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Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, and Man's Favorite Sport?

posted 4 years ago by ecarle (14979)
8 replies | jump to latest

I recently watched "Mans' Favorite Sport" on streaming for the first time in decades.

I found it a bit fascinating. This is a fascination that will probably last another week and go away.

The starting point: in many critical circles...Alfred Hitchcock and Howard Hawks were near co-equals. I believe that Sarris called them "Pantheon Directors' in his rankings of directors -- the best of the best.

In the 50's when Hitchcock was his most prolific(a movie a year, sometimes two) we find Hawks taking a four-year break between Land of the Pharoahs(1955) and his triumphant 'Rio Bravo." And at the front end of the 50's, there are really only two "solid" Hawks films: "Monkey Business" (with Cary Grant as an older version of his befuddled academic from Bringing Up Baby) and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"(with blonde Marilyn Monroe and brunette Jane Russell sexily doing a "female buddy picture.")

Hitchcock was born in 1899. Hawks, 3 years earlier in 1896. I suppose this -- as well as Hawks always having been a Hollywood guy while Hitch had to emigrate from England -- has something to do with more of Hawks classics being made in the 30's and 40's, and they are an eclectic bunch.

Dawn Patrol. Scarface. Bringing Up Baby. Only Angels Have Wings. Sergeant York. Ball of Fire. The Big Sleep. To Have and Have Not. I Was a Male War Bride....Red River...Rio Bravo...El Dorado...Rio Lobo.

Hawks made 47 movies. Hitchcock, 53. Both pretty prolific.

I often find myself comparing North by Northwest to Rio Bravo. Two big 1959 hits for two great directors. On balance, I find NXNW to be much the better-made and "cinematic" movie. By contrast with Hitchcock's great "silent sequences," the silent sequence that opens Rio Bravo(complete with bombastic on the nose Dimitri Tiomkin music) is almost laughable.

And yet, over the years, I've sometimes found that Rio Bravo entertains me just a little bit more than NXNW. Hitchcock's film is sleek and precision tooled, but Hawk's film is justa buncha guys hanging out (with one woman, Angie Dickenson) and it has a loose, buddy-buddy humor to it, along with some very odd dialogue rhythms.

After Rio Bravo, Hawks waited three years to give us "Hatari" which was roughly "Rio Bravo in Africa" except John Wayne wasn't given another star as a buddy(Clark Gable was intended, but he died in 1960.) "Hatari" spawned a small clutch of Henry Mancini instrumentals for radio stations("Baby Elephant Walk" was the big one), but modernly, its emphasis on humans chasing and disabling animals for zoos feels ...a bit callous and cruel.

After the big scale African location work of "Hatari" for Paramount, Hawks waited two years and gave us "a return to screwball" with "Man's Favorite Sport" -- filmed pretty much entirely on the Universal backlot and soundstages, save some opening footage in San Francisco.

The record tells us that Hawks moved "Sport" from Paramount to "tackier" Universal solely to obtain Paula Prentiss as the female lead(Paramount wouldn't accept her.) That "Sport" has that "1964 Universal look" is at once its drawback and its charm.

Yes, the "outdoor" scenes are clearly on soundstages with replanted pine trees. Yes, the shots are all lit as bright as can be, and the colors are as colorful as can be. "Man's Favorite Sport" looks like other Rock Hudson sixties Universal comedies -- not just the ones with Doris Day, but the ones with Gina Lollabrigida and Leslie Caron.

I find this look to be irresistibly nostalgic. This was my childhood. When I was taken to movies of this type, they were just this side of Disney for being "reassuringly plush, lush...and fake." And colorful. Always colorful.

Watching "Man's Favorite Sport" is interesting. In Universal look and feel and sound, it is like all the other Rock Hudson comedies of its decade...EXCEPT that...there is something very weird and syncopated and "offbeat" about everything - how lines are spoken, the expressions on people's faces, even how they MOVE.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

And I figure: well, that's what sets "Man's Favorite Sport" apart from the usual Rock Hudson 60's vehicle. Howard Hawks as a director DOES make a difference. I found one review -- just the opening paragraph , that said "Man's Favorite Sport is the quintessential auteur film." And I tend to agree with that. Hawks' style is all OVER this movie...and frankly, its pretty darn close in style to the comedy patter of "Rio Bravo." Perhaps that's what made "Rio Bravo" so memorable: it was a screwball comedy masquerading as a Western(John Wayne being flummoxed by sexy Angie Dickenson in THAT movie becomes Rock Hudson being flummoxed by Prentiss AND a sexy European blonde AND his sexy redheaded Texas fiancée.)

Though he made other films at other studios in the 60's, Howard Hawks with "Man's Favorite Sport" landed at Universal just as Hitchocck was there. Two Pantheon auteurs on the same lot at the same time. Hitchcock rather "haunts" "Man's Favorite Sport because it opens in San Francisco(like The Birds, complete with clanging cable car, and like Vertigo before it) and because Hawks uses a LOT of process rear projection(and proves yet, again, that Hitchcock at least did that BETTER.)

