly the Directors Guild of America, view the bill as just one step toward much broader government action to protect artists' "moral rights" to control the creative direction of their products.

Opponents of the film board proposal say it would inject unnecessary government intrusion into the creative process. "You would have a group deciding which films qualify as classics," said Turner Entertainment's Mayer.

Is Anything Sacred?

But the battle runs much deeper than the controversy over creating a film board. There are fundamental questions at stake: Is a film a form of art as sacred as the "Mona Lisa"? If so, who is the creator? The director? The writers? Or, as some argue, the studio moguls.

Turner, who owns the 3,500-film MGM library, says he has the right to do whatever he wants with his movies.

Because the process is so new, it is difficult to gauge the long-term audience draw of colorized films. According to data provided by John von Soosten, programming director at Katz TV Group in New York, which acts as a sales representative and program consultant to local TV stations, films do get an initial audience boost after being colorized.