March 14, 1986

Donald R. Manes's rise to political power was a rapid one; his fall from power, when it came, was even more so, and to his friends and colleagues far more startling. The former Queens Borough President took his life little more than two months after his political influence seemed at a peak - after having helped to engineer the selection of a Queens City Councilman, Peter F. Vallone, as majority leader. In the two intervening months, his popularity among the public had fallen nearly as low as it could. Associates said the man who became the youngest Borough President in Queens history and who consolidated his power as Democratic county chairman three years later, was a different one from the man who took his life last night, following a resignation, a mysterious suicide attempt, a highly public corruption investigation, and Mayor Koch, who had repeatedly called Mr. Manes ''my good friend,'' instead having branded him ''a crook.'' No one professes to know what happened in between.

When Barber B. Conable Jr. was approaching retirement in 1984, after 20 years in Congress, he was asked why he had decided to quit. ''I don't want to participate in a sense of personal decline,'' he said. ''I would like to quit while I can still be active. I would like to be useful after leaving Congress, something that is very hard to do if you are much older than I am.''

''The American people believe in human rights and oppose tyranny in whatever form, whether of the left or the right.'' - President Reagan. [ A1:6. ]

SOME filmgoers' most vivid memories do not involve the plot permutations of a futuristic fantasy in 70 millimeter. Instead, they recall that fortuitous day in a darkened revival house when they first glimpsed Fred Astaire gliding across the screen in ''Top Hat,'' or Orson Welles murmuring the immortal ''Rosebud.'' For those who prefer Bogart to the Brat Pack, and want their creature features in 35-millimeter black and white, New York's revival houses offer something for every film fanatic - from ''The Bicycle Thief'' to ''Paths of Glory.'' This weekend, moviegoers seeking an infusion of nostalgia can choose from double bills featuring such stars as Cary Grant, Joseph Cotten, Marilyn Monroe and Robert Duvall, and such directors as Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Carol Reed and Bob Fosse. Some of the Continental masters represented are Vittorio De Sica, Henri-Georges Clouzot and Jean Renoir. There's a Bette Davis retrospective at the Regency and a ''Road Movies'' program at the Collective for Living Cinema.

International The President will oppose despots of the anti-Communist right as well as the pro-Soviet left, Mr. Reagan said in a policy statement set to be made public today. The new policy differs in emphasis from the one enunciated by Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, former chief American delegate to the United Nations, which held that ''traditional authoritarian'' Governments were ''less repressive,'' more susceptible to change and better for American interests than Marxist-style dictators were. [ Page A1, Column 1. ] Manila cited a Swiss bank account totaling $800 million held by Ferdinand E. Marcos, according to an official of the Government panel seeking to recover the former President's secret wealth. [ A1:4. ]