Improving the Species

American television networks seem to assume that their entire audience is below the age of consent. Thus the new season's most sophisticated entertainment may well be a British import drama rerun by NBC this Thursday, Male of the Species. First aired in the U.S. last January, the work is a dazzling, 90-minute model of urbanity.

The author is Welsh Dramatist Alun Owen, best known in the States as scenarist of the Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night. His males of the species are Paul Scofield, Michael Caine and Sean Connery--each, in his own way, a predator starring in his own segment of the triple bill. Their prey, and the source of the drama's continuity, is Anna Calder-Marshall, an actress formidable enough at 21 to hold the stage opposite such intimidating costars. Sir Laurence Olivier is the narrator-host, providing bridges between the parts of Owen's "modern morality fable."*

Tart Seduction. Connery is the first male, a prideful master carpenter who takes for granted that woman was created solely for his pleasure. He matter-of-factly lies to all his ladies, including his daughter (Calder-Marshall). That deceit permanently estranges them, indurates her heart against all men and sets up Segment No. 2: her confrontation with Caine. Michael plays a reptilian charmer, the acknowledged sultan of the typing pool. Or he was until challenged by Calder-Marshall, who decides to wreak vengeance on the whole gender of womanizers by giving Caine "one in the eye for every girl in the building." But triumph leaves her a vulnerable pushover for her next boss, an eminent barrister (Scofield). He proves to be even more treacherous than Caine, a malevolent Machiavelli rather than merely a fun-loving Alfie.

The badinage of the seduction scenes and the script as a whole will sound uncommonly witty, tart and adult to American audiences, particularly now that the networks are under attack for "excessive permissiveness" from John Pastore, chairman of the Senate Communications Subcommittee. No canned laughter is added to the sound track. There is one deferential addition for the American viewers, though: a brief epilogue and tidy ending, showing the Caine and Calder-Marshall courtship heading for consummation, probably in wedlock. Another hopeful outcome is that Play wright Owen is now drafting a sequel: Female of the Species, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Claire Bloom. It is scheduled for NBC in January. Owen refuses to comment on whether NBC has asked them to milk down ("Pastoreize," in TV slang) Female for Americans in this season of censorship.

* The high-priced cast was available to TV only because the show was produced by Britain's commercial Incorporated Television Company, Ltd. partially as a benefit for an actors' home, and the stars waived their usual salaries.

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