 "Bunny Vs EMMARAC and Richard" | 2009-09-18 |
| - Reviewed By rama_r |
Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn movies are fun to watch; they are great comedies that bring quality family entertainment. Some of their movies tackle social and domestic issues. In the movie Adam's Rib, the inequality of the law; the unwritten rule of husbands shooting adulterers (but not wives) is examined. The movie Pat and Mike deals with the success of women athletes in professional sports, and how some greedy male managers try to exploit them. In Desk Set, the story is about the effect of automation at work place and how it affects the jobs and lives of workers. You get to see a lot of lighter side of office environment.
When efficiency expert Richard Sumner (Spencer Tracy) is assigned to the research department of the Federal Broadcasting Company to evaluate work patterns, his eccentric behavior catches the imagination of researchers Bunny Watson (Katharine Hepburn), Peg Costello (Joan Blondell), Sylvia Blair (Dina Merrill) and Ruthie Saylor (Sue Randall). They begin to worry when Sumner informs Bunny that his mission is to improve the efficiency, but actually Mr. Azae (Nicholas Joy), the head of the network, approves a project to computerize the department and asks Richard to keep the project a secret.
Bunny admires a gown she purchases and all excited in the hope that Mike Cutler (Gig Young), her boss and suitor of seven years will invite her to a country club dance. However, circumstances prevent that from happening, and in the mean time Bunny start dating Richard. The date turns into business meetings for them as Bunny finds out that Richard is the inventor and patent holder of EMMARAC, an electronic brain. The women at research department get worried that their jobs will lost due to the machine, when they find out that half the payroll department gets pink slips after EMMARAC becomes the machine of the Payroll department.
On the eve of a big weekend, Mike break his date with Bunny because of a business trip to Chicago, and in the meantime on a stormy day, Smithers (Harry Ellerbe), the office gossip offers Richard and Bunny a ride and drops them at Bunny's apartment building. Bunny invites the soaked Richard in for dinner and gives him a robe to wear that she has bought as a Christmas gift for Mike. Mike's plane gets cancelled due to inclement weather and he visits Bunny's apartment and gets shocked to see Richard in robe. This is one of the funniest moments of the movie. However, later, at the office Christmas party, the research staff laments the fact that this will be their last office party. The air of congeniality is shattered at the research department when Miss Warringer (Neva Patterson), an assistant of Richard and a computer operator start working. Due to an error of the machine entire staff gets pink dismissal slips including Richard. This is another hilarious moment and the movie takes a jab at the competence of a machine replacing people. The staff obviously sad begins to pack up and refuse to answer the phones, which forces Miss Warringer to deal with the onslaught of calls. Richard then explains that EMMARAC was never intended to replace the research department, but only to help them do their job, and the project was kept secret because of an impending merger with another network.
William Marchant's play Desk Set was based on an actual CBS research librarian, Agnes E. Law, though the film's shots of Rockefeller Center suggest NBC. In Marchant's play there was no romance between Richard Sumner and Bunny Watson, but screenwriters Henry and Phoebe Ephron added a romantic story line to capitalize on the enormous success of Tracy and Hepburn screen relationship. The socialite-heiress Dina Merrill made her film debut in this movie, and Joan Blondell offers an excellent performance as Bunny's sidekick Peg.
This movie is set around Christmas time and movie-critics never mention this. I believe any movie set in Christmas time deserved to be treated as movie worth watching during Christmas time. You get to feel and enjoy the joyous occasion. The festive spirit is reflected in the office, windows, and doors being decorated with Christmas wreaths, Christmas Carols in the background, Christmas party at work with office Santa Claus is a very happy occasion.
1. The Hepburn & Tracy Signature Collection (Woman of the Year / Pat and Mike / Adam's Rib / The Spencer Tracy Legacy)
2. Pat and Mike
3. Adam's Rib |
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 "A Classic Love Story" | 2009-09-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3J5QCI9T269TS |
| If you have not seen this movie, you have missed a classic comedy and love story featuring two of the greatest performers of their generation. With the themes of unexpected love, workplace romance, technology and its impact on the worker, and Christmas, it's a very satisfying and funny diversion from everyday life. In my opinion, this is the most enjoyable and romantic of all the Hepburn -- Tracy movies. |
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| "One of their best!" | 2009-04-02 |
| - Reviewed By wbowers51 |
| I can't think of a single Hepburn/Tracy movie that I don't like, but this is one of their best. They are terrific together! |
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| "um,um, good!" | 2009-02-23 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3T2R5LAJJIUL1 |
| seen this movie many, many, years ago. enjoyed it just as much this time as I did then. they made several movies togeather, and now I wish to see them all again. my wife, and I, as of today 23 feb. 09 have seen fifty years go by, and still think that some of the old ones are still the best. thank you very much for bringing them back to us. thank so much! wacko jim |
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| "Huzzah!" | 2008-07-24 |
| - Reviewed By mschoen@stanford.edu |
When I was a college student in Stony Brook, New York in 1974, I skipped a class one cold winter morning to stay in my dorm room and watch "Desk Set" on my roommate's black and white portable TV. It was a revelation. Since then I have graduated to watching it on DVD on my large screen color TV, and it continues to be a revelation. I won't repeat all the accolades of previous reviewers - who DOESN'T love the scene on the freezing rooftop or the floating island on a rainy night while Tracy's shoes are cooking in the oven? - but there are lots of delightful lesser moments, such as when Hepburn despairs of getting married and suggests to Blondell that they live together and keep cats (Gertrude Stein, anyone?) or when the continuity person didn't do their job, and Hepburn leaves the office building holding flowers of one color, and steps outside with the color completely changed.
A big part of the charm of this film, of course, is the obvious and genuine affection between Hepburn and Tracy. They truly enjoyed each other, and so do we. |
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| "A great romantic comedy with poor commentary track" | 2008-07-13 |
| - Reviewed By calvinnme |
When I list my favorite film for each year, this is always on my list for 1957. I know I'm supposed to say "Twelve Angry Men" or "Bridge over the River Kwai", but I just find this film to be better. Hepburn and Tracy star in a very odd romantic comedy in which the leading man is a computer designer and the leading lady is head of the reference department at a major television network. Change the fear of automation that Tracy's computer brings to the fear of outsourcing and you have something very modern indeed. It is interesting to see the fear of being replaced by something cheaper existed for employees even 50 years ago. It's also interesting to see that Hepburn's character as well as her employees are all smart women who, in the 1950's, cannot hope to aspire to something greater than looking up information for the rest of the company. The romantic comedy is smart and very adult, and it's a shame more people haven't seen it. There really is romance after the age of 35, something you'd never know by watching the films of today.
The one real disappointment of this DVD is the commentary. There are two people commenting - film historian John Lee and actress Dina Merrill who costarred in the film. John Lee seems to be reading his remarks and talks more about film history in general than the film specifically. Ms. Merrill talks about her personal experiences with the cast. I was really hoping for some extra or commentary about research departments as they existed in the 1950's or even something about the early electronic brains, such as the one that Tracy's character brings into the network research department. You get none of that. There is one other extra about fashions, but that is it. Usually commentary and extras on Fox classic films has been much better than this. |
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