Such a frustrating disappointment

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This movie is one of the finest comic films in my opinion and not surprisingly made by the super genius, Howard Hawks. The story is about Roger Willoughby who is a famous fishing expert having written a book about it, but ironically never fished in his life. The movie centres around a fishing competition where Roger has to participate thanks to his eccentric boss (the great John McGiver) who got convinced by Abigail Page (Paula Prentiss), PR exec at a rest house where the fishing competition takes place. What happens afterwards are a series of funny incidents, all sure to make you feel cheerful & rolling in laughter. Some comic scenes are very clever and very funny (I can't seem to find such funny movies these days), especially scenes of Roger trying to actually fish and those involving Mr. Phipps (Roger's client who learned fishing from him but never wanted to pay for $1,5 for it). Totally enjoyed the beautiful story and the lovable characters. I fell in love with Paula Prentiss, she's such a marvellous beauty... and so funny too. Her character exudes naiveté at the same time subtle evil vibes throughout. I can't even begin to compare her with some of the female comic actors in the business today. Rock Hudson is a perfect fit to the 'phoney' Roger and does a neat job till the end. Other characters Hawks builds are equally hilarious... I have a huge, long playlist and little time for movies, but I know for sure I am going to watch this movie again & again when I really want to cheer up. Love it! if you enjoy clever humour, with a light heart of course, this movie will certainly make you happy too. Go for it!

Here, as so often elsewhere, Hawks pits the egghead against the people of nature. Rock Hudson is a salesman at high-end sports retail Abercrombie and Fitch, which is the L. L. Bean of millionaires. Hudson is a famous fisherman. He's written a best selling book on just how to do it. The problem is that he's never been fishing in his life; the book, and the advice he gives to customers, is just gossip picked up from various sources. In other words, Hudson is a fraud, only no one knows about it, not even his boss, Mr. Cadwalader. (Hawks has a feeling for the proper names: Peabody is an elite name in Boston, while Cadwalader, like Rittenhouse, is an elite name from Philadelphia.At any rate, Cadwalader sends Hudson to join a fishing tournament at a remote lake, expecting him to win fame for Abercrombie and Fitch. He's accompanied by two of the corporation's public relations people, Paula Prentiss (nee Ragusa in San Antonio) and Maria Perschy (from Austria). They discover Hudson's secret, that he's an ignoramus when it comes to praxis, and decide to help him. He and Prentiss fall in love and all is resolved.It's one of Hawks' most relaxed comedies and it's not entirely successful. The dopey musical score doesn't help. Many of the jokes are iterative -- repetitious or borrowed from Hawks' earlier work. There's even a direct quote from "Bringing Up Baby" (1936): "The love impulse in man frequently expresses itself in terms of conflict." The jokes tend to be flat. An Indian guide with his arms folded across his chest grunts out answers to tourists' questions until money comes up, then he relaxes into smooth, modern American speech. Boy, is that old.Yet, if the movie isn't a success, it's not a failure either. There are some very funny moments. Even some of the borrowed jokes are still funny. And both Paula Prentiss and Maria Perschy are -- umm, how can I put this delicately and without sounding sexist? -- babalicious? Prentiss falls easily into the pattern of the Hawks woman. She has the proper ditzy quality, turning all of Rock Hudson's grumbled objections into nonsense. Perschy can't quite get with Hawks' demands. There are times when Hudson is quite good as the humiliated and incompetent male, although he is no Cary Grant, who would have walked successfully through the part with his eyes closed.Hawks was an odd character, superficially dull, laconic, slow moving. But he was thoroughly heterosexual and seduced as many of his leading ladies as he could, according to his biographer. The invitation was phrased something like, "Would you like to spend a weekend at the ranch?" Sometimes he was aced out by his male actors -- John Ireland got to Joanne Dru in "Red River" and Bogart co-opted Lauren Bacall in their first movie together. When that happened, the actor didn't work with Hawks again.The director preferred to make one of two types of movies: those about solidarity among a team of male professionals (eg., "Air Force"), and productions like this one, exposing inexperienced eggheads for the poseurs and impractical idealists that they are (eg., "The Thing From Another World"). This belongs in the second category.

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.

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.