Blu ray review: Kino Lorber offers two from Rock Hudson

It is good that Rock Hudson is getting some interest from younger film buffs who didn’t live in his time. Hudson was a very popular movie star, ruggedly handsome with a significant screen presence. Scoring in everything from John Wayne westerns, to heavy Douglas Sirk melodramas, to light romantic comedies, Hudson’s films of the 1950s and 1960s were pretty much guaranteed to net good box office.

Kino Lorber has just released two of his 60s-era rom-coms, and they are, in fact, among the very last films of this type in which he appeared. The films he made opposite Doris Day had just ended with Send Me No Flowers, and his entire tenure as a lighthearted, comical leading man would conclude soon after Man’s Favorite Sport (1964) and Strange Bedfellows (1965); two films new from KL on blu ray.

MAN’S FAVORITE SPORT

Howard Hawks wanted to recapture the comic merriment of his 1938 classic Bringing Up Baby, and even attempted to secure that film’s stars – Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn – for this project. That failed, and, eventually, Rock Hudson and Paula Prentiss were cast. This film is based on an actual article about the discovery that a writer known for penning articles offering fishing tips had never himself been fishing. Rock Hudson plays Roger Willoughby, a fishing expert who has never been fishing, and is put in a fishing tournament by earnest press agent Abigail Page (Paula Prentiss). In interviews, Hawks would praise Hudson’s commitment to doing whatever was necessary to make the film better, while also complimenting Prentiss’ natural comic abilities. The films holds up as a delightful 60s rom-com, Kino’s extras including commentary by Michael Schlesinger. The blu ray is available at this link: SPORT

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

The 1964 trades claim that Doris Day was considered to play opposite Rock Hudson in this 1965 release, but it is Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida who essays the part. Rock is an executive who attempts to patch up his shaky marriage to Gina in an attempt to present a more satisfying public image. Gig Young also stars as the supportive friend. Strange Bedfellows is one of the last of Rock’s romantic comedies, and it one of his funniest, with ample slapstick and a series of amusing situations. This was directed by Melvin Frank who also worked on the screenplay with partner Norman Panama. This duo was responsible for some of Bob Hope’s funniest movies like Monsieur Beaucaire, Road to Utopia, and The Princess and The Pirate, as well as such comedy classics as Red Skelton’s A Southern Yankee and Danny Kaye’s The Court Jester. Strange Bedfellows offers the same level of carefree comedy. Kino’s blu ray includes an audio commentary by Eddy Von Mueller. The blu ray is available at this link: BEDFELLOWS

These films represent the type of comedy popular during the early 1960s – and as we approached the mid-60s when these films were released, their era had concluded with the JFK assassination, the sudden and massive popularity of The Beatles and the Stones, the important Civil Rights era, and other major cultural changes that redefined the decade. Hudson would appear in one more romantic comedy in 1965, A Very Special Favor and then leave the genre until an unsuccessful attempt at resurrecting it with Darling Lili (1970). However, now that they are just old movies from a time that has long since passed us by, both of the films reviewed here are delightfully amusing, and filled with the sort of comedy talent we see too seldomly nowadays.