Strange Bedfellows

Staid businessman Rock Hudson meets Bohemian artist Gina Lollobrigida and 24 hours later they're married. When they get out of bed, they quarrel about everything, so they separate. Seven years pass, and Hudson is up for a huge promotion, but his boss likes happily married executives, while Miss Lollobrigida wants to get divorced so she can marry Edward Judd. They meet to discuss the divorce, and they wind up back in bed, but soon begin quarreling over her latest cause.

It's one of the many romantic comedies that Hudson starred in the period, all of which had at their serious core the question of how marriage can survive with the growing power of women in the workplace. As such, it's hardly surprising that Gig Young shows up at the publicity man who tries to argue Hudson in a show of normal domesticity. Despite this being a Panama & Frank production (with Michael Pertwee helping out with the script), there's an aura of hysteria in the matter that makes it seem a trifle mechanical.

This film will make you appreciate how well written and well directed the Rock Hudson/Doris Day romantic comedies were.

Hudson has a tendency to be stiff, but here it is worse than I've ever seen it. Gina Lollobrigida was 38 and possibly because her character is supposed to be a political activist, she doesn't wear much make-up. She looks rather plain and not glamorous, so it is a mystery why Hudson falls for her. If you're expecting the Italian sex symbol, Gina Lollobrigida, this is not the film. Gig Young plays the Tony Randal sidekick part to Hudson. Young is a good actor, but really is too handsome for the sidekick role.

There is no reason I can think of to watch this film, except for perhaps a short scene where Rock Hudson wakes up in bed with another man. Hudson is quite calm about it. Lollobrigida explains that he had no other place to sleep, so she put him in bed with Hudson. She asks Hudson if he minds. He answers that he doesn't mind. It is only because of what we know now about Hudson's sexuality that the scene is funny and sticks out. I an pretty sure that this is the only film where Hudson is in bed with another man.

The movie's 1950's puritanical tone destroys the sex comedy aspect. Since this was made in 1965, when censorship was ending, it is unfortunate that the producers didn't seek to take advantage of the new freedom. For example. Gina is a member of a group that supposedly supports artist's freedom of expression. The group has Gina ride nude on a horse like Lady Godiva to protest an artist's censorship. However Gina doesn't really go nude, but wears a flesh colored body stocking. This destroys the whole point of the protest and destroys any hope of the viewer seeing Gina looking sexy.

So, in summation, if you want to see Rock Hudson's dullest performance, Gina Lollobrigida's least sexy performance, and Gig Young as a bumbling sidekick, this is the movie for you.

In London, businessman Carter Harrison (Rock Hudson) has a paint-tastic first meeting with Italian bohemian Toni Vincente (Gina Lollobrigida). The whirlwind romance results in their marriage after 24 hours. After the honeymoon period, the couple finds that they agree on absolutely nothing. They separate. After seven years, they decide to divorce. When they reunite, the fire in their relationship is rekindled.

I really like the opening premise of this fire and water relationship. As they whipsaw back and forth, I eventually lose my grip on them. I like them fighting, but I struggle with them overall. I can never be sure if I buy them as a couple. I am as confused as some of these characters. Rock Hudson is a little too straight in his performance. I can imagine this rom-com done much better.

Witless farce from the usually-estimable comedy writer Melvin Frank, who also produced and directed, stars Rock Hudson as an American oil company executive in London, married but estranged from fiery Gina Lollobrigida for the past seven years, who must present a happily-united front for the company's general (why? so it'll "look good"). When Rock first meets Gina, she's an artist painting protest slogans on signs and walls--but the movie is so bashful, her signs are always half-finished so we won't know what she's protesting against. They marry immediately (presumably so they can have sex without guilt), but the next morning find they have nothing in common. Frank, who co-authored the screenplay with Michael Pertwee from a rather old-fashioned story he originated with Norman Panama, substitutes shouting for snap--and Lollobrigida does must of the shouting. Hudson tries to keep up with her, but his colorless brand of acting assures that he'll blend in with the furniture and nothing more. Atrociously shot by cinematographer Leo Tover, with the phony backdrops and scrappy rear-projection upstaging even Gina Lollobrigida in a variety of 'kooky' outfits. * from ****

Rock Hudson had a few laughs at our expense, and noticing them is the best part of "Strange Bedfellows," a 1965 film directed by Melvin Frank and also starring Gina Lollabrigida and Gig Young. Hudson plays Carter Hansen, an executive about to move up in his company. He's been separated from his wife Toni (Lollabrigida) for seven years, and he's warned by Young that he has to be a family man if he wants the promotion. However, Toni has just asked for a divorce so she can marry Harry Jones (Edward Judd). Carter refuses to do anything about it; he can't tolerate Toni's activism for every cause. But when they see each other at the divorce lawyer's office, neither can resist the other.

This film is just okay - it kind of drags, though the end is quite funny. Someone on this board didn't think Gina Lollabrigida looked good - I thought she was gorgeous here. What's interesting is all the gay innuendo; at one point, Carter and Harry wake up in bed together. This isn't the only film Hudson appeared in with this kind of thing -- I think he and his various directors got a kick out of it. All of it would have been much funnier with a better script.

Unfortunately Hudson and Lollabrigida don't have any chemistry here, and this movie just doesn't have the wonderful spark of the Hudson-Day films or the personality and beauty of "Come September" since this movie was filmed at Universal and looks it. It comes off as kind of blah.