Rock Hudson evidently had to choose between auteurs when he made "Man's Favorite Sport?" To do it, he had to turn down "Marnie." I figure that Hudson read the two scripts and thought: "Hmmm...a romantic comedy where I'm pursued by three women -- or a melodrama where I rape my frigid wife. Get me Howard Hawks!"

Being in color from Universal in 1964, "Man's Favorite Sport?" rather tracks with the "Universal soundstage room visuals" of "Marnie" -- they are from the same time so people roughly look the same way. And looking at the early "office sets" in "Sport," I'm reminded of yet another reason why it is good that "Psycho" was made in black and white: the Universal office sets(real estate office; DA's office) didn't look quite so fake.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

On to other matters. I'm familiar with "Bringing Up Baby" on paper -- I've seen it once, and I've seen clips from it many times.

But I'm even MORE familiar with "What's Up Doc?" (1972) and I know that Peter Bogdanovich patterned that film ON "Bringing Up Baby."

Well, "Man's Favorite Sport" though based on Bringing Up Baby, too(by the same director yet) PLAYS like "What's Up Doc?" So much so that you could call "What's Up Doc" much more of an homage to 'Man's Favorite Sport" than to Bringing Up Baby.

Rock Hudson and Paula Prentiss become Ryan O'Neal and Barbra Streisand. Square, deadpan, exasperated, put-upon man versus aggressive "force of nature" woman. Yes, that's "Bringing Up Baby," too(and originally) but "Sport" and "Doc" benefit from being made decades later, when sexual matters could be brought forward and modern mores were more 'bold."

Except: If "Man's Favorite Sport?" is a perfect example of the "lush fake 60's comedy"(brightly lit, fake sets, bold colors), "What's Up Doc?" shows us how 70's filmmakers would HAVE to GET RID OF all that fakery and shoot realistically in a semi-documentary style. There are romantic comedies in the 70's, but they were all "real." I'm thinking of A Touch of Class and House Calls.

I actually remember seeing "Man's Favorite Sport?" at the theater with my parents, but it is also a fondly remembered "NBC Saturday Night at the Movies" presentation. A LOT of these "fake Universal comedies" showed up on a Saturday night in the 60's on NBC...and its a warm memory(so many of them seemed to have scenes in country club bars.)

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[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Oh, the plot: Rock Hudson is a top writer of "books on fishing" and he works at Abercrombie and Fitch. A duo of sexy dames -- all-American gorgeous goof Paula Prentiss(a brunette) and her employer-friend Maria Perschy(a blonde) -- pressure Hudson's boss into corralling Hudson into entering a fishing tournament at "Lake Hatchgoochie" or some such.
The hook: Hudson confides to Prentiss and the blonde that: he can't really fish, he's never been fishing in his life, his expertise is from listening to what REAL fishermen tell him and then writing about. So: "get me out of this tournament."

No deal.

The action moves rapidly from San Francisco to the lake and the lodge(all fake or backlot) and the romantic comedy begins. I'll give Hawks the necessary credit here and say that you have to SEE and HEAR the comedy being undertaken by Prentiss and Hudson to appreciate it. They and the cast overlap lines and do slow burns and exasperated expressions and its all very weirdly timed.

One bit I like: Prentiss and the European blonde are in skintight black wetsuits on the lake. They emerge from the water to spy on Hudson desperately trying to get a tent built. When they elect to reveal themselves, both women -- both beautiful, both in skintight wet suits and flippers -- walk exaggeratedly -- like big gallumping frogs -- up to Hudson. I bet Hawks directed them to walk that funny, and Prentiss leads the way. But they are also so damn PRETTY...so you get the weird effect of broad slapstick being practiced by real beauties...and in a witty, intelligent way.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

I wonder about Hawks(and his writers) decision to "pair up" the brunette Prentiss and the blonde Peschy versus Hudson. Its all very sexy...one man pitted against two sharp, sexy women. He'll end up romantically with Prentiss, but endures some sexy comedy with Perschy. (Perschy rips open the back of her dress like Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby, and THIS time, there's a lot more skin and lingerie). When, eventually Rock's redheaded fiancé turns up(Charlene Holt,next to be "the girl" in Hawks El Dorado with Wayne and Mitchum), the fiancé has reason to be jealous of TWO women, and Rock has reason to be exasperated by everyone.

With all the boy/girl stuff going on in one part of the movie, Hudson is surrounded and taunted by a fine cast of male support(John McGiver, Roscoe Karns, Regis Toomey) -- generally playing fishermen who take Hudson at face value as "the Master Fisherman." (Rather like in Frank Capra's 1961 "Pocketful of Miracles" we have the weird feeling of watching a 1930s movie transferred to the 60's -- Hitchcock did NOT do this; his films stayed modern.)

