Third World Cop (R) No Rating

With a crime story so old-fashioned it would have pleased Jimmy Cagneyand George Raft joined to an up-to-date reggae and dance-hall soundtrack produced by Sly & Robbie, "Third World Cop" is a genial case of gangster meets gangsta on the streets of Jamaica.

Directed by Chris Browne and using many of the same people who made the earlier Jamaican hit "Dancehall Queen," "Third World Cop" has become that country's highest-grossing film ever.

While the plotting could have come out of a Dick Tracy comic strip, "Third World Cop" does offer some diverting moments plus an absorbing glimpse into the poorest, most dangerous parts of Kingston, where the film was originally shot on digital video for a bargain price of half a million dollars.

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"Third World Cop" also offers a charismatic lead performance by Paul Campbell, one of Jamaica's most popular stars, as Capone, a guns-blazing, ask-questions-never kind of policeman. When he peers at you from under his ever-present black beret and over the top of his impassive sunglasses, you know you've been peered at. "Your talents are wasted here," his small-town superior archly remarks before transferring him back to Kingston, the city of his birth.

Capone is partnered with the nervous Floyd (Winston Bell), who is forever wanting to call for backup when things get hot, a scenario that fills Capone with contempt. "What do you want, an air strike?" he cracks with the acid sense of humor that allows him to snarl "Read the manual, idiot," at the corpse of a fumbling-with-his-weapon bad guy he's just eliminated.

But just because his motto is "We run things, things don't run we?" (turned into the soundtrack's most effective cut by Red Dragon), don't think Capone doesn't have a soft side. He's got a heck of a smile and a great affection for his old neighborhood, a place so tough that the local bar is called Saddam's and people prefer to be known by nicknames like Dummy, Skinny, Spoonhead, Dainty Crime and Deportee (the latter played by reggae star Ninjaman).

The two people Capone is most eager to be reunited with are his old flame Rita (Audrey Reid) and his boyhood pal Ratty. Played by the almost equally charismatic Mark Danvers, Ratty likes to promote concerts and is fond of first quoting a passage from the Bible and then tearing out the page it's printed on to smoke some serious ganja.

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But though Capone doesn't know it at first, Ratty is now the right hand (no, make that the left hand) man of the one-armed local crime boss logically nicknamed Wonie. Played by Carl Bradshaw, a "The Harder They Come" veteran, Wonie takes time out from auditioning go-go dancers to smuggle arms into the neighborhood in preparation for even more criminal activity, plans that will put a heck of a strain on the Capone-Ratty relationship.

Aside from the uncomplicated pleasures of very traditional police story material (the film's script is by Suzanne Fenn, Chris Browne and Chris Salewicz), "Third World Cop's" main lure is what feels like a very authentic visual sense of the nontourist side of Kingston, where the ambience of zinc-walled shacks wallpapered with old newspapers is captured by cinematographer Richard Lannaman.

"Third World Cop" is so authentic, in fact, that the English-language film has to supply subtitles to make its dialogue (laced with frequent use of profane local expressions) understandable to non-island audiences.

Though the film lacks the elan of 1971's groundbreaking "The Harder They Come," it's good to see what another Jamaican generation is up to.

* MPAA rating: R, for violence, strong sexuality, language and drug content. Times guidelines: no sex after the film's opening sequence, violence throughout.

'Third World Cop'

Paul Campbell: Capone

Mark Danvers: Ratty

Cark Bradshaw: Wonie

Audrey Reid: Rita

Winston Bell: Floyd

Lenford Salmon: Not Nice

In association with Hawks Nest Productions, released by Palm Pictures. Director Chris Browne. Producer Carolyn Pfeiffer Bradshaw. Executive producers Chris Blackwell, Dan Genetti. Screenplay Suzanne Fenn, Chris Browne, Chris Salewicz. Cinematographer Richard Lannaman. Editor Suzanne Fenn. Costumes Michelle Haynes. Production design Richard Lannaman. Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes.