Three to Go

Male Hunt is a French comedy that hangs precariously on the supposition that good plots come in threes. Its loosely interwoven stories are one part nimble New Wave lark, one part vintage boudoir farce, one part homogenized Hollywood sex.

In Hunt's opening dream sequences, three naked young blades cower in the deep grass while a pack of chic horsewomen come galloping through the glen. Director Edouard Molinaro thus establishes a theme to justify his title. Then, with stylish clowning, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Claude Rich and Jean-Claude Brialy take out after a galaxy of predatory French dolls in wild, whimsical, aimless and occasionally rather funny fashion.

Belmondo, playing a Parisian mec supported by three prostitutes, describes one as "a country girl--so I have her work the park." The girl demands a pair of boots for bad-weather soliciting, and Belmondo snaps: "Boots attract perverts." When the gendarmes threaten to put him out of business, he marries a virginal barmaid (Marie Dubois), operates her cafe until she turns shrewish, then flees to Greece and sells himself to an aged playgirl.

Rich, caught cavorting with a chic matron (Micheline Presle), is cleverly bamboozled into marriage by his blonde secretary (Catherine Deneuve). He divorces her, the better to enjoy her favors when she becomes another man's wife. Brialy, a successful "lay-out artist," jilts his bride (Marie Laforet) at the altar, leaves for a solo honeymoon m Athens, where he matches wits with a^ vivacious swindler (Franc,hise Dor-leac, real-life sister of Actress Deneuve), who ultimately becomes his better half.

Inevitably, with so many attractive performers at large, they keep bumping into one another from time to time and compare notes to make sure that everyone ends up in love in Paris. And everyone does, possibly because a comedy consisting entirely of side trips hasn't any place else to go.

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