Grant's own career was winding down, and he was hesitant about committing to Man's Favorite Sport? Nearing sixty, the actor didn't like the idea of co-starring opposite three young actresses - Paula Prentiss, Maria Perschy and Charlene Holt. Eventually, Grant found another project he liked better: Charade (1963), despite the fact that he was cast opposite the much younger Audrey Hepburn. Hawks replaced Grant in Man's Favorite Sport? with Rock Hudson, who had recently made two very successful romantic comedies with Doris Day, Pillow Talk (1959), and Lover Come Back (1961). Hudson was under contract at Universal, and Paramount agreed to borrow him for Man's Favorite Sport?.
Meanwhile, Hawks was having script problems. He wanted Leigh Brackett, who had written both Rio Bravo and Hatari!, as well as The Big Sleep. But Brackett was unavailable. So Hawks decided to use two television writers, John Fenton Murray and Steve McNeil. But they weren't comfortable with Hawks' working methods, and he wasn't happy with their work.
To play the role of the bossy publicist in Man's Favorite Sport? who tries to transform the non-fishing expert into a fisherman, Hawks chose a young MGM contract player, Paula Prentiss. She was very much in the mold of the typical Hawks heroine: tall, willowy, husky-voiced, and witty. Paramount insisted Prentiss wasn't a big enough name, but Hawks was adamant. When Paramount would not back down, he struck a deal with Universal, and moved the production there. Production was delayed for several weeks while sets were built on the Universal lot. The delay also meant that Leigh Brackett was now available to rewrite the script, and she was on the set during filming. However, the Writers Guild eventually denied her screen credit.
Although Hawks had fought for Prentiss, Todd McCarthy claims in his biography of Hawks that the director reduced the high-strung Prentiss to tears with his working methods. McCarthy writes that Prentiss felt he was trying to model her too much after the actresses in his 1930's screwball comedies. However, in a recent interview, Prentiss recalled how much she enjoyed working with Hawks. "Howard was very good about letting you overlap [dialogue]," she said. "He told the dialogue person to just let us do whatever we wanted to do, which was great because it was a bit more spontaneous.... So if I would make up something or rattle on, that was kept, and he said 'we'll fix it later.'"
When Man's Favorite Sport? was finished, it ran 145 minutes, which was too long for a romantic comedy, although Hawks claimed it played well at that length. But Universal executives said it had to be cut. Hawks always claimed that 40 minutes were cut (actually it was about 25), and that it ruined the film. But he may have been rationalizing the film's lukewarm reviews and equally tepid box office. "At its best, Man's Favorite Sport? generates some uncommonly adroit visual comedy," wrote the Variety critic. "But the picture is only spasmodically scintillating, for producer-director Howard Hawks has forgotten that brevity is the soul of wit." Others complained about the look of the film, which was shot entirely on a soundstage, and looked artificial. But critics liked Prentiss, and while Rock Hudson was no Cary Grant, most felt that he had his own brand of charm. Man's Favorite Sport? was not vintage Hawks, but even the old master himself eventually admitted, "we ended up with a pretty good picture."
Producer/Director: Howard Hawks
Screenplay: John Fenton Murray, Steve McNeil, Leigh Brackett (uncredited), based on the story, "The Girl Who Almost Got Away," by Pat Frank
Cinematography: Russell Harlan
Editor: Stuart Gilmore
Costume Design: Edith Head
Art Direction: Alexander Golitzen
Music: Henry Mancini
Principal Cast: Rock Hudson (Roger Willoughby), Paula Prentiss (Abigail Page), Maria Perschy (Isolde "Easy" Mueller), Charlene Holt (Tex Connors), John McGiver (William Cadwalader), Roscoe Karns (Maj. Phipps), Forrest Lewis (Skaggs), Regis Toomey (Bagley), Norman Alden (John Screaming Eagle).
C-121m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.
by Margarita Landazuri
