Strange Bedfellows (Universal Pictures) (1965)

Italy's Screen Queen Gina Lollobrigida Gives United Nations Touch To Roles (Current) In world movie circles these days, nobody—but nobody— is more international than Italy’s screen queen, Gina Lollo brigida. A quick rundown of Gina’s last half-dozen movie assignments lends a true United Nations touch to this moviemaking business, featuring three different languages, film producers from four different countries, and globe-girdling location settings. At the moment the peripatetic Miss Lollobrigida may be seen at EN Ga ek Series Heo Theatre, in the Hollywood-made film in which she stars for the second time with Rock Hudson, “Strange Bedfellows,” a Panama and Frank comedy in Technicolor, a Universal picture. Several years ago they paired in another highly successful Universal comedy, “Come September,” filmed in Italy. In between those two films, Gina has: (1) Co-starred with an Irish actor (Stephen Boyd) in an Italian film (“Imperial Venus’’), in English, French and Italian; (2) Appeared with a French star (Jean Paul Belmondo) in a French Italian film (“The Wild Sea’’) made in Italy in two languages; (3) Go-starred with a British actor (Sean Connery) in a British film, filmed in English in London and Majorca. Before reporting to Hollywood for her first American movie in almost four years, Gina made a public relations tour on behalf of the Italian film industry, visiting Tokyo and Hong Kong. “IT spend most of my life up in the sky in airplanes,’ she says. “Some people forget the time — I often can’t remember what day it is. That International Dateline can drive a person crazy.” For the first time in almost five years when she made ‘‘Come September,” Italian film star Gina Lollobrigida is in a Universal picture, the zany romantic comedy, “Strange Bedfellows,” in Techni color. (Still No. 1941-134) During those rare periods when Gina’s career does not have her flying to some distant spot for moviemaking, she makes her home in Rome with her husband, book publisher Milko Scofic, and their six-year-old son, Milketto. Gig Young and Edward Judd also co-star in “Strange Bedfellows,” and English funnyman Terry-Thomas guest-stars in the romantic comedy. Rock Hudson fights the police to retrieve his wife, Gina Lollobrigida, who au naturelle is playing the role of Lady Godiva in order to point up one of her weird causes in Universal’s hilarious romantic comedy, “Strange Bedfellows,” photographed in Techni color. (Still No. 1941-86) Edward Judd, center, enjoys his breakfast as the third part of the love triangle which includes Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida, who, as husband and wife, have just started an argument in Uni versal’s zany romantic comedy, graphed in Technicolor. “Strange Bedfellows,” photo (Still No, 1941-32) New High for Realism (Current) On Universal's Stage 31, producer-director Melvin Frank created a 50,000 square foot replica of the interior of the London Airport for scenes in “Strange Bedfellows,” now at the ete ee Theatre, involving Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Gig Young and 250 extras. After several rehearsals, Frank yelled, “Roll ’em!” only to be stopped by soundman Whitey Jowett. “Let’s hold up a minute,” Jowett told Frank, “or the sound will be spoiled. I think I hear a plane overhead.” Star Gina Lollobrigida Almost Phanton While Shooting Bedfellows’ (Current) During the filming of the picture, employees and studio visitors at Universal began to think that Italian film star Gina Lollobrigida wasn’t really in Hollywood starring with Rock Hudson, Gig Young and Edward Judd in Universal’s “Strange Bedfellows.” The romantic comedy, photographed in Technicolor, is now at {Dolo meee aeons Theatre. Except for the early-morning and afternoon gatemen — plus, of course the “Strange Bedfellows” crew — Gina remained as alluringly phantomlike as her image on screen. She arrived each day deep in the back seat of her chauffeured limousine, studying her dialogue with her coach, Mrs. Marta desCars. The automobile deposited her at the sound stage door, then picked her up at noon to take her to her dressing-room bungalow. Shunning the commissary, Gina preferred to fix her own lunches in her bungalow and share them with Mrs. desCars and her wardrobe mistress, Marie Therese Stefanelli. “It is a matter of rest and