STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
US, 1965, 98 minutes, Colour.
Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Gig Young, Edward Judd.
Directed by Melvin Frank.
Melvin Frank and his writing partner, Norman Panama, wrote a number of very funny films including Knock on Wood and The Court Jester for Danny Kaye. This is not one of their better efforts. It was a concoction to reunite Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida after their success in Come September in 1961.
Rock Hudson, in only a slight variation on the roles that he was playing against a number of Hollywood’s leading ladies in the 1960s, is an oil executive who has impulsively married a bohemian Italian artist, played by Gina Lollobrigida. They agree on nothing and decide to divorce. Five years later, they meet again, Hudson is persuaded by Gig Young that it would be better for promotion if he were married and they try again to marry. In the meantime, Edward Judd is engaged to Lollobrigida.
The film is slight, amusing rather than funny – although there is some farce in a Lady Godiva parade through London.
1. The continued appeal of American marital and sex comedy? With social overtones? How good an example was this? A contribution of the sixties style?
2. The importance of colour, London locations, music or commentary, the stars? The guest stars? Audience expectations from this kind of film, their fulfilment?
3. The suggestive tone of the title? The political references during the film? The irony of the title as regards the central marriage? Indication of themes?
4. The quality of the dialogue, the wit, the hilarious situations and their impact?
5. The importance of the humour in the prologues the rushed nature of the marriage, the fulfilment, the differences, the career and characters of the main two? The tone for the whole film?
6. Carter Harrison as the typical American type? A Rock Hudson role? His conservative American ideas, his emphasis on action, success in business, love and attractiveness. yet his inability to stand the ideas of his wife? The dominant and scheming and manoeuvring type? How admiral, how repellent?
7. How likable was he, the plausibility of the story, his plot. his acting a role, his jealousy? Was his conversion genuine at the end? Would he really change?
8. How attractive a woman was Toni? The Italian background. very feminine, the humorous aspects of her character, the eccentricity of her causes. her quick ability to fight? Her reliance on Harry? Succumbing to Carter? Could she see through his deception? The reality of her forgiving him at the end?
9. How conventional a man was Harry Jones as the other man? His causes, love for Toni, British nonchalance, the C.I.A. deception?
10. Carter's American friend? The pressure and the push about American morals and standards? His participation in the deception. especially about Godonga? His being deceived by Jones as regards the C.I.A.? The satire on the American businessman?
11. The satire on the American boss and his wife, their moral expectations? Reality? The airport scenes?
12. How successful in the bedroom farce was the film? Tender moments transforming into anger and fights?
13. These farcical aspects of Toni’s causes? Especially the Art meetings? The Lady Godiva enterprise and the fiasco in the streets?
14. The contribution of the taxi comedy with the taxi driver's communicating the messages and the argument? The contribution of Terry Thomas as the undertaker?
15. The climax at the airport as a build-up to the issues for the film?
16. Carried over into the street crisis and the court case? The humour and irony of the court case?
17. The standard ending? To what audience does this kind of film appeal? What values does it present to this kind of audience?
