FUN!
Man's Favorite Sport? U
USA | 1964 120 minutes
DIRECTED BY
Howard Hawks
STARRINGRock Hudson | Paula Prentiss
By the time Man’s Favorite Sport? arrived in 1964, Howard Hawks was already a legend. The director behind Bringing Up Baby (1938), His Girl Friday (1940), and To Have and Have Not (1944) had defined Hollywood genres from screwball comedy to westerns. At its core, Man’s Favorite Sport? is a throwback to Hawks’s screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. Prentiss, tall and quirky, recalls Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby, while Hudson channels the handsome but befuddled leading men Cary Grant once embodied. Hawks revisits many of his classic tropes: verbal sparring, role reversals, and men humbled by strong-willed women.
Rock Hudson plays Roger Willoughby, a supposed fishing expert employed by a sporting goods company. His reputation is impeccable, except for one crucial fact: he’s never actually fished in his life. When his boss enters him in a fishing tournament, Roger is forced to participate - with both help and hindrance from Abigail, a fast-talking publicist played by Paula Prentiss.
Some critics at the time felt Man’s Favorite Sport? was a relic, charming but out of step with contemporary tastes. Still, the chemistry between Hudson and Prentiss gives the movie spark, and Prentiss in particular shines with her witty timing and unconventional presence. Over the years, it has gained appreciation as a late-career curiosity. It may not be as groundbreaking as Hawks’s earlier comedies, but it remains, undoubtedly, a very funny film.
29 September 2025 MONDAY 19:30
GREEN ROOM
Tickets £7.00|£5.00 (under 26) CONCESSION NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE