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 saw this film twice when I was 14, in the company of my family. It was a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation, and it ran a second time as a summer rerun. We recorded it on audio cassette [VHS didn't exist yet], and that tape was later stolen; however I listened to it a number of times. It was what my brother always called, "a battle of words."Anna Calder-Marshall was a young woman whose view of the male of the species was shaped by her relationship to three examples: her father, a playboy, and an older man.Sean Connery was excellent as a lower-class worker with no respect for women, least of all his female boss. His encounter with her becomes an anecdote to a coworker. `She says, I don't like the way you look at me. I've got to you look at you, you're the boss. She says she doesn't like the way I look at her. So I gave her one, right across the backside.' The coworker replies, `Oh you never!'`Are you calling me a liar, then?'`No, no! I was only enjoyin'You get the impression his boss really likes him and hates him at the same time. From what I can remember, a fight with his daughter occupies the rest of the act, and she leaves home.The second act takes place at her job. Michael Caine plays a sort of reluctant playboy. He works with a man who can't leave the ladies alone, even though he's married. Every time this man gets in over his head, Caine is called in to seduce her away, and then let her down gently. He almost refuses to help with Anna's character because it has often proved a dangerous game. `And what about that last one, the one with the brother who was kinky for hatchets. You failed to tell me about him.' What Caine doesn't know is that the women in the office are tired of the game, too, and have put Anna, the ice queen into the game to hurt him.That act is the funniest, with Caine trying to get close to her. He asks her to promise not to `glacial scrape me with those two ribbons of ice you call lips.' When she asks what's so great about kissing, anyway, he replies, `If you have to ask, you aren't doing it right.' In the end, her plan works, he falls for her, and she hurts him. But it is a hollow victory, and you can tell it hurts her, too, though I doubt she knows why.And that leads to the comfortable older man, played by Paul Scofield, Oscar winner for A Man For All Seasons. I remember this act the least, probably because the first act had James Bond [I was 14, remember] and the second act had lots of fast, witty dialogue. But one can see the balance of the play. Scofield was the antithesis of her father - kind, caring, compassionate, thoughtful, and well-educated. He must have seemed safe, the dreaded `s' word. What I do seem to remember is that this relationship, also, did not work out. And if she left it somewhat bewildered as to why it didn't work, I seem to think she gained some balance in her life. Or was it the viewer, who watching it, gained the balance and the wisdom.In any event, I have to agree with other reviewers I've seen on this site, that this is a very wanted film. I remember it has some of the charming early 60's television production values. While not as slickly produced as later Hallmark films, it has four strong performances and story that keeps one from noticing any flaws. At least that's how I remember it, 34 years later. I think there are a lot of us who would very much like the chance to see it again.

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.