They look Like Each Other: Spencer Tracy and Carl Fredricksen

I'm sure I'm not the first to pick this up. I like to think that it's Hollywood's little belated tribute to Spencer Tracy. I hope so, if it is it's lovely :-) Up has been one of my favourite modern movies to come out these past few years. It was magical. And of course you all know how I feel about Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. Best film ever. Well, at least one of 'em!

~Bette

"Tough Question?" "Mmmm-mmmm. Tough roast beef." Desk Set 1957

Richard Sumner (Spencer Tracy) is an engineer looking to improve efficiency for all of the workers at the research department of a large TV station. All of the research girls - headed by Bunny Watson (Katharine Hepburn) - are suspicious of his presence, looking around and inspecting them, but he doesn't let any of them know what he's doing there. When Bunny is let down by her beau, Mike Cutler (Gig Young) she doesn't react much. But in his absence, she gets to know Richard Sumner better, but is distraught when he installs a large silver flashing machine that immediately starts printing little pink "fired" slips for her and all her collueges.

I think I'm gonna have to break the news slowly... Desk Set wasn't great {by the way, I don't completely condemn it to the DVD recycling plant in this post. I gather this film has somewhat of a large fan club, so don't stop reading now!}. I was disappointed to be frank. I've seen all the Katharine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy movies except Without Love and Sea Of Grass and I was looking forward to this one, but it was... mediocre. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate it, but it wasn't good. There were some sweet moments in it, but it didn't nearly come close to comparing to their other pairings. I really liked Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in it, in fact the film only survives while they're on screen, and that shouldn't be. The film should hold up on it's own, too, but the script was just not good. Plus, I didn't like Gig Young! That's odd, because I usually like him. But, it wasn't like it was awkward, we did actually laugh a few times.

I'm not taking it off my iTunes or anything, because there were certain scenes I liked, and I may come back to it and find I like it more or something. At any rate, I can't actually bring myself to pan something with Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, giant 50s computers and Joan Blondell in it, so here is a little post of some GIFs and pictures from the film I've either taken or found lying around on the internet. It was very pretty anyway so that's something going for it! :-)

This means awesomsauce, but I should have read the other credits.

Pretty research office :-)

I don't know either Kate. Seriously.

LOOK AT THAT COMPUTER THING! OUR I.T. DEPARTMENT AT SCHOOL NEEDS THIS!

Doesn't matter what the movie's like. Spence and Kate win at everything. Especially pretending to be on a cruise in a library.

Her costume comes from the scene where she looks like Santa Claus, and Gig Young buys her a stuffed Bunny (get it?). Then she goes up to the piano and the bongo drums and starts singing "Night And Day". Sheesh, this film was crazier than my blog is, HA!

Peg Costello: Then one day you realize you're out of circulation. It's all happened. You don't even know when it happened. 

Bunny Watson: Well, when that day comes we'll move in together and keep cats.

This scene is pretty cool. I wish I was as good at maths as Bunny Watson. He asks her questions about train stops and passengers and how many got on, how many got off etc. etc. etc. So she gets the answers right and when he asks her how, she just goes "There are nine letters in Chappaqua, and I've been to White Plains three times in my life." WHAT THE HECK??? I wish I was this ninja at word problems.

I wouldn't over-recommend this movie, it's a bit odd... But if you are a big Tracy/Hepburn, Hepburn/Tracy fan, the take a look anyway, bits of it are fun :-D

~Bette

The Keeper Of The Flame (1943)

This was the last of the four new Katharine Hepburn and Spencer tracy films that came in this little set and I really enjoyed it! It wasn't the best of the lot - the lot being Pat and Mike, Woman Of The Year, Adam's Rib and Keeper Of The Flame - but there were some really interesting things about it. I don't know how known this movie is in the classic film watching community, because judging by things I've read about it on the internet, it seems like the least successful film starring the famous duo. I can guess why, but it's not because of the quality of the film. Sorry about the long plot summary, you kind of need to know for the review to make sense.

Keeper Of The Flame (1943) directed by George Cukor

Cast:

• Spencer Tracy as Steven O'Malley


• Katharine Hepburn as Christine Forrest


• Richard Whorf as Clive Kerndon


• Margaret Wycherly as Mrs. Forrest


• Forrest Tucker as Geoffrey Midford

Plot:

The sudden and tragic death of world renowned hero Robert Forrest strikes a deep note in everyone in the United States as well as in other countries and the whole of America goes into mourning. One night a terrible thunderstorm hits Forrest's hometown he doesn't see a break in the old wooden bridge he is driving over and he goes straight into the river underneath.

