MAN’S FAVORITE SPORT? (Laurel Productions – Gibraltar Productions / Universal, 1964). Directed by Howard Hawks. Screenplay by John Fenton Murray and Steve McNeil, from the short story “The Girl Who Almost Got Away” by Pat Frank. With Rock Hudson, Paula Prentiss, Maria Perschy, John McGiver, Charlene Holt, Roscoe Karns. (120 min, Technicolor, 35mm print from the Copyright Collection)
Preceded by Pink Panther cartoon PINK VALIANT (Mirisch – Geoffrey – DePatie-Freleng / United Artists, 1968). Directed by Hawley Pratt. Story by John W. Dunn. (6 min, color, 35mm print from the Copyright Collection)
The author of a bestselling book on fishing who has never fished is corralled into entering a major fishing tournament. Based on a short story originally published in 1950 in Cosmopolitan magazine, this screwball comedy is often referred to as a remake of Howard Hawks’s 1938 classic Bringing Up Baby, with Rock Hudson in the role played by Cary Grant in the earlier film and Paula Prentiss standing in for Katharine Hepburn. For his second collaboration with Hawks (after Hatari! In 1962), Henry Mancini composed a score which relies on a sophisticated swinging theme introduced over the opening credits, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer answering the question in the film’s title (“… the favorite sport of man is girls.”) For Hawks, who first took note of Mancini when he “was doing some little television show” (Peter Gunn), hiring the composer was a way to avoid film scores “with about twenty violins and fifteen cellos and woodwinds and all of that stuff.“
Preceded by a short from the long running Pink Panther cartoon series which featured what is undoubtedly Henry Mancini’s most famous musical theme, originally written for the 1963 comedy The Pink Panther.
Thursday, September 26, 2024
7:00 pm – 9:15 pm EDT
Doors open 6:30 pm EDT
Where: James Madison Building – Pickford Theater (LM302)
101 Independence Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20540
Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or [email protected].