Male Animal, The

His fangs are bared, his hackles raised, his gin bottle nearly empty. The Male Animal is out of his lair, storming battle-of-the-sexes-bulwarks, skewering college athletics and speaking his mind when folks of narrower hat size seek to stop him. Henry Fonda plays bookish Prof. Tommy Turner, struggling to get in touch with his man-of-action side during the weekend of the big football game, the arrival of an ex-gridiron star (Jack Carson) once -- perhaps still -- fancied by Turner's wife (Olivia de Havilland), and the academic tussle that threatens the professor's tenure. This Hollywood version of the Broadway smash co-written by James Thurber stays close to its source -- the film's director is the stage hit's other writer and star Elliott Nugent.

• comedy
• drama