Woman of the Year
Directed by George Stevens
Written by Ring Lardner Jr. and Michael Kanin
1942/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Sam Craig: I don’t want to be married to Tess Harding any more than I want you to be just Mrs Sam Craig. Why can’t you be Tess Harding Craig?
Tess Harding: I think it’s a wonderful name.[/box]
This was the first of the nine pictures in which Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were paired and the beginning of one of Hollywood’s most iconic love affairs. Their chemistry fairly explodes from the screen.
Tess Harding (Hepburn) is multi-talented, multi-lingual and knows everybody who is anybody. She is a political columnist on a New York paper. During a radio interview she is asked who will win the World Series and replies that people should put such frivolous things as sports aside for the duration. Sam Craig (Tracy), the sports columnist on the same paper, is mightily offended by this and the two start sparing in their columns. But when Sam actually meets Tess the attraction is instantaneous. He asks her out to a baseball game and she falls for him too. After some very romantic scenes they marry.
Married life is nothing like what Sam expected or wanted. Tess is in such demand that they can hardly get a moment alone together, even on their wedding night. And Tess, despite her true love for Sam, doesn’t seem to understand that there are two people to take into account now. The final straw comes when she adopts a little Greek refugee without asking Sam about it. Can such a marriage ever work out? With Fay Bainter as Tracy’s aunt.
I had seen so many clips from this film in documentaries that I was sure I had seen it before. Not so and it has become a new favorite. I hope Tracy’s wife didn’t see it since it is very clear that the two are madly in love. This is one of those rare romantic comedies that is also mature and intelligent at the same time. I absolutely loved it. Highly recommended.
Woman of the Year won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay. Katharine Hepburn was nominated as Best Actress.
Tracy and Hepburn meet for the first time in a movie
Frankly I disliked this movie. And that is from somebody who is nut about Hepburn and think that Tracy and Hepburn belong together like tomato and basil. The problem is that of gender roles. Apperently this is a game they like to play out, but here it is becomming absurd. We are supposed to think that Tess is too much, that she is not really a woman because she cannot or will not treat her husband like a baby. That scene in the end in the kitchen is constructed to make every housewife howl with superior laughter at the ineptitude of Tess in a kitchen and I just do not think it is fair. I actually think Tess is super cool and she is not allowed to be.
We disagree on something! I think Tracy was pretty selfish. Doesn’t marriage mean you should consult your spouse on important decisions and think of their happiness? She didn’t have much time for him. If my husband had brought home a child (!) without asking me I would have left too. I think somebody can have a career and a marriage but it takes more work than Tracy was willing to give it before she saw the light. I did however think the ending part in the kitchen was pretty ridiculous.
I think we can both agree that Tracy and Hepburn were pretty wonderful in this. Tracy impresses me more every time I see him. He is so subtle.
The rewatching continues-
This sports nut meets superwoman movie has dated badly but is well worth seeing for the performances of the 2 leads. It does have humour and those smokingly hot looks they give each other aren’t just “normal” acting.
This is the best of the Tracy-Hepburn comedies IMO. The sexual politics are prehistoric but the chemistry makes up for it.