Male of the Species

Originally, "Male of the Species" consisted of three half hour plays made for television. The three stories were written by Alun Owen and involve the same woman, Mary (Anna Calder-Marshall). Each story show her interacting with significant men in her life.

The first play, "MacNeil", is the saddest one. It features Sean Connery as Mary's father and he is a dreadful man....a sexist jerk and a habitual liar.

The second play, "Cornelius", features Michael Caine as a bit of a playboy...a decent one, mind you, but a playboy. He and Mary date a bit...and why each is interested in the other is odd.

The final is "Emlyn" and it stars Paul Scofield as a very successful middle-aged barrister (an English trial lawyer). He becomes smitten with Mary and they begin to date...and they are a most unusual couple.

The acting in these plays is top-notch and although Anna Calder-Marshall acts against three of the best British actors of the time, she definitely holds her own. As for the stories, they vary in enjoyability, though they are all well written. The first isn't all that enjoyable...but isn't meant to be since Mary's father is a jerk...and an unredeemable one. Overall, a very interesting experience watching the same woman and three important men in her life. Worth seeing and available on YouTube.

By the way, there IS an unintentionally funny line in "Cornelius". At one point, Caine's character complains about an Indian woman he dated, saying he 'doesn't want curry for breakfast'. Well, a few years later, Caine married Shakira...though from Guyana, a woman whose heritage is Indian.

This must be one of the most wanted 'lost films' on the planet, if not the very most wanted. It's amazing that so little is known about it!!! It stars 3 mayor stars of the time (and still - two of them!) and yet nobody seems to care to get a hold on it and release it on DVD. Not only that: Who was the director? (Shall try to find out). I was about 16 years old when I saw it on television with my (then) living father, who at the time was about 62 years old. We both liked it tremendously and, on behalf of Michael Caine, I don't think he has ever had a more romantic role than this. I remember that it was about a (at first at least) young woman, who has 3 relationships with men, one of them to her father (daughter-father relationsship and nothing dirty as such) as I recall (played by Sean Connery) who has a habit of telling lies (this was the first time I encountered the word 'mendacity', I can still remember it), the other relationships (Caine and Schofield) were romantic (at least the one to Caine)- if she went to bed with any of them I'm however not sure of - this was an intelligent film which did not need that sort of cheap trick and insulting propaganda. It was not a coming-of-age film the way they are done today (totally without brains) but a serious film with real people in it. This is no doubt a 10 out of 10 and that it is not released casts a big shadow over the whole business - how many good films are out there, that we equally know nothing about and are not allowed to see? Well, of course, not many done today but in the times as this film was made the quality of films was at a much higher level and maybe there is more out there. However, the last film by Nick Willing 'doctor sleep' is also not available, which is of course an insult as well. since this director, after 'photographing fairies', should be promoted and not put to silence. Well, 'ken park' by Larry Clark is also not available etc.. But still: 3 mayor stars and still so little information. Amazing. A 10 out of 10 of course.

When The Male of the Species aired, I was a college student, home on vacation, and watched with my mother. We were positively glued to the TV set. Sean Connery, known at that time (1969) to American audiences only as 007 in the early James Bond films, showed a bit of his acting range to good advantage. Michael Caine had a big hit in the USA a few years earlier with Alfie, but it was this television role that made him one of my favorite actors. If you were to ask me about any other television shows, specials, or series from 1967-1971 I would be hard pressed to come up with even one. If anyone can find a tape of this outstanding show, please make it available for airing or for purchase!! I believe James Mason was also in this one, in a small role at the end...can anyone confirm?

I am determined to track down this gem that won the Outstanding Dramatic Series: NET Playhouse (NET)at the 21st Emmy Awards 1968–1969, given in June of '69.

Both Paul Scofield (Outstanding Actor - Single Performance) and Anna Calder-Marshall (Outstanding Supporting Actress - Single Performance) won Emmys (which actress was A. C-M. supporting?) A UK website states that Alun Owen wrote a trilogy of half-hour plays introduced by Sir Laurence Olivier: 'MacNeil' (tx. 1/2/1969), starring Sean Connery as a womanising master carpenter, 'Cornelius' (tx. 8/2/1969), with Michael Caine as a concupiscent cockney draughtsman, and 'Emlyn'(tx.15/2/1969), featuring Paul Scofield as an amorous barrister.

We in the States know it as "Prudential's On Stage: Male of the Species" a title which I searched online for years as "Female of the Species" until I read the comments posted here, previously. Now I realize why: the narrator used that phrase and I presumed it to be the title of the PBS program.

At 15 years old, I was stunned that the lead actress could be so cruel to the older gent. I vividly remember how kind he was to her, almost like a mentor, in her first job (a file clerk in a large law office?)but she spurned him. I knew he was a different person without his wig on, but she blew her chance, from my teenage viewpoint.

I can't recall the first episode, but the scene I can't forget is when she overheard the young guy bragging about getting any girl he wanted, and that hardened her against him. I thought both were wrong to play games like that, and the last act is what riveted me because the Scofield character (Emlyn?) had the charity to forgive her when she came back to him looking for a position -- though I am hazy why: fired? resigned?

Despite an obviously poor recollection of this, compared to other posters, I have carried those images with me, searching for "Female of the Species" so that I could finally figure out, now that I am grown, what she saw in Caine and not in Scofield. At the time, I knew none of the performers, but the Scofield scenes are indelible, and I still keep his face in my memory.

I also saw this when it first aired and thought it was called "Female of the Species"...when I first started using IMDb I searched for that title and came up with the true title (only because I remembered that Anna Calder Marshall, who played the female lead, was in the 1970 version of Wuthering Heights; anyway, I was only 10, yes 10! when I saw this on TV. I can't remember much of it (pretty much all I can remember was her winking at the end) but I still remember that I thoroughly enjoyed it...it is great to see all the comments here that vindicate my memory of this presentation; I only wish I could get more info about the story..each comment I have read does help; if it EVER is released on DVD I would like to have a copy...