Man's Favorite Sport? (1964)

The author of a best-selling fishing guide is actually incredibly inexperienced when it comes to the sport, which causes mayhem when he is entered into a competition.

Director:

Howard Hawks

Writers:

Pat Frank (story "The Girl Who Almost Got Away"), John Fenton Murray

Stars:

Rock Hudson, Paula Prentiss, Maria Perschy

1 win.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Rock Hudson	...	Roger Willoughby
Paula Prentiss	...	Abigail Page
Maria Perschy	...	Isolde 'Easy' Mueller
John McGiver	...	William Cadwalader
Charlene Holt	...	Tex Connors
Roscoe Karns	...	Major Phipps
James Westerfield	...	Policeman
Norman Alden	...	John Screaming Eagle
Forrest Lewis	...	Skaggs
Regis Toomey	...	Bagley
Tyler McVey	...	Customer Bush
Kathie Browne	...	Marcia

Storyline

Roger Willoughby is considered to be a leading expert on sports fishing. He's written books on the subject and is loved by his customers in the sporting goods department at Abercrombie and Fitch, where he works. There's only one problem however: he's never been fishing in his life. When the store owner enters him in a fishing contest, mayhem ensues.

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Plot Keywords:

fiance fiancee relationship | partial remake | screwball comedy | slapstick comedy | neo screwball comedy | 

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Taglines:

It takes a girl to supply the answer!

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 March 1964 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Ein Goldfisch an der Leine

Filming Locations:

Revue Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gibraltar Productions, Laurel Productions, Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Hawks wanted so much to have Paula Prentiss as his leading lady that he even considered to move the production to M-G-M, where she was under contract.

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Goofs

When Roger visits Abagail at her camp her air bed is supported on a frame that holds it about 8 inches off the ground. Later, during the rainstorm, the bed is flat on the ground so it can be washed into the lake.

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Quotes

Roger Willoughby: Did you take a special course in blackmail, or is it just a natural talent?

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Connections

References Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

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Soundtracks

Man's Favorite Sport
Music by Henry Mancini
Lyric by Johnny Mercer

User Reviews

Slick, professional, but SO studio bound!

Other comments about this one are on the mark, both positive and negative. Rock and Paula play awfully well together and it's always a pleasure to see her get more than a few scenes in a film.

Howard Hawks had at his disposal not only an attractive cast but also thorough professionals behind the cameras. But I recall, when I saw this during its first-run, and again when I saw an interminably interrupted broadcast of it on American Movie "Classics" (the quotes are intentional because this cable venue now treats its library like disposable trash!), that this film had the falsest, most studio-bound look to it of almost all of the releases of that era. The lighting is bland and frequently too bright, the sets are all obviously constructed and photographed on a soundstage (including all the exterior scenes, or so it seems) and the final impression is so artificial that the script's deficiencies become all the more glaring.

Yes, I know, that pulling off some of this comedy's elaborately set up sequences, some involving some fairly complex slapstick, would be very hard to control in natural, actual location settings, but, really, one wished they would have tried to do so, or at least to make the studio and backlot sets a little more convincing to the eye. For me the whole enterprise felt like a firecracker that just fails to fizzle, pop and explode as the illustration on the box promises.