Customer Reviews

Woman of the Year [VHS]

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3 star:		(4)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Aside from Hepburn & Tracy's debut as a team, all credit should be given to director George Stevens for putting together this very complicated story so seamlessly. Mr. Stevens finally won an Oscar in 1951 for "A Place in the Sun" and again in 1956 for "Giant". After "Woman ofthe Year", Stevens was nominated for "The More the Merrier", another complicated plot that he handled with brilliance (remade in the 60's as a Cary Grant romp). Tracy & Hepburn are wonderful (Kate getting a nomination), and Kate's pant-suits certainly must've made a fashion statement; Kate was certainly more comfortable in those clothes than the glamour girls of the time, and though not a great beauty, she was glamorous. I still don't understand why Kate became "box-office poison" in the late 30's; I thought she was brilliant in "Stage Door", "Holiday" and "Bringing Up Baby". I don't see any difference in her choice of roles as with Irene Dunne, who did crazy comedy ("The Awful Truth") as well as sensitive drama ("Love Affair"). Who's to say what tastes were at the time? Though "Woman of the Year" has a few slow, serious moments, it's the light-hearted moments that hold interest. It won an Oscar for Screenplay, much deserved by Michael Kanin and the later black-listed Ring Lardner, Jr. And there's a particularly lovely performance from Fay Bainter who seemed to be over-looked. I enjoy this film for many reasons; it was timely, due to its release during the WWII years, as well as attacking attitudes of society which are today ever-present. I think it's most entertaining.

WOMAN OF THE YEAR stars Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in their first film together, his Sam Craig matched with her Tess Harding; his subtle, underplaying acting style with her stylised, personality-driven performance. It's an acting tour de force, to be sure--the two of them make the best of (and often far surpass) a somewhat limited script and interesting but stiffly played-out plot. In fact, their chemistry in this film is palpable. When someone speaks of cinematic magic, of chemistry sparking off (if not engulfing) the screen, *this*--Tracy, Hepburn, Tracy and Hepburn--is what they are talking about, even back in the days of the Hays Code. It's all mostly chaste kisses and long eye contact, often carried out in semi-darkness, and yet the two main players establish a relationship more sexual and believable than so many of the relationships portrayed in films these days. (Take the tiny moment in the cab--not the drunk scene that everyone loves, but that moment when he says, "I've got to get something off my chest", and she mumbles, "I'm too heavy", and raises her head. When he gently pulls it back to where you feel it would always belong, you know that these actors are doing something incredible.)

This isn't to say that the film is without flaws. Far from it. The writing is clipped and most of the words on their own have little spark. (It takes Spencer Tracy's glowering eyes, or Katharine Hepburn's radiant smile, to add life to those words.) Even the relationship between Sam and Tess isn't set up in the most fluid of ways, leap-frogging from moment to moment, from scene to scene, without quite making the necessary connections--if you believe in Sam and Tess together (and I do), it's only because you can truly believe in Tracy and Hepburn together. The film occasionally feels like a play cobbled together from various scenes, until it hits its stride midway through the film (after Sam and Tess get married).

Script aside, the plot is interesting, and certainly quite radical for its time. However, the ending (a hilarious set-piece of comedy though it might be) leaves things largely unresolved. We have a wonderful, strong female character in Tess Harding--this is clear enough in the first half of the film. But her strength, her forceful personality and go-getting attitude, become her weakness in the second half, so much so that she becomes almost a caricature of the original Tess Harding. Some of the things she does (her 'humanitarian' wholesale adoption of Chris, for example; her rudeness and blithe ignorance of Sam's worth) are truly reprehensible, and the point the writers are making is clear--a female who tries too hard to be a male loses her feminity, and cannot ever really be fulfilled. In this sense, the gender politics, as other commenters have pointed out, is 'deplorable'.

And yet there is a grain of truth in it; if one *can* be brought to believe that Tess could really treat Chris and Sam in the way she does, one can't help but applaud Sam's decision to leave. The role reversal is almost complete--Sam himself comments on the fact that she 'makes love' to him to smooth over their quarrels. She charges on her own merry way without asking him about his life, his opinion, or anything that remotely matters to him. Their union was neither perfect, nor a marriage, as he justifiably charges.

The uneasy tension between the admirable and the deplorable Tess Hardings comes at the end: you most certainly get the impression that the film itself didn't quite know whether or not to affirm the Tess character. In fact, by all accounts (even Hepburn's own), the film originally ended with an unqualified affirmation of Tess's character--promising to be more involved in her husband's life, Tess is depicted at a baseball game, cheering alongside Sam, getting louder and louder and rising higher in her seat above him. It was both an affirmation of Tess the character, and a lingering question mark about the Harding-Craig reunion.

