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In their first interviews together since they took over the troubled company this summer, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's new managers said Thursday that they are well on their way up to major-studio status. Chairman Frank Mancuso pledged that production under the MGM and United Artists banners will be boosted from previous low levels to 20 pictures annually starting next year, with as many as eight more movies coming from Carolco Pictures and Polygram Filmed Entertainment.

"The Ultimate Oz," MGM/UA's definitive limited collector's edition of the 1939 classic, is one beautiful piece of work marking one of the few times that the hyperbole fulfills the promise.

They called a Wildcat strike again Saturday: Arizona 38, USC 7. Another game, another notch on the belt for the nation's top-rated defense. But maybe this was a little different. It supposedly was against somebody . Not Texas El Paso or Pacific or Oregon State. Not even Illinois, a school with a reputation, but also a freshman quarterback in his second game.

John Calley, a senior Warner Bros. executive in the 1970s who later linked up with director Mike Nichols to produce films, was named Monday to head United Artists Pictures. Calley, 62, begins work Sept. 13. United Artists is being revived as part of an effort to make its parent company, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, more attractive to prospective buyers.

It's no secret that gossip is endemic to the entertainment business. Without it, many conversations would consist of "Nice to meet you" and "Goodby." But even hardened rumormongers have been awed by the amount of babble that has burbled up around Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists this week. Close to a dozen possible buyers and managers have been linked to the studios, which are said to be on the brink of being sold or restructured.

Former Paramount Pictures Chairman Frank G. Mancuso is in negotiations to run a revamped United Artists movie studio, according to knowledgeable sources. Mancuso would be named UA's chairman and would co-manage a combined United Artists/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer marketing and distribution division under the terms of the deal.

Watch the work of a young, quirky creative, sure-handed director starting out and you should be able to glean the promise of exciting filmic surprises to come. Two recent laser releases of films made nearly four decades apart offer those hints in works that bear striking resemblances to each other.

Not every musical out of the MGM musical factory was "Singin' in the Rain." Some were little more than pleasant-to-fair interludes that gave folks something to do on a Saturday afternoon. Some of Leo's minor '50s musicals being packaged as $45 double features by MGM/UA Home Video still serve that function. For those into natural fabrics, they're something you can iron to.

MGM/UA home video has come up with one of the most consumer-friendly ideas yet in laser-disc packaging. Called the "MGM Double Feature Disc," it serves up two movies spiced with an original theatrical trailer for $40. It's not that the movies are all so good. Many aren't. But they look good, especially those struck from negatives made in the glory days of Technicolor, filled with those luscious reds and yellows that rival Crayola crayons.

A former MGM/UA Communication Co. executive and a man who claimed to be the owner of a motion picture production services company were charged Wednesday with stealing tens of thousands of dollars from MGM/UA via fraudulent invoices for post-production work.