Classic Film Guide

Desk Set (1957)

Another entertaining Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy pairing, the one is about an efficiency expert (Tracy) assigned to "secretly" investigate implementing an electronic brain (e.g. a computer system) in the reference department of a television network.  The head of the department (Hepburn) and her employees (Joan Blondell, Sue Randall, and Dina Merrill, in her first film), who currently "look everything up" manually, naturally feel threatened.  Gig Young plays Hepburn's long time love interest, an up-and-coming employee at the network whose job interferes with their relationship.  Harry Ellerbe appears as a company lawyer who also serves as its "grapevine"; Nicholas Joy is the executive in charge that's hired Tracy; Neva Patterson plays a computer operator.  Serves as a commercial of sorts for IBM though, having spent more than 15 years in the business, it always amuses me how Hollywood displays computer hardware, with excessive blinking lights and constantly spinning tape drives.

This above average comedy was directed by Walter Lang, The King and I (1956), based on the William Marchant play, and adapted (screenplay) by Phoebe and Henry Ephron (Captain Newman, M.D. (1963)), parents of Nora, Delia, and Amy.  The film's funniest scenes are the ones between its two stars: one is a rooftop luncheon in which Tracy learns of Hepburn's extraordinary mind & retention; the other occurs in her character's apartment.

Find your movie or DVD now @:Find your movie at MoviesUnlimited.com.

Most Recent Additions:

Two for the Road (1967)

Gaslight (1940) - full review!

The Gazebo (1959) - full review!

Passage to Marseille (1944) - full review!

The House on 56th Street (1933) - full review!

Smilin' Through (1941)

Annie Get Your Gun (1950) - full review!

The Great Waltz (1938)

Skyscraper Souls (1932)

Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Lonelyhearts (1958) - full review!

Good News (1947) - full review!

Wild Rovers (1971) - full review!

Lovers and Other Strangers (1970) - full review!

Golden Boy (1939)

Topper Returns (1941) - full review!

Peeping Tom (1960)

Tender Mercies (1983)

The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Logan's Run (1976)

Magnificent Obsession (1954)

Madigan (1968)

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

The Conformist (1970)

The Buddy Holly Story (1978)

Brigadoon (1954)

The Big Heat (1953)

The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)

Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)

The Winning Team (1952) - full review!

The Hasty Heart (1949) - full review!

Storm Warning (1951) - full review!

The FBI Story (1959) - full review!

Firecreek (1968) - full review!

The Cheyenne Social Club (1970) - full review!

The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)

Hatari! (1962)

Brother Orchid (1940)

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)

Seven Men From Now (1956)

Green Dolphin Street (1947) - full review!

The Three Musketeers (1948)

Written on the Wind (1956)

Two Weeks With Love (1950) - full review!

Across the Pacific (1942) - full review!

Evelyn Prentice (1934) - full review!

The Opposite Sex (1956) - full review!

Blossoms in the Dust (1941) - full review!

Ziegfeld Girl (1941)

George Washington Slept Here (1942) - full review!

Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) - full review!

The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) - full review!

Born to Be Bad (1950) - full review!

The Last Gangster (1937) - full review!

'G' Men (1935) - full review!

Thunder Road (1958)

The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) - full review!

Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)

Comrade X (1940) - full review!

Without Reservations (1946)

Alibi Ike (1935)

Stand-In (1937) - full review!

 

[Home] [Hitchcock] [Oscar's Best] [Essays] [Essential Films] [TCM Picks] [FAQ] [Obscure Films] [Links] [Other Reviews] [Academy Awards] [Silent Films] [Movie Index]