Though she is receiving millions of fan letters and letters of condolence, Christine Forrest - the widow of Robert Forrest - refuses to reply or see any men of the press. But when famed writer and journalist Steven O'Malley comes back from Europe (where he was working as a war correspondant) to write a tribute biography of Robert, he realizes that he will need to dig deeper into Robert Forrest's life and family. After befriending the guilt-stricken son of the Gate Keeper of Forrest's house he manages to get into the house and finds Christine. 

Had he not been who he was, she would have turned him out, but he happened to be a favourite writer of her's, and Robert's. She understands what he wants to do and appreciates it, but has to refuse because she is too upset to talk about it. He convinces her that she needs to help him maintain the flame that burns so bright for Robert Forrest in the country's eyes.

But later that evening, she pays a visit to the bed and breakfast Steven is staying in and tells him that yes, she will help him write the book. But as Steven finds out more about the family, he becomes more and more suspicious about the "accident". Along the way to writing the book he finds out that Robert had a mother no one knew about, and more than a few people in the neighbourhood who weren't on the best terms with him, including Christine's cousin. And as soon as he finds a shoe from Christine's horse near the bridge, he knows he needs to find out more.

{To write what I want to in the review, I kind of need to write a bit more of the story. But if you don't want the ending spoiled, don't read this bit.}

Finally cornering Christine in "The Arsenal", Robert's study and library (conveniently with no windows) while she is burning the documents that Robert ordered to be unread and destroyed, Steven tells her that he has fallen in love with her. He also lays down the horse-shoe on the table, and Christine finally tells all. For months she had been getting more and more worried about Robert's wellbeing. She says he used to look down on her as "a useless creature who couldn't give him sons". At first she grew mad, but then started to pity him because she thought he might have been going insame like his mother. But then she couldn't take it any longer and on the morning of the accident, she stole his keys and ran down to The Arsenal and went through all his secret files only to find that he had been running a Fascist organisation and had piles and piles of evil racist articles that he had written. All of them ready for publication.

It made her feel ill. It wasn't what she believed in at all and she knew that he had changed beyond recognition from the man that she had married. So she went out riding to think alone and she saw the bridge breaking - and thought that it was best not to warn Robert. If his plans for America worked then this fatal accident seemed like the only way to stop him.

Her secretary and advisor has been spying on them and, realising what they are talking about, sets The Arsenal alight and locks the only door. Of course there are no windows. Only a thin opening just wide enough for him to shoot at Steven and Christine. He fatally wounds Christine who tells Steven in her last moments that he must write the book and tell the world about what Robert was really like.

The Verdict:

This was a really different film. It felt like a cross between a film noir and a Murder Mystery and it had many similarities with Rebecca. Although it wasn't the best of films, it was entirely worth watching for the interesting portrayals and the strong political subject matter.

Made in only 1943, it seems quite early for there to be a film made about the possibility of Fascism taking hold in America if people don't wake up fast to the danger. Based on an unpublished book, the film rights were acquired by RKO, but they had serious casting difficulties so the rights were sold to MGM for $50,000. But when Eddie Mannix realised how political the material was, he tried to stop the film. They wanted Spencer Tracy from the start, and then hired George Cukor as the director - as he was known for dealing well with difficult actors.

Katharine Hepburn was on the hunt for good scripts for Tracy and herself after appearing in Woman Of The Year with him. When she saw this story, she was fascinated by Christine, and she thought the part might provide her way of contributing to the war effort. Though when she joined the cast she asked that the story be restored to the way it was in the novel, where there was more romance and Steven and Christine had more equally sized roles. But everyone else in the cast and crew disagreed with her so she gave in and left the script the way it was.

MGM didn't want Katharine Hepburn to take the role, and thought that it would be a bad follow-up to Woman Of The Year. But she protested and eventually became a great help to Spencer Tracy with his drinking. George Cukor was so impressed that he asked her to talk to Judy Garland about the need to sober up (according to Wikipedia...).

This is really Spencer Tracy's film. There's no denying it. He is in almost every single scene and he does fantastically with a character that could have become quite weak had anyone else attempted playing him. He maintains his cool all the way through, but we still manage to get that he is in love with Christina. You really find yourself working with him to find out what happens.

Katharine Hepburn is also amazing again. She has this fantastic monologue where she tells Steven about everything in The Arsenal and she just keeps it going for what seems like ages. There is no music and it's like she's talking directly to you. It really isn't a humongous part, but she plays it very well.

The reason this film didn't do very well in the box office was that there was some political controversy. Republican Members of the congress were disturbed by its political views and ordered that there should be new laws against films with such overtly left-wing political propaganda. One thing that was noted was that it was the first real time that Fascism was linked with wealth in a film. Critical comments aside from the political were mainly about the pace of the dramatic part of the film, and the suspenseful part. Though the Wikipedia page of the film says that after looking at the reviews it's evident that it was generally received more positively in the East of the United States.

I can see why people aren't crazy about this cinematically. There isn't much super fast paced dialogue and the second half does drag a little. But I really enjoyed all the performances and George Cukor's direction (even though Katharine Hepburn was apparently quick to criticise it, despite the fact they were very good friends). I say good on them for making such an important film at the time it was made. Definitely worth a watch.

~Bette

Keeper of the Flame (1943).

Keeper of the Flame (1943). Cast: Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Directed by George Cukor from a screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart.

When a famous hero Robert Forrest, is killed in a car accident, journalist Stephen O'Malley returns from Europe to write his biography. During his funeral, he sees his friends and fellow reporters, Jane Harding and Freddie Ridges. Forrest's widow, Christine, does not want to speak to the reporters. So, O'Malley, finds a way to become friends with Jeb, the son of the gatekeeper, who allows him onto the estate. Christine, still refuses to help with her husbands biography. After O'Malley leaves, Forrest's private secretary, Clive Kerndon, convinces Christine to help so she can protect her husband's memory.

As time goes on, O'Malley thinks, that some "big secret", is being kept from him. He soon learns that Forrest's elderly, mentally ill mother is living in a separate house on the property. He manages to speak with her and finds out more valuable information.

When O'Malley, finds Robert Forrest's office, he sees smoke coming from the chimney. When he asks Kerndon about the office, he tells him it is used for storage and O'Malley, not believing him decides to investigate on his own. There he finds Christine burning what she says are love letters, but.. he thinks that she is also, not telling the truth. Later, Kerndon telephones a unnamed person and tells them that he will take care of the situation.

When O'Malley, tells Christine that he is in love with her, she tells him the truth. Her husband was corrupted by power and was plotting to take over the United States, by turning one group against another.

She said "while out riding that she saw that the bridge had washed-out and that she could have warned her husband, but decided that a "clean death", was the best thing that could happen to Robert Forrest". O'Malley convinces her to help him write a book exposing Forrest's plot against the United States.

Kerndon, over hears them and locks the door and then sets the building on fire. Will they be able to escape the flames and write their book exposing her husband's plot?

Fun Facts:

Louis B. Mayer was very unhappy about the film's political content, thinking it noncommercial. Katharine Hepburn too felt that the storyline was too dull and needed to be pepped up with some romance. She complained to producer Victor Saville about this but he ignored her comments, so Hepburn went directly to Mayer who was only too happy to make the film into a more conventional Hollywood romance.

Van Johnson was driving to a special screening of Keeper of the Flame when he was involved in the road accident that left him with a metal plate in his forehead.

According to Hepburn biographer Alvin H. Marill, Hepburn was very vocal in critiquing the direction of long-time collaborator George Cukor during filming. After Cukor filmed a fire scene, she questioned his handling of the actors, " I don't think they would have to be told about the fire. They would smell the smoke." Cukor finally Spoke up to his star, "It must be wonderful to know all about acting AND all about fires."

Keeper of the Flame, maybe the only film noir that Tracy with Katherine Hepburn, teamed up in. The story, I thought was very intriguing, with fine performances from the supporting cast: Forrest Tucker, Darryl Hickman, Howard da Silva and Percy Kilbride.

Margaret Wycherly (26 October 1881 – 6 June 1956), was mostly a stage actress, performing in one silent film. In 1929 she performed in her first talkie, The Thirteenth Chair, based on the 1916 play by her husband in which she had starred. Twelve years later, Wycherley performed in, Sergeant York(1941). She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role of Mother York, though perhaps her best remembered screen role was as "Ma Jarrett", the mother of gangster, Cody Jarrett, in White Heat (1949), with James Cagney. Her other films include: Keeper of the Flame, The Yearling, Forever Amber and Johnny Angel .