Test audiences didn't like it. (Apparently, it was the *women* who felt threatened by the character Hepburn portrayed on screen. She was too strong, too beautiful, too *everything* all at once.)

What transpired in the end, then, was a re-shot ending that muddied the moral of the film in suggesting that women could not really be fulfilled without their men. Sam wants her to be Tess Harding Craig; she wants to be Mrs. Craig; she wants to change; he thinks (and probably knows) she can't. The logical ending would have seen Tess, cast as she had been in the traditional masculine role, wooing Sam back, only to cast doubt over whether her atypical (for the time) strength as a female would unequivocally threaten the typical male figure as embodied in Tracy's character. The original ending would have better borne out the logic of the film--a valuable DVD extra if ever there was one. You can perhaps applaud the spirit of the film, without accepting the fact that it seems to let that spirit fade away in the end.

So what is there of worth in WOMAN OF THE YEAR, with its original ending gone, and its revolutionary potential muted by a slapstick scene in a kitchen with exploding waffles, too much coffee, and a woman who just can't seem to figure out how to separate eggs? Well, the answer is simple, and it's already been given. This is a movie to watch, and to watch *again*, because it is the first cinematic pairing of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. For a couple of hours, you're allowed to watch these two great, mythical actors playing two people in love... while falling in love themselves. That is most certainly a rare privilege, if ever there was one.

"Woman of the Year" is known more for being Tracy and Hepburn's first screen pairing than for being an oustanding film. It's certainly not a bad one; the dialogue just seems a bit stilted and overly dramatic at times. In lesser hands, this would've been stuffed on a back shelf awhile ago. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn are extremely talented, though, both alone and as a team, so the end result is a cheerful, electric little romantic comedy. The subject matter -wife has more prestigious job than husband- is actually rather controversial for its time (I wonder how the ending would have changed if it was remade now). It's a joy to watch Tracy and Hepburn together; they rank right up there with Bogie and Bacall as one of the best screen teams of all time.

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.

Katharine Hepburn already established the headstrong aspect of her screen persona in 1938's "Holiday" and 1940's "The Philadelphia Story", but she adds a worldly intellect and a beguiling sexual ardor that prove most fetching in her portrayal of multilingual political journalist Tess Harding in this 1942 film classic. In her first teaming with lifelong off-screen partner Spencer Tracy, she sets off palpable sparks with the normally taciturn actor, who plays sportswriter Sam Craig working at the same newspaper. Written by Ring Lardner Jr. and Michael Kanin, the plot is about the characters' whirlwind courtship from an immediate sexual attraction to an impulsive marriage, all the while struggling with each other's priorities. Needless to say, given that it's a product of its era, it becomes a matter of time before Tess bends to Sam's will but not until some intriguing observations are made about sex roles in a basically fractious relationship.

However, rather than the comic fireworks generated by their later collaboration, 1949's "Adam's Rib", this film treads in unexpectedly sentimental melodrama, especially in the episodes where Tess has to let go of a Greek orphan she wants to adopt and in the climactic scene when she tearfully recognizes her wifely responsibilities as her aunt Ellen marries her father. Still, the pair's familiar bantering occurs when Sam explains the rules of baseball to Tess and in the final feminist reversal as she fails miserably in her attempt at domesticity. George Stevens directed the film, and he displays his sure hand with actors and an acute sense of craftsmanship throughout. Intriguingly, for a Tracy-Hepburn vehicle, it feels much more like her movie than his, and consequently their rapport is not quite up to their normal standard here. The supporting characters also feel more incidental here, even though Fay Bainter shines briefly as Ellen. It's not my favorite of their films together, but it is certainly required viewing for their fans. There are no extras with the 2000 DVD.

When you have SPENCER and HEPBURN together, it's nothing less than FANTASTIC! No others in movie history can match them as a team. They're acting in a movie, but you can see the love for each other on their faces - it makes it enjoyable to watch them. Every film they have ever made together is great. In Woman of the Year, watch for the kitchen scene. Also, great to watch Desk Set;there are several scenes that were ad lib, and the director was smart in leaving them in - Spencer caught Hepburn entirely off guard with his antics.

Sam Craig (Spencer Tracy) works as a sports writer at the New York Chronicle. Overall he's a solid, unflappable fellow, but when he hears international columnist Tess Harding (Katherine Hepburn) support the abolition of baseball during wartime, he can't resist retaliating in print. The battle is soon joined, and it's not long before the editor calls them together for a cease-fire. One look at Tess, though, and Sam is a goner. Their mutual attraction can't be denied, and it's not long before they're married.