Howard Hawks didn't have much left in the tank after "Man's Favorite Sport." Next was a car racing flick called Red Line 7000(which I haven't seen, and has little of a reputation.) After that, John Wayne trades in Dean Martin for Robert Mitchum in El Dorado, a virtual remake of Rio Bravo("It worked once, " said Hawks," why not again?") And then a three year stetch to one John Wayne Western too far -- "Rio Lobo," in which less of "Rio Bravo" is used, there is no second star, and Hawks hit his natural end. ("Rio Lobo" is a worse final film than "Family Plot.") Only El Dorado really works, and really lasts, of those final three.

One sees in "Man's Favorite Sport" a kind of overdone comedic style that betrays how "Hawks the auteur" sometimes sacrificed "adult" writing and acting in favor of "silliness." Its there a little bit in "Rio Bravo" but a LOT in Man's Favorite Sport.

Still, I DID find myself fascinated by the entire thing: the gorgeous ersatz Universal atmosphere; Mancini's score; the outdoorsman/fishing angle for some pretty good comedy(Hudson almost being killed by giant inflatable fishing waders is a sight gag to see.) Hudson himself(subbing here for Cary Grant in 1964, he seems more age-appropriate and fit for the story, and Hudson DID have good comic timing of his own.)

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[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

But best of all in Man's Favorite Sport are "all the girls." And one "girl" in particular: Paula Prentiss.

The movie opens with a chorus singing a swinging Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer tune(they wrote "Moon River" but this ain't THAT memorable) about "Man's Favorite Sport" being..."girls." And the screen is filled (along with colorful animated 1964 titles) dozens of still photographs of beautiful sexy women (often in bikinis) doing sporting things. The whole thing screams "Hugh Hefner" and seems to bring Old Man Howard Hawks into the sexual revolution.

About that. Here's celebate ol' Alfred Hitchcock getting banged about the head now for decades over the Tippi Hedren thing, and Hawks was a notorious well, "liker of ladies" if not a flat womanizer. Watching Man's Favorite Sport , I wondered: "Which one of these was a conquest?" I'm guessing one pretty young gal who gets two lines but its just a guess. I'm not sure Hawks was able to conquer many ladies in 1964 at his age, anyway.

Hawks famously truncated a lot of Red River because actor John Ireland stole Joanne Dru away from him. John Wayne said that Hawks cut many scenes involving Ireland and changed the ending accordingly.

I know that Cary Grant turned down Man's Favorite Sport(after first saying "yes") but I was stunned to read that Hawks offered the female lead to Kate Hepburn in an effort to re-do Bringing Up Baby. Grant aged well for a man, but Hepburn did not age well for a woman, and by 1964 she was playing grandmother parts, not romantic leads.

So Hawks went for Paula Prentiss, switched to Universal to get her and -- what a great choice. Some writer on film named Danny Peary gave Prentiss the "Alternate Oscar" for Best Actress of 1964(over real winner Julie Andrews.) Maybe we should believe him. He gave the "Alternate Best Picture and Actor" of 1960 to Psycho and Anthony Perkins.

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[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Anyway, Paula Prentiss is Man's Favorite Sport is pretty and sexy, but also daffy and off-kilter. Her line readings go every which way, as do her facial expressions. Just watching her LISTEN to other actors is at once a sexy and funny experience. And she had a great, deep throaty voice to deliver her lines.

Paula Prentiss woulda/coulda/shoulda been a star, but it was not to be.

Still, some interesting stuff followed "Sport." Just one year later in "What's Up Pussycat" Prentiss sexed it WAY up to play a stripper(and to strip) in an international film in which she was the representative of All-American sex appeal in Paris.

Two years after that, Prentiss moved to TV for a sitcom with her husband Richard Benjamin(then-struggling; maybe Prentiss did it to help him.) A few years later, Prentiss hit the 70's with nude scenes in Catch 22 and other films. She was fun (and sad) support to Katherine Ross in The Stepford Wives and then...well, a career. Movies, TV, TV movies.

But you get "peak Prentiss" in "Man's Favorite Sport?" I guess it will go down in history as her biggest day in the sun. (Other than Where the Boys Are, paired with frequent leading man Jim Hutton.)

I here salute "Man's Favorite Sport" for what it is: a grand memory of 60's candy-cane comedy movie-making, with a dash of sex, a touch of auteur, and a heapin' helpin' of the sexy/funny Paula Prentiss.

[–] Adam60z (3766) 4 years ago

Looks good, I'll check it out. Rock Hudson is a great actor. He convinced everyone he was the world's straightest man
!

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Rock Hudson certainly pulled it off, didn't he? One watches "Man's Favorite Sport?" entirely convinced of his heterosexual masculinity.