Woman of the Year

Woman of the Year (1942)

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WOMAN OF THE YEAR

Reviewed by Heather Picker

Directed by George Stevens. Screenplay by Ring Lardner, Jr. and Michael Kanin. Starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, with Fay Bainter. 1942, 114 min., Not Rated.

Please note: Hey kids, I wrote this when I was 16 and it sucks tremendously! Will be re-written eventually.

Woman of the Year is a landmark film, the first teaming of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. It is remembered as a dramedy classic, and while the chemistry between Tracy and Hepburn is undeniable and entertaining, whether they can overcome the contrived material they have to work with is at times in question.

Aristocrat Tess Harding (Hepburn) is one of the most respected, high profile political commentators in the world. Sam Craig (Tracy) is your average Joe sports columnist for the same newspaper Tess works for and when she makes a baseball comment on a radio program that gets Sam fuming, the two begin directing critical jabs at one another in their columns. Obviously, they are destined to fall in love.

The courtship is hurried, like everything in Tess's workaholic life. This becomes too much for Sam to handle; her career jeopardizes their marriage. What has the potential to become a great battle-of-the-sexes comedy, like their fifth film together, Adam's Rib, is marred by a meandering screenplay, co-penned by Ring Lardner Jr. and Michael Kanin. By the end of the movie I was not only aware of how long I'd been watching it (almost two hours), which is never a good sign, but also of how it would end (a typical early '40s ending that the writers coyly left a shred of hopefulness about). The truth is that neither the characters nor their relationship were developed enough to give the audience much to root for; its only saving grace was the Tracy/Hepburn chemistry. If the some of the drama had been cut and replaced with more scenes like Sam trying to explain baseball to Tess, Woman of the Year wouldn't have been as uneven. Produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and directed by George "Heavy Hand" Stevens (Giant).

Availability: Woman of the Year is available on video and DVD, separately and as part of the Warner Brothers Hepburn & Tracy Collection.

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