I've written many times about how much I love the UK DVD distributor Network. I love them for releasing obscure ITC shows that no one else realizes there's an audience for, I love them for releasing so many spy things, but most of all I love them for seemingly creating brand new old gems from whole cloth. Of course they're not really new, but they're new to me, and I love discovering them through these fantastic Region 2 releases. For example, despite being a huge fan of the two frequent spy stars, I never realized that Sean Connery and Michael Caine had been in a movie or TV show together prior to their epic team-up in The Man Who Would Be King. But now, thanks to Network's newly relaunched website, I know that they both starred in the 1969 TV movie Male of the Species, which the company will release on DVD (for the first time ever on any home format) on October 10. Connery and Caine don't actually appear together, but they're both in it and they're both on the cover and either one of them alone would be enough to get me to buy this! Apparently Male of the Species was originally conceived for British television as a series of three half-hour plays by Alun Owen airing in consecutive weeks on ITV’s celebrated anthology series Saturday Night Theatre. Each episode explored the relationship between Mary MacNeil (Anna Calder-Marshall) and a different man in her life. Connery plays her father in the first part, and Caine plays her smooth lover in the second. Paul Scofield appears in the third, and Laurence Olivier narrates. The three plays were apparently aired together as one TV movie on Masterpiece Theater in the United States. Network's Region 2 PAL DVD will retail for £15.31, but it's currently discounted on their website to £9.18.
So awesome. Thanks for the heads up.
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