Man's Favorite Sport (1964) is an entertaining comedy

Directed by ace Howard Hawks, Man's Favorite Sport is a wonderful comedy that uses Bringing Up Baby as a template and then manages to create it's own cool story. Rock Hudson is in great form as Roger Willoughby, who has written books on how to be a great fisherman. And he works in the sporting department of Abercrombie and Finch. Trouble is Roger has never fished a day in his life. Which is not really a problem until one Abby Page (a game Paula Prentiss) enters him into a fishing contest. Along with her sidekick Easy (wonderfully played by Maria Perschy) they now have to teach Roger how to fish in 3 days.

Roger meets Abby

The dialogue between these three characters are fast and loose. And very entertaining. Hudson is hilarious as he gets the majority of the laughs. Closely resembling Cary Grant's character of David from Bringing Up Baby, Rock manages to make Roger just as fun to watch. Paula Prentiss is ok as Abby. Sometimes she gets annoying. A few times though she gets off a few good zingers. Particulary when she tries to mimic Roger's girlfriend Tex (Charlene Holt). She nails it then. I actually liked Perschy more as Easy, her sidekick. Who keeps getting into compromising situations with Roger involving zippers. They pull off the classic double walk that Cary and Kate did in Baby when Kate's dressed got ripped and Cary had to walk step by step with her. Well Rock and Maria do the same thing and it's just a good the original version.

Having a good laugh at their current situation

There is also the very cool music score by Henry Mancini which is jazzy and upbeat. Throw in some wonderful supporting characters like Roscoe Karns and Regis Toomey, and you have a pretty good comedy. And the opening credit scenes are pretty amazing too. Definitely pleasing to the male eye.

One of the aforementioned zipper scenes between Roger and Easy,

as Tex walks in

I have to give thanks to my great friend Irene Palfy for stoking my interest in this film as she told me all about it. Thanks Irene.

Roger showing off his newly acquired fishing skills

And to those who have never seen it, please watch it. It makes for a wonderful two hours.
B

Screwball Cinema welcomes Irina Garbo

February marks the first time I will have a guest here on Screwball Cinema. I usually have guests all the time on my other blog, All Good Things and still do. But I wanted to start having guests here as well. Guests that will focus mainly on their love of screwball films and stars. Up first will be Irina Garbo, a friend who I met on Facebook. She has been a great friend and I invited her to be my first guest since our shared friends of Renata, Desiree and Janine had already done so on All Good Things. So she quickly accepted and the rest is history. Some of the questions I will ask Irina will be similar to the ones I asked on AGT, but some will be modified to fit here on screwball cinema. So everyone please do stop by from time to time to meet the wonderful Irina Garbo.

Irina

Screwball Stars are just like us...

Here are some photos showing stars of screwball comedies doing regular folk stuff...just like us

WASHING DISHES

KNITTING

TRYING ON SHOES

EATING BREAKFAST

LISTENING TO RECORDS

TAKING PICTURES

READING MAPS

TRAVELING BY TRAIN

WALKING THE DOG

AND A LITTLE TARGET PRACTICE

A new feature on Screwball Cinema...Star Of The Month

I wrote earlier that I had slacked off a little here on Screwball Cinema and was going try to write more this year. I do quite a bit on my main blog, All Good Things and co-writing several other ones with my friends Dawn and Irene. I was thinking about holding a tournament trying to decide the favorite screwball comedy of all time. Probably sometime later on in the year. But for now I will add a new feature called Star of the month where I focus on a specific star who has a regular component of screwball comedies. Beginning next month with Irene Dunne, who starred in such classics as The Awful Truth and Theodora Goes Wild. Hope to see everyone here next month.