comfort,” Gina explained. “I cannot relax in the studio restaurant, trying to eat under the stares of a hundred people. More than that, I am so busy trying to remember the names of everyone I have met in the past few weeks — so I will not insult them by not acknowledging their greeting — that I cannot enjoy my food.” When the day’s filming was done, Miss Lollobrigida was unveiled before the gaze of curious studio workers for a maximum of perhaps ten seconds as she traveled the short distance between the sound stage door and her limousine, ready for home. ‘“Home” was a delightful house in Beverly Hills which she rented from singing star Jan Clayton for the duration of her work in “Strange Bedfellows.” “I am afraid,’ Gina confessed, “that I was beginning to sound like a Greta Garbo. I am not like that at all. But these first few weeks in the picture were very important and my role demanded all of my concentration. After all, I make films in three different languages — English, French and Italian — and it always takes me a while to adjust to each language in which I act.” A Universal picture, “Strange Bedfellows” is a Panama-Frank production, directed by Melvin Frank. Creators Argue (Current) Director Melvin Frank, on the “Strange Bedfellows” set at Universal studios, said it: “It’s frustrating to direct exactly as the writer has dictated in the script, without complaining to the producer just because the two of them are close relatives.” The producer and writer of “Strange Bedfellows” are, left to right, Melvin Frank and Melvin Frank. Starring Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigidia and Gig Young, the romantic comedy in Technicolor now is at the....../...-.....-- Theatre. Page 3 Gig Young, Heros Best Pal Again With Rock Hudson In ‘Strange Bedfellows ™ (Advance) There’s not one thing wrong, says Gig Young, about being typed in the movies as the “hero’s best pal.” As far as Gig is concerned, the work is plentiful, the money is great and the living is easy. “In many cases, the hero’s pal has a better part than the hero,” Young points out. ‘He usually gets more laughs, too—and a nice chunk of audience sympathy. Sure, I like to kiss girls as much as the next guy, but it doesn’t have to happen during the fadeout scene of a movie.” Most recently, Gig has become the best friend of Rock Hudson in an opulent Panama and Frank Technicolor comedy, “Strange Bedfellows,” a Universal picture CONNN So LOnther ese ees Theatre. Rock winds up with the gorgeous Italian, Gina Lollobrigida, while Gig stands politely by, buddy-buddy to the end. In the past, he has performed similar services for such hero-pals as Frank Sinatra in “Young at Heart,” the late Clark Gable in “Teacher’s Pet,’’ Spencer Tracy in “Desk Set,” Richard Widmark in “The Tunnel of Love,’ and Kirk Douglas in “For Love Or Money.” As Cary Grant’s pal in “That Touch of Mink,’ Young enjoyed co-star status and billing in one of the greatest boxoffice hits in the history of Universal studios. “Of course, I don’t want to spend the rest of my career playing somebody’s friend,” Gig confesses. “An actor could develop a king-sized phobia doing that.” Gig’s balance wheel is television. On the home screens he still emerges as the heroic, romantic, dashing figure in a series, Gig Young who has found it. pays to be the pal of the star, is that to Rock Hudson in Universal’s hilarious comedy, “‘Strange Bedfellows.” Photographed in Technicolor, it was produced and directed by Melvin Frank. (Still No. 1941-136) “The Rogues,” a Four-Star adventure series for NBC-TV in which Young divides episodes with Charles Boyer and David Niven. “Between the big and the small screens,” says Gig, “I’ve developed quite a dual personality.” "STRANGE BEDFEL Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida rekindle an irresistibie spark that brought them together for a brief marriage seven years before when they meet to arrange a divorce in Universal’s romantic comedy in Technicolor, Panama and Frank’s “Strange Bedfellows.” (Still No. 1941-17) "STRANGE BEDFELLOWS” (2-J) moment after this, Rock Hudson gets the pizza—in his face, from his fiery and tempestuous wife Gina Lollobrigida in Universal’s zany comedy romance photographed in Technicolor, “Strange Bedfellows.”?> A Panama and Frank production, it was produced and directed by Melvin Frank. (Still No. 1941-5)