Male of the Species. 1969. USA/UK. Directed by Charles Jarrott, Anthony Page. With Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Paul Scofield, Anna Calder-Marshall. Digital. 81 min.
Sean Connery, Michael Caine, and Paul Scofield are in top form in this rarely screened episodic film, conceived by Alun Owen (screenwriter of A Hard Day’s Night) as three individual teleplays for Britain’s ITV Saturday Night Theatre. Each plays one of the various incorrigible men—father, office flirtation, lover—who cause disappointment and heartbreak in the tiny life of Mary McNeil (an excellent Anna Calder-Marshall). Caine and Connery would, of course, go on to star in John Huston’s The Man Who Would Be King before reuniting once more in Richard Attenborough’s A Bridge Too Far. Though playing scoundrels three, Connery, Caine, and Scofield would all later be knighted by the queen.