But what is Sam in for? Tess' career has a life of its own, and he can barely get a moment with her alone. Most of the time, he's trailing in her wake along with countless diplomats, refugees and other international figures. While Sam is successful at his work, it's a world Tess has little time for - and it's not long before the relationship feels the strain.

"Woman of the Year" happily manages to avoid many of the pitfalls inherent in stories focused on sexual politics. While Tess' career is not endorsed as inherently fulfilling, typical gender roles aren't offered as the solution (however much Tess would like to believe they are). Indeed, the film asks for compromise and balance from its characters - in fact, no clear solution is reached by the film's end. It's up to the viewer to hope that they'll find one.

One of the film's delights is that's precisely what you do wish. It's easy to see from their debut why Hepburn and Tracy went on to become one of cinema's most indelible teams, making eight more films together. Their deep mutual affection for one another (on and off the set) lights up the screen. It's a terrific, palpable energy.

The screenplay won the Oscar for 1942, and it's a wonderful complement to the cast. The dialogue bubbles with wit and pleases with brains - a romantic comedy tha's so good, you suddently realize what so many others have tried to do. Give it a look!

A lot of reviews on romantic comedies and the like talk about this thing called "chemistry" between actors, when it seems the two actors are capable of really presenting true, real life emotions between them. When it comes to the Spenser Tracy/Katherine Hepburn pairing, the word "chemistry" is used quite often. The thing about it is, though, that this stuff goes way beyond chemistry. This is real, honest-to-life drama.

Spenser Tracy's character is utterly relatable. He reacts and he does what it seems any guy of the era, or even today, would do in such a situation. His character is torn between his absolute adoration of Tess, and the knowledge that not only will he never amount to what Tess is, he also is pretty much emasculated by her self-actualization.

And for Katherine Hepburn, who plays Tess, there couldn't have been a better role. Hepburn, who was naturally independent anyway, plays the role of a knowledgeable Woman's Woman without needing an extra breath.

The thing about the films with these two are that they actually present a relationship, not just a courtship and a "and then they lived happily ever after, for all time" ending. They show the real issues with communication, work, space, and borders, everything that must be understood about a person to make it work. And they are absolutely adoring of each other.

Just like in the later film, Adam's Rib (1949), this film presents the issues and friction in their relationship almost spectacularly well from both sides. I can't say that this film was as good as Adam's Rib (George Steven's directing is just a tad off-balanced and the pacing is a little uneven), but at any rate it's a real joy to watch, from the beginning courting to the slapstick ending.

--PolarisDiB

I will admit right from the start that, although I've been a big fan of the Tracy/Hepburn team for a long time, I only recently saw "Woman Of The Year". Perhaps, due to hearing so much about the sparks that flew during this now near-mythic first teaming for so long, I was afraid the actual movie couldn't live up to the hype. How wrong I was.

"Woman Of The Year" is a fantastic movie! The attraction between Hepburn and Tracy is very evident. So much so that, at several points, you feel that they are are honestly and sincerely saying the words to each other, not just characters reciting lines.

Neither Hepburn nor Tracy was considered conventionally attractive in their time, but here, both are at their most witty, charming, and yes, sexy! Hepburn is even downright girlish when flirting with Tracy, who exudes a quiet but very strong masculine presence. Even though he is considered one of the greatest dramatic actors, Tracy shows quite an instinct for comedy. Just as with his dramatic roles, he is so natural and effortless, he hardly seems to be acting at all!

The heat generated in the scene where the two are alone in Hepburn's apartment could rival just about anything Hollywood calls "sexy" today.

Watching this movie is like simply observing conversations between two people, thanks to George Stevens' superb direction. Notice how throughout much of movie, there isn't even backgroung music! The strength of the dialogue between Hepburn and Tracy carries everything, which is to take nothing away from the supporting players, who are equally strong.

Hepburn is brillant in the final scenes, trying to act as if she knows her way around a kitchen, all the while, the breakfast she's making is falling apart, while Tracy just sits and watches her cluelessness. The look on his face is priceless!

The movie looks gorgeous on DVD! The only extra material is the trailer, but when the movie is this good, you don't need extras!

This is the film that started it all, and movie fans ever since have been grateful. It's the first pairing of the legendary Hepburn and Tracy, and from the moment when he first sets his eyes on her (actually, her legs - a great shot!), you can feel why they were such a perfect match on screen. They star as newspaper columnists coming from different backgrounds and perspectives, who despite the odds, fall in love, even though they have no idea how to fit into each other's worlds. Both stars give their usual top performances, compensating for some slow parts and dated elements in the story. I enjoyed the film, as I have enjoyed all their films that I have seen. Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were two of the best in the business, so any opportunity to see them together should be taken!