Le sport favori de l'homme

Rock Hudson (in a role originally offered Cary Grant) and Paula Prentiss work beautifully together in this battle-of-the-sexes film from the early 60's. It's a shame that the studio didn't team the two up again, as they had a definite chemistry together (not unlike Rock had with Doris Day).

I once met Paula backstage at a play she was appearing in and asked her to sign a lobby card showing the sexy "sleeping bag" scene from this film. She looked at the card, sighed, and said: "That was a fun scene to shoot. Rock was a good kisser!"

This movie combines elements of Hawks' screwball comedies of the 30ies and the Doris Day "sex comedies" of the 60ies... turned out to be very funny! The idea of an author of books about fishing with no idea of fishing is good for many funny situations - for he eventually has to learn it,observed by two energetic young ladies. Rock Hudson makes a good figure,but Paula Prentiss and Maria Perschy are even better - they both give incredibly funny,magnificent performances! I liked this movie...

Howard Hawks legendary Director fell like most Men for gorgeous Paula Prentiss. Prentiss was an MGM star having made 4 comedies with her co star Jim Hutton. Hawks had a deal with Paramount for this film but that studio did not want Prentiss in the picture so Howard Hawks took the project to Universal and assigned its greatest star Rock Hudson as co star. MGM loaned Prentiss to Universal for this movie. Paula Prentiss was given above the title billing next to Hudson on this film and raised Prentiss to worldwide star.

Rock Hudson who was #1 at Universal and a top male star in Hollywood gives a great performance as a expert on fishing who in actuality knows nothing about fishing. Hudson in his great career was co star to Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Jane Wyman, Jennifer Jones, and most famously Doris Day.

Paula Prentiss when discussing this movie said when she met Hudson she was stunned as she said Hudson was the most handsome man she ever saw. His looks were a distraction per Paula. Paula Prentiss gives a great performance in this film and someone wrote a book "Alternative Oscars" and listed Prentiss as the star who gave the best female performance. Prentiss was not nominated but I feel in reality this gorgeous talented Texas should have been nominated for Supporting Actress for Where The Boys Are and Best Actress for Man's Favorite Sport?

Some reviewers have criticized the studio-bound look (Bringing Up Baby wasn't???), flat, high- key photography, the fact Rock Hudson isn't Cary Grant, that much of the comedy is slapstick (which, I guess, means physical and visual), that gags are recycled from older films......I mean, who cares? This is a total delight, probably the best comic roles Prentiss and Hudson ever had, and one of the funniest post World War 2 movies of all. Today, the 6th or 7th time I've seen it, I found when it was over I wanted to go out and buy a DVD of it.

Hawks' films may not have the pictorial qualities that Ford's, Welles', and Hitchcock's had, but when it came to involving you in a group of characters and their silly, yet somehow believable, antics, he had no superiors. It's not surprising it took the French New Wave, with their impatience for tired and predictable dramatic conventions, to finally recognize and rank Hawks at the very highest level of film artists.

Rock Hudson stars as a man posing as a fishing expert who basically passes on information from one customer to another. He has written a best selling book on fishing and no one knows he's a fraud, not even his fiancée. He is shocked to learn his boss has entered him into a fishing contest and doesn't know what to do until Paula Prentiss and Maria Perschy tell him they got him involved and are going to teach him to fish. This is a pretty good comedy but it does have a little too much slapstick in it. There are some scenes that are taken from Bringing Up Baby and Howard Hawks did ask Cary Grant to be in this movie but he said no because he didn't want to be seen on screen with women who a lot younger then he was. The movie is two hours long and goes by pretty quickly.