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Desk Set

Desk Set

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Tracy and Hepburn at their best
Review: Don't pay attention to the nay-sayers who complain about the screen formatting of this tape. The dialogue alone is worth 5 stars. Tracy and Hepburn made a separate career (as if either one needed to) by playing off one another in a series of films. This one is outstanding. The repartee between the two of them was never better. I absolutely adored the rooftop lunch scene where, of course, Tracy tries to top her with brainteasers, but not only does she figure them all out instantly, she's always one step ahead of him. Usually, I can find something in a film that is overlooked by others. In this film, it's the obvious age difference between Hepburn and her love interest, Gig Young. He seems much too young (no pun intended) for her. But still, she IS Kathryn Hepburn. So I guess that makes it OK. There is a reference to what the Tracy character did during WWII. Hepburn said it was so secret, even she couldn't find out what it was. I would like to know.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Ahead of its Time
Review: This movie amazes me with the way it addresses the paranoia in the workplace that computers created back in their infancy. Employees saw computers coming but were afraid that they would take over their jobs. Spencer Tracy plays a systems designer/consultant that is implementing IT systems in the company Katharine Hepburn is employed. When he finally gets to her department, pandamonium ensues among the employees. The final role the computer takes in the company symbolizes the way computers will be used in the workplace for the next 50 years. The side story between Hepburn and Tracy is classic. They didn't make another movie together for 10 years (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?).

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Enjoyable movie but frustrating pan-and-scan
Review: The movie itself is a lot of fun, but the pan-and-scan method doesn't work here. I don't remember the funny parts so much as my frustration at hearing actors who weren't onscreen but were meant to be. Still, look for the scene in which Tracy gets Hepburn and a friend laughing so much I wondered if it wasn't for real, and then a moment later, while they're still laughing, he does something else, and you just know from the way Hepburn totally falls apart that it wasn't in the script.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Classic Tracy-Hepburn comedy
Review: Hepburn gives us another wonderful performance as Bunny Watson, head of a reference department at a television broadcast company. Spencer Tracy turns in one of his classic gruff, intelligent and somewhat absent-minded performances as Richard Sumner who has been hired to computerize the company on the eve of a big merger. Thanks to a deftly demonstrated grapevine within the company, nothing of his purpose can be revealed, and much of the film's humor derives from the wild speculation that arises as a result. Bunny, who is involved with her boss, Mike Cutler, is immediately interested in Sumner, partly out of curiosity (Is he there to make her obsolete?) and partly because the sparks just fly between them in classic exchanges such as this:

Bunny: I don't smoke, I only drink champagne when I'm lucky enough to get it, my hair is naturally natural, I live alone...and so do you.

Sumner: How do you know that?

Bunny: Because you're wearing one brown sock and one black sock.

You know they're made for each other, that Mike isn't the right man for Bunny and never was, but Bunny's ambivalence over what she supposes Sumner's job to be threatens any possibility of romance between them, and the prying, meddling and jumping-to-conclusions being done all around them only make the situation that much more difficult, and that much funnier.

Joan Blondell as Bunny's sexy, funny best friend just shines here with her share of the best lines. Even the bit parts will make you smile. The writing credits include Henry and Phoebe Ephron, parents to Amy, Delia and Nora Ephron. (It's nice to see that their lively sense of the absurd has been transmitted to another generation.) Everything in this film is deftly done; I can't think of a wrong note or a misstep through the entire 103 minute run, and in fact scenes like the dinner at Bunny's apartment or the office Christmas party with the hilarious "Mexican avenue bus" exchange should have you falling off your couch with laughter. If you're not familiar with the work Hepburn and Tracy did together, this is a grand way to start.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Very Best Hepburn/Tracy Teaming!
Review: Katherine Hepburn is in top form as a middle aged head of the all girls research department who feels threatened when a mysterious "efficiency expert" (Spencer Tracy) is sent in to introduce his great invention "EMEREK", the ultimate information source. Now the ladies in research fear that a computer will make their "human brain work" obsolete. The boss's favorite, a dapper climber of the success ladder who has been engaged to Hepburn for years but never quite mustered up the courage to pop the question, takes Hepburn's devotion to him for granted and suddenly realizes that she is not the doormat he had seen in her for so long. Tracy, up to this point a bachelor at heart, is quite smitten by this clever research lady. The outcome is predictable. Still, this is top notch entertainment with a smart script and great acting. The chemistry between the two leads is delicious. Look for the gorgeous fashions flaunted by all women in this movie. With the money a working girl of the 50s took home, such extravagances would have been quite impossible. But after all, this is Hollywood, not the real world.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Tracy and Hepburn at their best
Review: There are so many quotable exchanges between Tracy and Hepburn, and ones that apply to modern day life in business, it may, in some ways, be more apropos than some of the current comic strips based on office life. At one point, Tracy asks Hepburn if she likes working in the company in question. Her answer, tinged with a little sarcasm, was that if she weren't already working there, she'd "pay to get in." The only downside of this lanmark Cinemascope picture is that the video is not in letterbox format. But it's great fun, and especially amusing for all who earn their living in an office.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: MY FAVORITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME!
Review: I absolutely adore this movie! The librarian versus the computer expert angle is just wonderful. Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy are just perfect in their roles as Bunny Watson, the reference librarian, and Richard Sumner, the "electronic brain" expert. The dialog is witty, the plot enchanting. I have seen this movie at least once or twice a month for several years, and I will never tire of it. Of course, I am a librarian, and my husband just happens to be a technology coordinator! It truly is a wonderful movie, one to be treasured.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: hepburn and tracey are positivily charming,
Review: as per time setting, perfect christmas gift, as seen on amc, beautiful color and letterbox (unsure if available on vhs), truly delightful, production design and costumes are magnificent

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: don't buy this video.
Review: But do try to catch the W-I-D-E-S-C-R-E-E-N version that airs from time to time on AMC (AMCTV.com). The composition of most of the shots is poor on this videocassette. the original film has the aspect ratio of 2.35:1, which means that all shots with 4-5 characters have half the characters speaking from off camera.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: SUPERB!
Review: They don't make them (actors and movies) like this anymore. What a pity, especially with all the trash Hollywood is manufacturing. Tracy and Hepburn are at their best. A real gem.


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