MALICE AND AMBITION do not adhere to Alan Alda's face. Alda the screenwriter forgot that Alda the actor looks like a waiter in Chinatown begging for a big tip--his squinting, ever-genial countenance belies the selfish, insatiable drive that defines his hero, Senator-on-the-make Joe Tynan. The words of the screenplay may fit, but Alda can't take up the Nice Man's Burden: Hawkeye can't play Macbeth.

Alda's irrepressible personality overwhelms the role. Despite his intention to save his family and marriage, he has jumped on a treadmill of political power and, unlike George Jetson, he can't even call for Jane. Politics subsumes the rest of his life; even with women, only one who can be a political part in his life attracts him.

The "other woman," Karen Traynor, is played masterfully by WASP phenomenon Meryl Streep. A lawyer whose civil rights organization gives Tynan information which can destroy a supposedly racist Supreme Court nominee, Traynor bears the oft-mentioned aphrodisiac of power: as Tynan makes the move on Traynor in his private office, he whispers, "I think I'm infatuated with you... You remind me of John Kennedy."

Funny he should mention it, because the Tynan character at times seems a somewhat attenuated Teddy-doll: half-moon glasses, jabbing finger, troubles with the missus. And the sexual politics always have been a hallmark of the Kennedy mystique, even with the Senator's often embarrassing weight problem. The mimicry appears at just the right time to capitalize on, and possibly abet, the burgeoning Kennedy in '80 groundswell.

Director Jerry Schatzberg has transferred television production techniques to the big screen in an attempt to reinforce the film's relation to current events like the Draft Kennedy movement. The effect is a cheap look for the film. A national convention scene looks like a Mets game, with an embarrassing sea of empty seats in the background. There is little location shooting, especially in Washington where the opportunities are abundant, which saps whatever realism Schatzberg managed to achieve with his spare direction.

Admittedly, Alda's concern is not Washington, but ambition--and how it seduces Joe Tynan, and how that seduction affects the people around him. Barbara Harris's Elie cannot accept political life, but neither will she part with her husband. Elie borders on the liberated, flapping her gums without taking a firm stand when faced with Tynan's indifference and infidelity. If Alda had lived up to his touted feminist credentials, Elie could not say, "All I ever wanted was for you to love me." She could go to college, or whatever, yet she remains a faithful and willing victim.

But what's a family when you've found a soul-mate, another mover and shaker and eater of Maalox? Tynan's lack of concern for his non-political life is matched and complemented by Karen's similar interests. In a scene reminiscent of Faye Dunaway and Peter Finch's "business lunch" in Network, the senator and the lawyer share information about their upcoming confrontation with the Supreme Court nominee while performing stress tests on their new Posturepedic. Streep, tackling with stunning confidence an entirely different role from that she played in The Deer Hunter, evinces a magnetic attraction to power. In her first conversation with Tynan, she says, "When I think of the splash you could make with this, I just get weak in the knees."

THE SCREENPLAY strains with the Kennedy model and an intrusive Hollywood morality. But the excellences in character acting balance any such flaws. Melvyn Douglas, a reliable old pro, plays the aging, once powerful Senator Birney, whose friendship Tynan must betray. Alda's best moments come when he is Douglas's foil; Tynan feels contempt for the old man's politics but cannot help sympathizing when Birney lapses into senility and the Cajun tongue of his youth. Rip Torn plays a hilarious cameo as the libidinous buffoon, Sen. Ritner.

The most successful seducer in The Seduction of Joe Tynan is Joe Tynan. He seduces his wife with false promises. He seduces Karen Traynor with the promise of power and passion of success. Tynan himself is seduced--hence the title--but we never see the manipulation in his face. When Tynan wins in the end, we're happy. But nobody said we couldn't be seduced.