What the heck was going on with this movie? What did Roddy McDowalls character ultimately want with Barbara Ann? What did he get out of all the strange projects he planned for her? Why did the movie suddenly go surreal at times? What the heck? I couldnt decide if this movie was funny or creepy, or both at the same time.
And, Lord Love a Duck? Is this part of a Cockney rhyming phrase that`s obscene or something?
There’s actually a very simple explanation for all of it:
It was the '60s, man.
As for the title, “Love a duck” is a euphimism for a more, er, brutal form of avian affection:
As Wumpus too properly notes, “Love a Duck” is a mild form of “Fuck a Duck”. But whence this phrase? It might be just the rhyme that suggests it, but a few years ago I heard something that suggests to me where it may really have come from.
Irresponsible guys practice “Love 'em and leave 'em”. Or, more vulgarly, “Fuck and Duck”. I suspect that “Fuck and Duck” begat “Fuck a Duck”, which in turn begat the more refined “Love a Duck”.