Le coup de l'oreiller

Rock Hudson is at his best when it comes to romantic comedy. Their is excellent chemistry with the cast of this film. This movie should be on everyone's agenda to see if ever it becomes available. There are a lot of enjoyable laughs and you come away from it feeling good. It will definitely lift your spirits.

This is a flick that will definitely not leave a bad taste in your mouth. There are lots and lots of slapstick laughter. The casting is perfect: Rock Hudson, Leslie Caron, Charles Boyer, Walter Slezak & Dick Shawn among others that are all long gone. What makes me so upset is it is the only Rock Hudson Romantic Comedy that hasn't been put on video. Posters & movie stills are floating around for people to purchase, but the video is positively not available. If all of this memorabilia is available, then why not the video? Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back, Send Me No Flowers & Man's Favorite Sport have all been made available. These are often shown on television too. This hysterical romantic comedy has only been at the theaters and shown only on television just ONE time. It is a feel good story that will most certainly warm everyone's hearts. We need more happiness today to be able to feel good. It will most assuredly make you split your sides laughing to the point of tears. I have been looking for the video forever. Fortunely I was able to find the book; which is the next best thing to being able to see the movie. So the book will have to do until they decide to come out with the video.

There is a lot to like about this Rock Hudson film, but also a lot that just didn't work. Aside from being wildly uneven, it's just not that good a film.

The movie starts off quite well. Rock plays a womanizer who is absolutely irresistible to women--and he soon wins a legal case simply because the judge thinks he's a hunk. His opponent (Charles Boyer) is impressed with Hudson's sex appeal and befriends him. Soon, however, their friendship is tested when Boyer asks Rock to seduce his VERY proper and seemingly unhappy daughter (Leslie Caron). However, instead of doing this directly, when Rock finds out she's a psychologist, he decides to concoct some stupid disorder and tries to trick her into loving him. This and the rest of the film is VERY contrived--never making any sense and at times being rather offensive. My ULTRA-feminist college-age daughter kept having an apoplexy as she watched Rock's shenanigans--and she felt he was more like a date rapist than a hero! I didn't feel quite that strongly but could understand how someone could be very turned off by him--he WAS a jerk and the film stopped making sense towards the end. A FAR cry from the great films he made with Doris Day, that's for sure! Unlikable characters and poor writing make this a chore to watch at times. Very skippable.

This is one of many ROCK HUDSON sex comedies made in the 60's. It's all talk and no do, like the others. Pure formula from start to finish with Rock hired to "teach" the Leslie Caron character about life in the bedroom. Some funny moments and Caron is delicious, but bogs down toward the end and becomes to contrived for its own good. Look for some familiar character actors such as Dick Shawn as a nerdy fiancé' Larry Storch as a cab driver and George Furth in a barroom scene. The always excellent Nita Talbot has a nice role as one of Mr. Hudsons many man hungry females. For a nice confection, it's worth a view. Now on DVD with HAS ANYBODY SEEN MY GAL.

"A Very Special Favor" has a very clever idea for a movie plot. Oh, sure, it's strange, even weird, and hardly believable. But that's the kind of stuff that often makes for wonderful comedies. And, this could have been such - with the screenplay and very funny dialog, and supporting cast. But there's a big problem with the film that actually detracts from the humorous schemes and dialog of Charles Boyer's Michel Boullard. It may be two parts of a problem, or two separate problems.

The first and biggest one is Leslie Caron as Dr. Lauren Boullard. In her women's suits, professional demeanor and wise, controlled persona, Caron is about as attractive as a mackerel in the market. And she is as exciting, alive, and believable as an alluring pursuit of Rock Hudson's Paul Chadwick, as a wet fish. She never loses this persona at any time, so that in each scene with Chadwick, any attraction seems impossible. The second minus for the film is related to the first - there is absolutely zero chemistry between Hudson and Caron.

