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A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I am reviewing the DVD I saw, which combined two "Rock Hudson" movies under the heading "Rock Hudson collection". 2 movies for the price of 1? Bring'em on! The first film: "Any Body Seen My Gal", is a Douglas Sirk comedy I had never heard of. Yet…I found this film to be a pleasure from beginning to the end! It is 1952 and Rock Hudson is very handsome and so young, and the whole movie (story, 1930s setting, colors, the ensemble cast of actors) is a delight to watch. What an enchanting piece of movie-making, with dark existential realities behind the apparent lightness. The second film ("A Very Special Favor") is a mixed bag. Because it was made in 1965, its first 30 minutes are a must-see priceless candy bordering on parody (except it is the real stuff, ah ah!): 60s decor, 60s orchestral music, Pink Panther-style opening credits, rear view projections in "Paris" or "New York", sexual banter, witty dialogue, split screens, Yves Saint Laurent dresses. After these first 30 minutes, however, the story line veers off into a war of the sexes theme that makes a modern viewer cringe, even though the film still has some very funny scenes. Rock Hudson, Charles Boyer and Walter Slezak are excellent. Leslie Caron is probably miscast.

I've been reading the other reviews with interest. I saw this film on TV about 45 years ago when I was about 8 years old. Around this time I used to watch two back-to-back films on a Saturday or Sunday and I remember this film because it was absolutely hilarious. All the other good films have been repeated on TV - but I have only ever seen this once. I remember laughing and laughing when watching the film. I didn't know anything about sex at that age. I just saw it as a father trying to get his daughter to 'lighten up', to 'live', and to have an interest in finding a male companion in life, instead of an existence of continual work. I didn't see anything odd about Rock Hudson's character pretending to be a patient with his 'problem'. This subterfuge was a key part of romantic comedy films of the time. I certainly didn't see the 'set-up' scene as anything to do with sex - I just remember it as a slightly naughty prank. In some ways the film does remind me of 'pillow talk' and this isn't surprising as one of the writers is the same. I am very pleased to hear that it is now on DVD and I will be very interested to see it again.

How could a cast with Rock Hudson, Leslie Caron, Charles Boyer and others produce such a stinker of a film?Some of this reminded me of the old Doris Day and Rock Hudson films. Hudson was always at his best when he tried to fool Day into thinking that he was someone else.We see some of that hear but the dialogue and writing produced a rather poor film.Caron looks much older than the 30 year old she is supposed to portray. A psychologist with an extremely even life, Caron is made to go wild when her father, played with humor comedy by Boyer, introduces her to Hudson-who is his usual Casanova type guy.The ending must have had the audience in stitches when Hudson tried to get Caron thinking that he was dating another guy.

Let me tell you this is one special favor that Charles Boyer is asking of Rock Hudson. My guess is that Hudson's estate is keeping a lid on this one.Boyer has a daughter in Leslie Caron who is a psychiatrist by profession. He also has a colleague at work in Rock Hudson and he's concerned about his daughter. Concerned his daughter is not getting any sex.This is a new twist on the normal Rock Hudson comedies. In two of the ones he made with Doris Day, Rock's your normal every day American wolf trying very hard to make the all-American virgin Doris Day. Here Caron is a French virgin, well into her thirties.As Boyer tries ever so tactfully to put it, what a father might be proud of in a daughter at age 18 doesn't hold true when she's 38. As he puts it Rock, he expects him to to the deed with Caron and expose her to what she's been missing. What a favor to be asking.A Very Special Favor then follows the usual capers that these films for Rock Hudson normally do. But the end is really an unusual one. Deciding that maybe he ought to appeal to her professionally as well, Hudson let it be known he's gay and he has switchboard operator Nita Talbot dress up in drag and pretend to be a most effeminate male. Psychiatrist Caron races to the hotel room where Hudson and Talbot are to do the deed and at that point Caron sacrifices all including bachelorhood to save Rock from the love that dares not speak its name.I think it's rather obvious why this film isn't shown at all. What puzzles me is why Hudson who was oh so careful about keeping his homosexuality a secret would do a role like this. Maybe it's the reason why a lot of closeted gay men troll the docks for dates, hoping to have the question of exiting the closet forced on them. I leave that to the psychiatrists.A friend told me that he was at a party at someone's house and a video of one of Rock Hudson's films was being shown. This was a pretty straight crowd he was in and Rock in the macho role he was in was getting not a few hoots from the audience. This wasn't the film they were viewing, but imagine if it was with what we know now.My guess is A Very Special Favor will not be shown any time soon or be out on DVD or VHS. But if it does come out or is shown on TCM or AMC catch it by all means. You try and figure out what was going on in the mind of Rock Hudson.