Woman of the Year (1942)

Perfection!

I think this is the best of the Tracy-Hepburn films. It was also the first. It revived their fledgling careers and made them fresh and fun. It is a very romantic film about a woman who acts like a "man" - callous, indifferent, busy away from home, neglectful to her spouse, while the husband, a sports writer, is forced into the woman's role of waiting at home constantly for a spouse who is away, dependent on her attention and lonely most of the time. A wonderful insightful story about the sexes. July 3, 2008

Craig's Wife

Everything you've heard about WOMAN OF THE YEAR is true. This was the first pairing of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, and, yes, the chemistry IS evident. Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner's script is intelligent and the dialogue is snappy for the most part. It does touch lightly on "issues of the day" (the war, obviously--and of course, the proverbial "battle of the sexes," the subtext of just about EVERY Tracy-Hepburn film ever made). And,yes, the baseball scene is pretty darn great.

But the film is not an unqualified success. The kitchen disaster scene towards the movie's end is cliched and just too darn slow. The flying toast, the boiling over coffee and that cussed watched pot that keeps boiling over are enough to try the patience of almost any contemporary viewer. Tracy is consigned to shameless mugging throughout the entire proceedings. Probably not his fault. I'm sure he was dutifully taking direction. But director George Stephens' sense of pacing--so effective in the baseball scene--fails him here.

The entire scene seems lifted from a THREE STOOGES short and is totally out of place with the sophisticated tone of the rest of the film.

Many have pointed out that the shift from breezy comedy to near-melodrama is a bit jarring at times. I would have to say that the writers deserve some credit for making the script a bit more nuanced than it might have been otherwise. Hepburn's change-of-heart at her father's wedding is not entirely convincing, but interestingly enough Tracy is not entirely convinced either. He calls her out on this very point. Is it a true change of heart or merely another of her many self-dramatizing whims?

And speaking of whims, am I the only viewer who found the segment with Chris, the young Greek orphan, kind of disturbing? That Kate's ambitious Tess Harding character would feel almost obliged to adopt a young refugee (and foist the child on her unsuspecting husband) is dubious enough. That she would neglect him on top of that, however, risks making her once charmingly eccentric character almost monstrous.

In fact, I kept wondering about the kid even after the big reconciliation scene between the principles. Did anyone think about going back to the orphanage and fetching the youngster and maybe starting a "real" family. By the film's end, you feel that Sam and Tess Harding Craig are coming to terms with themselves and their marriage. They get to start anew,and you're glad for them. But what about that poor kid?



June 18, 2008

Katharine and Spencer at their very best!

Woman of the Year was the first of nine movies that Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy did together, and, I think, the very best. They are an incredible team and their contrasting temperaments fit each other perfectly!

This movie matches the perfect story with the perfect team! Sam Craig and Tess Harding work for the same newspaper company. He covers sports; she covers the war. So when he overhears a radio program on which she says that American should give up baseball and turn their full attention toward the war effort, a dispute arises in the newspaper between their columns. But when the two of them meet, Sam is immediately drawn to her. He takes her to a baseball game where he tries to explain to her the fundamentals of the sport. As they spend time together a romance blossoms and they get married. Things begin to crumble, though, as Tess struggles to juggle both her demanding career and her marriage.

This movie leaves no doubt why Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy are the incredible team they are! April 15, 2008

wonderful film....how it all began.....

The title of my review is in reference to the beginning of the relationship (onscreen and off) between Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. WOMAN OF THE YEAR was the first of nine films that the pair acted in together. You can feel their chemistry from the opening frames of the film all the way to the end. These actors were truly a class act together and a very hard act to follow. Between Katherine Hepburn's purring delivery of her lines and Spencer Tracy's staunch presence, the two had a very special thing going on. Sam Craig (Spencer Tracy) and Tess Harding (Katherine Hepburn) are a pair of rivaling journalists who end up falling for each other. Tess is a die hard feminist and she proves to be too much for Sam to handle, at times. So much so that her strong convictions put their relationship on the line.

What works so well, here, is the combination of human drama and warm humor. You also feel the true (and believable) love between the couple and it doesn't feel so much as a movie as a tribute to the relationship of two incomparable actors. For more great Tracy and Hepburn films, I reccomend that you see ADAM'S RIB, GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER, and PAT & MIKE. August 22, 2007

Ho-Hum

I LOVE the young version of Katherine Hepburn. She was beautiful in an atypical way and was perfect at playing the coquette, something many people may not know if they've only seen her in her older, spinster rolls. You can certainly see that side of her in this movie, but even Hepburn's charm or real life chemistry with Spencer Tracy can't elevate this film above average. If you want to see her really shine, check out "Bringing Up Baby" or the "The Philadelphia Story."

The basic premise of the movie is that you have a romantic comedy dealing with role reversal--the woman, Hepburn, is the successful one who's worried about her career, and the man, Spencer Tracy, is the second banana with the unimportant job. Both of them are reporters working for the same paper, but this movie doesn't have any of the snappy dialog you might see in a movie like "His Girl Friday."

The premise of the movie was probably original for it's time, but the problem is the execution. For one, the movie is two long--nearly two hours while most comedies are around 90 minutes. And that extra time isn't filled with good dialog or screwball scenes...instead you get a few long, drawn out attempts at romance that just seem to go on for too long. It doesn't hold your interest.

That isn't to say it's a bad movie--it's just somewhat forgettable. Tracy and Hepburn both had great careers and made several classic films--many of them together--this just isn't one of them.

December 24, 2006

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