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Reviews
Fear No Evil (1969)
Golden Age of Television
The late 60's in the US produced some unforgettable TV-movies. 1967 had "Games" with Simon Signoret, 1969 gave us the strangely forgotten prize-winning "Male of the Species" with Anna Calder-Marshall & Sir Paul Scofield, and 1969 the erotic thriller "Fear No Evil". The casting was perfect, the writing intelligent, the direction impeccable. These were shows that didn't condescend to a TV audience nor pander to the lowest common denominator - all of these (note the latter 2 of the 3 sadly unavailable to date, and the former available as a used VHS at exorbitant prices) were examples of television that had the best of cinema, provoking, haunting, memorable, risk-taking, trail-blazing. In some ways the eroticism of these 3 TV shows was more daring than the X-rated "Midnight Cowboy". Hard to imagine network television today producing anything of comparable caliber, or to imagine people reminiscing and seeking out copies of the pap we are fed today 30-40 years from now. I would love to get my hands on these last 2, very different but equally entertaining and memorable shows, if only to explain to my offspring that once upon a time there was network television - and it was good. Bradford Dillman and Louis Jourdan were perfect opposites, both seductively charming opposite the virginal blonde beauty Lynda Day (later George), I can't imagine any other actors before or since taking this supernatural horror premise and making it so plausible. Excellent work by all -- so where is the DVD??? (an aside, did Louis Jourdan play Count Dracula before or after Fear No Evil? God, even RENFIELD was sexy in that one, in one memorable scene at least - although Frank Langella was also a honey - and the female star also played Claire in Zeffirelli's "Brother Sun Sister Moon". Must have been later, as he looked a lot older, and I had already left the States when it aired and didn't get to see it until the 80's)
Male of the Species (1969)
Anna Calder-Marshall
Sir Paul Scofield and Michael Caine (and do I remember correctly Sean Connery doing narration?), in a TV release - what a treat! I remember this as one of the finest things on TV from my adolesence (otherwise spent watchingThe Monkees, I Love Lucy re-runs, and F-Troop), a pity that it has disappeared. I've been looking for it since VHS came around, but I guess it was too intelligent to be a blockbuster. I wish I remembered more of it, I was 12 at the time and I imagine a lot of it went straight over my head, but now even the script is nowhere to be found. The actress, Anna Calder-Marshall, went on to star the following year as Cathy in "Wuthering Heights" to Timothy Dalton's Heathcliff (not your Laurence Olivier version, sexy and closer to the book in some ways). In reading the other comments here, my memory is still not jogged enough to remember much more about this, although I thought in the last act of this trilogy she met with her comeuppance - can anyone remember a more linear description of the plot of this 1969 gem? I remember that the title seemed misleading, the male figures gravitating around the central character - the girl - were of less consequence than her reaction to them, it seemed to say more about the FEmale of the species than the male, and her betrayals, her disloyalties and shortcomings seemed more shocking than those of the men in her life.