Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Yes, there are a lot of laughs here as so-called fishing expert,Roger Willoughby, played with finesse by Rock Hudson, in his usual style, gets into all sorts of predicaments. The expert is drawn into a fishing contest at a resort owned by Paula Prentiss's father. From his first encounter with Prentiss over a parking space, she puts him into a series of situations that while humorous have predictable outcomes.Hudson shows humility at the end by confessing that he has never fished.John MacGyver, as his boss, is mainly funny, not so much because of his usual speech pattern, but rather because of the wig that he has on is always out of place.You know what the ending is going to be before half way through the film.

A very funny movie from Howard Hawks. It's a throwback to the screwball comedies of the 30s and 40s with Rock Hudson as a fishing "expert" roped into entering a fishing contest by loony PR woman Paula Prentiss. It turns out that Hudson is an expert on paper, having never even been near a lake, never mind having fished in one. It's all very goofy, fast paced and there's great chemistry between uptight Hudson and free-spirited Prentiss (who attempts to teach Hudson how to fish in some of the oddest ways). It's studio-bound to be sure, but it's stylish fun and features a very good supporting cast including John McGiver as Hudson's boss, Norman Alden (nearly stealing the film as John Screaming Eagle) and the fetching Maria Perschy as "Easy." The great music score is by Henry Mancini.

Man's Favorite Sport? was intended as Hawks' homage to his own 1938 screwball comedy "Bringing Up Baby" with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, which I unfortunately absolutely didn't enjoy. And Man's Favorite Sport? starts unpromisingly, with Abigail Page (Paula Prentiss) and an unexplained German girl with the somewhat deceptive nickname "Easy" (Maria Perschy) girl-ganging up on Roger Willoughby (Rock Hudson). Fortunately the movie then pulls out all stops and becomes an unabashed showboat for Hollywood's dreamcouple Hudson and Prentiss. I've always liked Prentiss and she really shines here (although she's a bit too brassy for her persona); I hadn't seen much from Rock Hudson so far but I can't really blame women (and quite a few men, apparently) for swooning over him -- oh, he's so boyish, so demure, and yet so manly when the situation calls for it! And he always falls into the water and then needs to get out of his clothes with a frequency that was hitherto more characteristic of tacky Bollywood productions.I have profited from Hudson's performance in learning a lot about what women want. It's certainly more entertaining, and more insightful, than reading books on how to attract women from self-styled wannabe Casanovas.Well, the Hudson-Prentiss romance is the movie's forte, and it builds a tolerably entertaining story around it. It also curiously starts off with some sexy sport images that seem to be a generation ahead, and ends with a black-and-white scene which is designed to look like it was shot a generation or two ago.Harmless fun.

David Thomson once wrote that it was "sad for any moviegoer to have no great star burning during his most impressionable years. Many stars, no matter how well they survive passing time, are only eminent because of the way they first mark consciousness. Once penetrated, we never forget the scar." Paula Prentiss had this effect on me in the early 1960s, and her role in Howard Hawks' 1964 screwball comedy as Abigail Page, was decisive. In years when Doris Day was a role model for many women, along came Paula as an aggressive and beautiful PR professional announcing the "new woman." This role helped to pave the way for future self-asserted female film characters. At 24 years old, Paula was placed besides Rock Hudson, a big star who was the masculine prototype for most filmgoers, playing a fake fishing specialist. She forces him to enter a tournament, falls in love, and finally wins the battle. Although all the praise usually goes to Paula, Rock Hudson also gave one of his best comedy performances ever, with strong support from Maria Perschy and seasoned Hawks regulars.