“OF PURE BLOOD,” 9-11 p.m. Sunday (2)(8)--People...

“OF PURE BLOOD,” 9-11 p.m. Sunday (2)(8)--People frequently wonder when TV will get “better.” The answer? When TV thinks “better” of its audience.

Sunday night’s CBS movie, “Of Pure Blood,” is an example. It has a chance, and blows it.

Perhaps our fascination with evil makes the swastika such a hot ticket. Whether on a book or a screen, it seems to draw a crowd.

Hence, you can count on at least one TV movie with a Nazi theme showing up each season. Despite its flaws, “Of Pure Blood” is superior to most.

For one thing, it’s based on fact, the Nazis’ infamous Lebensborn program which paired SS “supermen” with Aryan females to produce a “master race” of children for the Third Reich.

For another, Lee Remick is convincing as Alicia Browning, a German-born American confronted by her hidden past, and there is a dandy performance in a small role by Edith Schneider as Browning’s German mother.

Also, producer/director Joseph Sargent (who won an Emmy this year for his direction of “Love Is Never Silent”) manages to project a sense of foreboding and mystery, even though we almost immediately know what Alicia will not discover until later--that she herself was a Lebensborn baby produced at “one of Himmler’s breeding farms.”

And finally, there is a nice ironic touch when the Lebensborn home where Alicia lived as a toddler has become a home for handicapped children.

The story’s intrigue is triggered by Alicia’s investigation of the death of her son in Munich and his seemingly irrational aggression toward an elderly German physician who has that Nazi gleam in his eye.

Getting the picture? Of course, you are, which is the problem. “Of Pure Blood” starts out credibly, but becomes routine and predictable.

The last half of the story is marred by script conveniences (an infant never utters a peep while being bumped around in a violent sequence, because the child’s cries would drown out the dialogue) building to a contrived, implausible climax. One German says to a Nazi who is threatening Alicia:

“We will speak English so that Mrs. Browning will understand.”

Yes, and so viewers will understand, too. It would never occur to commercial TV that viewers actually could survive two minutes of subtitles, for the sake of authenticity, without switching channels. That’s what’s called underestimating an audience.

Better TV, indeed.