Holy Jumping Jehosophat! (Woman Of The Year (1942)

It seems that I am posting so much Hepburn/Tracy at the moment! I think they just might happen to be my summer holiday obsession. Oh yes. There is always one each summer. We usually order a few great movies from Amazon (the only place you can get the slightly rarer ones) to last us the summer and last year they were mainly Ingrid Bergman ones, and this year came the Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy set *swoon*. It was the first film they ever made together, I actually think, though, that Woman Of The Year might be my favourite one so far! But I love them all :-)

Woman Of The Year (1942) directed by George Stevens written by Michael Kanin (with assistance from his brother, Garson)

Cast:

• Spencer Tracy as Sam Craig


• Katharine Hepburn as Tess Harding


• Fay Bainter as Ellen Whitcomb


• Reginald Owen as Clayton


• Minor Watson as William J. Harding

Plot:
Tess Harding is a well educated and strong minded columnist of political affairs for the same newspaper as Sam Craig, a quick witted and clever sports columnist. He first hears her on a radio show talking about how it seems like baseball is a waste of energy for American people. You know. Just running around in a square and that kind of thing. Enraged at her attitude to his favourite sport he starts a column fight against her, which she manages to fight back at just a well as he started. When they are called up to the editor's room to try and sort out the disagreement, they both know that there is an undeniable chemistry between the two of them.

Afterwards, Sam asks Tess if she's free to go and see a baseball game with him and after sifting through her busy schedule, they fix a date. Though initially perplexed by the game and it's rules, she gets the hang of it and even manages to make friends with the grumpy man behind her.

They meet another few times and he finally brings up the courage to ask her to marry him. Of course she says yes and they marry the very next day. At the wedding though, Sam gets his first taste of what it's like to be part of Tess's family. Tess's aunt and father both really like Sam and he likes them too, but they are both so busy that they have to run off somewhere straight after the ceremony :-(

Just as they are both getting ready for their wedding night - alone - a Eastern European politician friend of Tess, who has escaped from a concentration camp, enters their apartment with two body guards and a party of around 10 people. Naturally Sam is very upset (plus he can't speak Slovenian or whatever the language is) so he calls over his friends, but when one of them is told by Tess and Sam that it is their wedding night, she manages to take the whole group over to her place to party!

But this isn't the first awkward situation that Tess's work puts her in. Quite soon after the wedding they start to feel a strange new tension between them. When Tess asks Sam if he thinks it's because they need a child and tells him that it has already been done, he naturally thinks she is pregnant. But she walks in with a Greek refugee adopted child named Chris, who, of course doesn't speak any English (to Sam's delight... Not). And to top it all off, when she goes to accept The Woman Of The Year award she intends to leave Chris all alone for the evening in their apartment. But Sam insists that he will stay with Chris until he falls asleep. This aggravates Tess and she leaves without him. While she is at the ceremony, Sam packs up all his and Chris's clothes and takes him back to the refugee orphanage because he doesn't think that their home is right for him.

Sam feels low and unimportant and Tess is very upset about the way that Chris insulted her in Greek when she went to try and get him back and find Sam. But really, they both do love each other. Will they be able to get over their differences and get back together again?

The Verdict:


Woman Of The Year wasn't as light or fluffy as the other films I've seen Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in (Guess Who's Coming To Dinner doesn't count. For one thing it's much later and for another Katharine Hepburn is crying all the way through because she knows that Spencer Tracy is dying and it is simply too much to bear without crying like crazy yourself), but I think that might just be why I love it so much :-)

It is certainly the most romantic of the films of theirs I've seen, but it's still really funny. George Stevens is really pretty high up on my favourite ever directors list, you know. He, Billy Wilder, William Wyler, George Cukor and Alfred Hitchcock pretty much make up the list. Two of my very favourites have been directed by him, The Talk of The Town and Shane. This one was just as good as the aforementioned favourites.

