Le coup de l'oreiller

I am reviewing the DVD I saw, which combined two "Rock Hudson" movies under the heading "Rock Hudson collection". 2 movies for the price of 1? Bring'em on! The first film: "Any Body Seen My Gal", is a Douglas Sirk comedy I had never heard of. Yet…I found this film to be a pleasure from beginning to the end! It is 1952 and Rock Hudson is very handsome and so young, and the whole movie (story, 1930s setting, colors, the ensemble cast of actors) is a delight to watch. What an enchanting piece of movie-making, with dark existential realities behind the apparent lightness. The second film ("A Very Special Favor") is a mixed bag. Because it was made in 1965, its first 30 minutes are a must-see priceless candy bordering on parody (except it is the real stuff, ah ah!): 60s decor, 60s orchestral music, Pink Panther-style opening credits, rear view projections in "Paris" or "New York", sexual banter, witty dialogue, split screens, Yves Saint Laurent dresses. After these first 30 minutes, however, the story line veers off into a war of the sexes theme that makes a modern viewer cringe, even though the film still has some very funny scenes. Rock Hudson, Charles Boyer and Walter Slezak are excellent. Leslie Caron is probably miscast.

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.

Charles Boyer asks Rock Hudson for "A Very Special Favor," a 1965 film starring Leslie Caron, Walter Slezak, Dick Shawn, Nita Talbot and Larry Storch. Boyer is Michel Boullard, a man estranged from his cold, rigid daughter, a psychiatrist, Lauren Boullard (Caron) engaged to a wimp (Shawn). Impressed by his colleague Paul Chadwick's (Hudson) success with women, he asks Paul to seduce his daughter. However, Michel then reconnects with his daughter and, becoming angry with Paul, turns against him and works with Lauren to extract revenge on his mistreatment of her. This involves inventing a lover for Lauren, a bullfighter named El Magnifico and convincing Paul he's lost it in the sack.

Paul finally catches on and enlists a female friend who isn't getting any at the moment (Nita Talbot) and has her impersonate a man so that Lauren will think he's now gay.

I notice people on the board have all kinds of theories why this film isn't on DVD except that now, of course, it is. It also isn't the only time this inside joke was used in a Rock Hudson film, if anyone recalls his description to Doris Day about her boyfriend in "Pillow Talk." "Well, there are some men...who live with their mothers..." etc. I'm sure that in those days (unlike today) Hudson's private life was safe enough that no one thought twice about using something like this in a script. Everyone probably thought it was pretty funny.

These sex comedies were all the rage in the '60s, and this one has its moments, with Hudson and Caron very good in their roles and surrounded by excellent people. In one of the first scenes, Boyer and Slezak, two suicides in real life, embrace - it really didn't get the comedy off to a good start for me. But they're both delightful, Boyer moving from romantic leads to the father roles still possessing that wonderful, easy charm he had. Slezak was a very versatile actor who could go from playing an invincible Nazi in "Lifeboat" to a role like this. Nita Talbot is one of my favorite actresses of all time - seeing her made me nostalgic for the old days.

If you like this type of comedy, at which Hudson really excelled, you'll enjoy this one. This is on a DVD set of some of the more obscure Hudson films such as "Has Anybody Seen My Gal," and the collection shows the trajectory of his career from young supporting player to lead. The fact that Hudson has since been "outed" shouldn't make his work any less enjoyable. He was, after all, doing what he was hired to do - act.

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.

I've been reading the other reviews with interest. I saw this film on TV about 45 years ago when I was about 8 years old. Around this time I used to watch two back-to-back films on a Saturday or Sunday and I remember this film because it was absolutely hilarious. All the other good films have been repeated on TV - but I have only ever seen this once. I remember laughing and laughing when watching the film. I didn't know anything about sex at that age. I just saw it as a father trying to get his daughter to 'lighten up', to 'live', and to have an interest in finding a male companion in life, instead of an existence of continual work. I didn't see anything odd about Rock Hudson's character pretending to be a patient with his 'problem'. This subterfuge was a key part of romantic comedy films of the time. I certainly didn't see the 'set-up' scene as anything to do with sex - I just remember it as a slightly naughty prank. In some ways the film does remind me of 'pillow talk' and this isn't surprising as one of the writers is the same. I am very pleased to hear that it is now on DVD and I will be very interested to see it again.