Again, there is very funny dialog between Hudson's and Boyer's characters and others. And Boyer's schemes and reversals are hilarious. Doris Day would have been perfect for the part of Dr. Lauren Boullard. With a couple of strokes of the pen, she could have been the American-born daughter of Michel's American wife who left him or who died.

As is, the unattractive, cold fish character of Caron's Dr. Boullard is a real turn-off for this film. The absence of any spark between her and Hudson's Chadwick is all over the screen, and his slight show of interest isn't at all believable. Leslie Caron had a marked beauty about her, and she was very attractive in many films. But not so in this one. Universal really needed to do a makeover of the leads for the cast here.

The ending of this film is a surprise and almost shouts for the female lead to have been Doris Day. It could have been a real funny and good closing. Instead, it puts a nail in the coffin of disbelief in the story.

But for the superb script and very good comedy provided mostly by Hudson, Boyer and Walter Slezak as Etienne, this film wouldn't even rate four stars. When fans had been flocking to Rock Hudson movies, especially his comedy romances, this film had just $4.5 million in box office ticket sales. It barely covered its budget, if that, in a year that had blockbuster films such as "The Sound of Music" ($145 million box office), "Doctor Zhivago" ($127 million box office), and four comedies that had $20 to $38 million at the box office.

I don't think that Rock Hudson's scheme of pretending to be gay (which he was in real life) had anything to do with this film almost tanking. In 1959's "Pillow Talk," Hudson's Brad Allen schemes over the phone with Doris Day to make her think the Texan she has met and is dating (a role he assumed when he met Day's Jan Morrow by chance) is an effeminate momma's boy. It was done with great humor and didn't stop that film from being a box office hit.

I'm not one who thinks of movies as occasionally miscast. But this one surely is an exception. Here are some funny lines from this film.

Arnold Plum, "I was a mess. And the sad thing is, I never knew it. She had to point it out to me."

Paul Chadwick, "What does she look like now... today... this minute?" Michel Boullard, "How does one describe inner beauty?" Paul, "Forget the inside. Let's stay on the outside for a while." Michel, "I feel safe in saying she's attractive..." Paul, "YOU feel safe? Would it be risky for anyone else to say it?"

Paul Chadwick, "She's a skinny, flat--chested girl with buck teeth. And so far, you've only been talking about her good points."

Paul Chadwick, "Oh, doctor, it's a curse, a nightmare. Do you know what it feels like to be wanted just for your body?" Dr. Lauren Boullard, "Nooo." Paul, "Ah, how I envy you. What I'd give to have a body nobody'd want..."

Paul Chadwick, "I had just enlisted in the Marine Corps that morning.... Wanda was a decent girl, but in a moment of patriotism, she offered herself to me." Dr. Lauren Boullard, "She offered herself to you." Paul, "I said, 'No!' I was a Marine now. I didn't want to do anything to besmirch the honor of the Corps. But, if I hadn't said no, she never would have jumped."

Dr. Lauren Boullard, "Mr. Chadwick, not all women destroy themselves when a man refuses to make love to them." Paul Chadwick, "I can't risk another woman."

Dr. Lauren Boullard, "Believe me, Mr. Chadwick - you can accomplish just as much within a group." Paul Chadwick, "Mmm, yeah, but it makes it a little more difficult."

Dr. Lauren Boullard, "And what is the next step? Even if a woman is standing there with no clothes on, you will be able to walk out on her." Paul Chadwick, "That'll be the day."

Etienne, "But you said he had to be destroyed." Michel Boullard, "I was thinking of a normal revenge. In France, what happens? The woman shoots the man. That's civilized."

Etienne, "Michel this is madness. Your daughter cries, so you break down and tell her the truth. In the hands of an outraged woman, that's a dangerous weapon."

Michel Boullard,, "For what she did, make her suffer, my son - marry her." Paul Chadwick, "I'm being broadsided. You said 'my son' again and my stomach didn't turn. There's something evil going on and I don't know how to fight it."