Spencer Tracy really gets to show off his more dramatic side as well as his comedic one in Woman Of The Year. He's so funny in the scene where he accidentally walks onstage during one of Katharine Hepburn's speeches and she just says "Take a seat," because she is of course Kate the unflappable Hepburn. And he proceeds to spill his cigarettes all over the stage and get caught in women's fringe dresses. It is honestly so funny. Plus he does a little curtsy thing at the end when they all leave.

He was also heartbreaking in his scenes with Chris, their adopted Greek refugee. Especially when he has to take him back to the refugee centre :'-S.

You do have to accept the fact that the film is a little unfair to women for the first 3/4. The basic moral being that Tess shouldn't lead her complete jet-setting career fighting for equal rights and her beliefs. It seems through the last part of the film that she is going to have to give her career up fully to patch things up with Sam, but in the end, it's OK because we all realize that he is feeling shut out because of her importance. So they compromise and it works out fine. Do you really think that a Katharine Hepburn film would end with her character being degraded as a woman? Never! Part of the reason all her roles are so amazing is that they are really strong and independent women (just watch Adam's Rib, Pat and Mike and The Lion In Winter all in one go and you'll see what I mean).

Katharine Hepburn is amazing again. She takes the character of Tess and makes her a bit warmer than she might appear to be in the script alone. I think she does a completely fantastic job and completely equals Spencer Tracy's performance and more even sometimes. One of my favourite scenes is when she is hearing her Aunt and Father exchanging vows and she realizes that she didn't listen properly the first when she got married, and needs to go back to Sam. All this is done with her face and mainly eyes alone and no dialogue and you still get exactly what she's thinking.

{SPOILER! Because I am just so clever and chose the final scene as my favourite. I couldn't find the video anywhere so you just get my commentary :-D}

My absolute favourite scene though, is where Katharine Hepburn comes into Spencer Tracy's new apartment and starts to cook him breakfast while he is still asleep. She - as you can imagine - hasn't had much experience as a cook, so she just sets down a full pot of coffee on the stove and leaves it there for ages. In the process of lighting the stove, she manages to make crazily loud noises with the stove cover and set an alarm off. And Spencer Tracy sleeps through all of it. Wow. Once that's done she goes to find a recipe for waffles. But when she goes to get the ingredients from the fridge the fridge door blows the page of the recipe over, and gazing at it for the next ingredient (of course it's the wrong recipe) reaches for the yeast. She pours the mix into the waffle maker.

Finally Sam wakes up and after they have a mini face off.  He goes into the kitchen to watch her cook. In this space of about five minutes, she attempts to separate the whites and the yolks of three eggs using a sieve, the waffle inflates like a balloon, toast flies everywhere and the coffee pot explodes.

As soon as the film finished I said, "Mum... I really think I'd better start learning more recipes. I don't want to wind up putting yeast into my waffle mix. It wouldn't be so great!" I mean, I wouldn't want to be alone in a room with a breathing waffle mix. Would you?

I know that Katharine Hepburn was nominated for the Best Actress academy award and quite right, too, but I felt like Spencer Tracy deserved a nomination too, since he was so good.

The general consensus was that we loved the film and thought it was great. It just might have to go up there as the best film of theirs I've seen (possibly tied with Pat and Mike?).

~Bette

P.S. We also get to hear Kate speaking Spanish.
P.P.S. And Russian.
P.P.P.S. And Greek.
P.P.P.P.S. And Italian.
P.P.P.P.P.S. And Slovenian

Now a real P.S. None of these photos are mine. By and large they were found on Tumblr and websites of the like. I am not crazy about linking back to Tumblr as the content can be unreliable, but if one of these photos belong to you and your blog is clean, then by all means comment a link and I'll post it :-)

Pat and Mike (1952)

After screaming in capital letters the other day about seeing more Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy movies, my Mum and I sat down at the computer to look for some films to cover the rest of our holiday. We found some great ones, including a set of four Katharine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy films - Pat and Mike, Keeper Of The Flame, Adam's Rib (a repeat, but oh well!), and Woman of The Year. YAYAYAYAYYAYAY! We put on Pat and Mike as soon as it came and were not disappointed. This was Katharine Hepburn's favourite of the nine she made with Spencer Tracy.

