Man's Favorite Sport?

Kirk Sanderson

January 25, 2022

Kino Lorber on March 8 will release two classic 1960s Rock Hudson comedies on Blu-ray Disc under its Studio Classics imprint.

Man’s Favorite Sport? (1964) was helmed by celebrated director Howard Hawks and co-stars Paula Prentiss, Maria Perschy, John McGiver, Charlene Holt and Roscoe Karns. A screwball in the style of  Hawks’ classic Bringing Up Baby, the film stars Hudson as Roger Willoughby, happily employed as one of the world’s great angling experts. Unfortunately, even his own boss doesn’t know that Roger has never been fishing in his life. So when press agent Abigail Page (Prentiss) arranges for Roger to participate in her resort’s upcoming fishing tournament, he’s thrown into a panic. At the resort, he and Abby commence a crash course to turn him into a genuine outdoorsman — only to have their plan riotously upset by a surprise visit from Roger’s fiancée. The film was scored by Henry Mancini.

Bonus features include a new audio commentary by filmmaker and film historian Michael Schlesinger with select remarks by CPrentiss and actor-director Richard Benjamin.

Also out on Blu-ray Disc on March 8 is Strange Bedfellows (1965), which pairs Hudson with Italian bombshell Gina Lollobrigida as an estranged couple on the verge of a riotous reconciliation. Carter Harrison (Hudson) is a high-powered company exec who needs to polish up his public image. When a public relations expert (Gig Young) tells him the answer lies in patching up his shaky marriage, Carter jets off to London to rekindle the affections of his fiery Italian wife Toni (Lollobrigida) — who is already planning her second marriage. But even as she begins to repeat the outrageously eccentric behaviors that split them up in the first place, Carter finds himself falling in love with the irresistible Toni all over again. Directed by Melvin Frank, the film also stars Edward Judd, Howard St. John, and Peggy Rea.

The Blu-ray Disc release includes a new audio commentary by film historian Eddy Von Mueller.