Mans Favorite Sport

Synopsis

Roger Willoughby is a well-known fishing expert who works as a salesman for Abercrombie & Fitch Co. Abigail Page is a brash and flighty public relations woman. Page is determined to secure Willoughbys participation in a prestigious fishing tournament, only to discover that Willoughby is a phony—hes never fished in his life.

By threatening to reveal his secret, Abigail forces Roger to fake his way through the tournament. Willoughby proves himself to be supremely inept: he cannot fish, cannot set up a tent, cannot run or even board a motorboat. He cannot even swim, as he demonstrates by toppling or plunging straight to the lakebed each time he ventures to go fishing.

In the vein of the screwball genre, the dialog is fast and overlapping, the humor broad and slapstick, multiple levels of deception abound, and a decidedly adversarial relationship constantly teeters on the edge of romance.

Cast

Release and reviews

Upon its release on February 5, 1964, Mans Favorite Sport? performed acceptably but not exceptionally. The film grossed $6 million at the box office, earning $3,000,000 in US theatrical rentals. It was the 24th highest grossing film of 1964. The critics reactions were somewhat tepid, particularly in comparison to Hawks earlier works, though Molly Haskell wrote a glowing analysis of the picture seven years later in The Village Voice. Haskell admitted an indifference to the film in 1964, and that upon revisiting the film in 1971 she was "both delighted and deeply moved by the film—delighted by the grace and real humor with which the story was told, and moved by the reverberation of the whole substratum of meaning, of sexual antagonism, desire, and despair."

Hudson was given relatively sympathetic reviews for the difficult position of impersonating Cary Grant. Robin Wood notes: "It was cruel to make [Hudson] repeat the night-club scene from Bringing up Baby which Cary Grant brought off with such panache."

Prentiss was especially praised for her energetic performance—probably the best role of her career. "Miss Prentiss slips ... agreeably into Katharine Hepburns shoes. Her bass voice is comically imposing. Shes more consciously malevolent/charming than Miss Hepburn in Baby. Shes just terrible to Hudson and her outrageousness almost makes the movie half a good comedy." Robin Wood: "Paula Prentiss is—as always—very good, but at times one has the feeling that Hawks is importing a characterization on her instead of working with her." Hawks would later say: "Paula Prentiss was good, but she couldnt remember what she was doing from one shot to the next. Her shots never matched".