Pat and Mike (1952) directed by George Cukor and Written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin

Cast:

• Pat Pemberton - Katharine Hepburn


• Mike Conovan - Spencer Tracy


• Collier Weld - William Ching


• Davie Hucko - Aldo Ray

Plot:

Pat Pemberton is a happy physical education teacher (and a very talented one at that). She is also in a generally happy engagement with Collier Weld, so you might say that she was a very lucky girl! But there is one particular thing that is always getting at her. Everytime she is playing a sport and her fiancee is there looking domineeringly at her, she can't do well at all.

She has to make a quick change from her pants {"These aren't pants they're slacks! Watch your language!"} because their golfing partners are "very conservative'.

One day, she and he play a game of business/pleasure golf and he really wants her to do well, but he gives her *insert DUN DUN DUN* The Look, and she can't do well at all. After the game the wife of Collier's business associate is screaming to Katharine Hepburn that she has to practice more and "TENSE! TENSE!", before she takes a shot and eventually she can't take it anymore and goes up to a row of golf balls and hits them all beautifully. They all go :-0... And she storms into the clubhouse for a drink.

The leader of the club says that she should definitely enter the Women's Gold Championship and he will help her start training. She is nearly acing the championship when she glances at her fiancee and he gives her The Look. He wants them to get married and for her to give up and forget about the whole endeavour. But she wont give up that easily and she stays while he goes back to California and she hires the kind-of-gangster sports promoter and manager, Mike Conovan.

They get along really well and he is shocked and amazed by her fantastic sports ability at not only golf, but tennis and every other sport she wants to try. They are, however faced with all the usual dificulties of sports-person fame.

Tired muscles, being worn out, and the looming prospect of Mike's "investors" and their intentions for Pat cheating so they can win bets. But non of them are as complicated as their own relationship with each other and Pat's fiancee...
The Verdict:

I honestly want to live in a Katharine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy movie (well, at least the happy ones :-D) and this one is so amazingly super cool that it deserves multiple crazy rambles. It wasn't as serious as Woman of The Year which I completely adored, but it does have some very interesting and important key features. And, as a side note, I wish Katharine Hepburn had been my PE teacher :'-(. Oh well. You can't win 'em all.

First of all, the writing is a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon work so well together. Together they wrote the screenplay for both this and Adam's Rib and he alone wrote the play Born Yesterday (I might have to give the film a re-watch) and Funny Girl. That is pretty impressive and there are just so many great ideas and lines in this film, especially when Pat looks at a picture of her fiancee and his head becomes Mike's, and then when Mike is saying goodnight to his horse, the horse's head becomes Pat's! :-D

A very young Charles Bronson!

Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy are both completely fantastic, and I am so glad to be watching more Spencer Tracy. He is just too awesome (I tried looking for his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with Ingrid Bergman, but alas! It was nowhere to be seen :'-S). But I think that in this case, the starring role is  Katharine Hepburn's. I read that she did all her own sports in Pat and Mike (:-0) and may I say that almost the best parts of the film were when she was thrashing professional male tennis players, or beating Babe Zaharias at golf. But the best two parts (tied for first place) were when she saved Spencer Tracy from a fate worse than death by grabbing Charles Bronson by the ankles and throwing away another gangster's glasses - and when her fiancee is being hideous to her and she calls out "MIKE! MIKE! MIKE! HELP!" and hides under the covers of her bed and Spencer Tracy tries to do to her fiancee what she did to Charles Bronson and fails epically. LOL!

No, but seriously, she is so good at all those sports! I had read that she was very athletic before and all that, but this is pretty super cool. And when she tells her fiancee that every time he gives her "that look" she loses her flow and he asks her "what look?", and she starts doing a really funny impersonation, I laughed so much!

And Spencer Tracy's kind-of-gangster accent deserves a paragraph of it's own. It's so funny. One minute he sounds like Spencer Tracy and the next he sounds like James Cagney. And it is also pretty epically funny when he goes out training with her and his other contracted sportsman, they are jogging and Spencer Tracy is always about three paces behind on a bicycle!

I really can't chose which is my favourite film from the duo that I've seen (Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, Adam's Rib, Woman Of The Year and Pat and Mike) and The State Of The Union seemed pretty grim. In fact, I turned it off after fifteen minutes because Angela Lansbury and Spencer Tracy were cheating on Katharine Hepburn and Kate and Spencer Tracy had two children! It just didn't seem right! No-no-no-no-no-no, definitely, NO!

Anyhow, this one probably ranks pretty high! It was great fun, and had a great script. Not to mention two great leading actors :-)

~Bette