Eine Frau, die alles weiß

If you replace the constant use of the term "automation" with "outsourcing", this 1957 workplace-driven comedy would be quite a relevant tweak on corporate restructuring and office politics. As it stands now, it's a light piece of entertainment that benefits primarily from a smart screenplay by Phoebe and Henry Ephron (Nora's parents...must run in the family) and of course, the incomparable Tracy-Hepburn teamwork. It's not their best work, but fifteen years into their relationship, they achieve an easy, laser-sharp rapport here that makes the film easy to enjoy.

Efficiently directed by Walter Lang, the movie focuses its plot on the research department of a national TV network, the so-called Federal Broadcasting System. The four-woman staff is headed by the whip-smart Bunny Watson, who appears to possess a wealth of information and an unfailing memory for the smallest detail. They work like clockwork together in finding responses to often extremely trivial questions, but they do everything manually. Enter Richard Sumner, a befuddled man with a measuring tape and mismatched socks, who turns out to be a brilliant engineer hired by the network CEO to install an electronic brain called EMERAC. Designed to streamline the research process, the monolithic computer has the research staff understandably concerned about pending unemployment. Invariably, Bunny and Sumner start to recognize a mutual attraction through the awkwardness, and further complications arise with the presence of Mike Cutler, a rising network executive who has pompously kept Bunny on a leash for years.

As Bunny, Katharine Hepburn appears to be playing a variation of herself, which in this case, suits the role perfectly. By comparison, Tracy seems a bit tired as Sumner, except when interacting with Hepburn, whether unsuccessfully volleying brainteasers on a freezing rooftop, eating floating islands in their bathrobes, or canoodling between the second-floor bookshelves during the office Christmas party. A terrific supporting cast has been assembled starting with Gig Young in his typical role as the third wheel Mike, which he plays with enough sharp and smarmy aplomb to make Bunny's dilemma palpable. Joan Blondell expertly plays Bunny's stalwart sidekick Peg, and they achieve a genuine chemistry as they banter about the "Mexican Avenue bus".

Dina Merrill and Sue Randall (forever etched in my memory as Beaver's crush-worthy schoolteacher Miss Landers on "Leave It to Beaver") seem a bit too glamorous to be librarians, but they're both serviceable, while Neva Patterson plays EMERAC's coldly efficient "mother", Miss Warriner, to brittle perfection. Even though the sets are pure 1950's-style décor, Leon Shamroy makes full use of the Cinemascope process to bring his color-saturated cinematography to the widescreen. The 2004 DVD comes with a commentary track by film historian John Lee, who provides interesting insight to the production, casting and stage-to-screen translation. Merrill provides some remembrances of her own, but her commentary is spotty and a bit self-serving. A vintage, minute-long newsreel on the film's costumes; a few trailers for other Fox films of the period; and a photo gallery complete the package.

On my first viewing of this movie, I didn't particularly like it. I was surprised that Tracy and Hepburn filmed this movie at all. But then, I re-watched it recently during the AMC tribute to the late great Kate. On second viewing, I found a lot about it endearing and quite humorous.

Although the technology is antiquated, the reaction to change in an organization is not. Speaking from an EEO perspective, Hepburn's boyfriend would be a sexual harassment suit waiting to happen in today's world. However, the office politics are identical to the office politics today. Instead of using the telephone to gossip, people in the office now use email.

Tracy and Hepburn gave great performances in this light-hearted romantic comedy. The scene in Hepburn's apartment is hilarious. Her reaction to her boyfriend's suggestion that he thought she would be alone is priceless. And, when Tracy stumbles out, we get to see Hepburn's uncontrollable laughter (that was probably not scripted) which always makes me lol.

So, take a second look if you first didn't like this movie.

Well, I suppose it lacks the deeper moral carried by "Adam's Rib," although it does deal with issues that have so far turned out to be less important than gender equality, such as the impact of automation on the work force. But none of that is very important anyway. It's a light romantic comedy set in the research department of a major broadcasting company. And Hepburn's name is Bunny, but again, so what? Would it be a better movie if she were called Mildred?

It has the closed-in act structure of a play too, and it's obvious. There are other theatrical staples as well. How many plays include a drunken party at the end of the second act? (Exactly two hundred and forty-two.) Movies are similarly put together, especially those based on plays: "Long Day's Journey Into Night," "The Boys in the Band," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Often the alcohol consumption takes place at a Christmas party, as it does here, and in "The Apartment." Understanding that the characters' higher reasoning centers are partly paralyzed and their judgment impaired gives the writer a chance to have them behave outrageously without having to explain why they've lost their senses, and the audience understands this convention. Drunken conviviality doesn't always work on screen. It can leave the viewer feeling like the only sober person at the bash, which is why John Ford largely left the events up to the viewer's imagination. It doesn't work too well here, either. It's not the actors' fault. They convey that chemically induced jollity very well; it's that the lines are sometimes silly -- that "Mexican Avenue bus" business, for instance. You'd have to have been there to find it as amusing as Hepburn and Joan Blondell do.

None of this undermines the amusement quotient of the film. It's relaxed, pleasant, and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. The story is well laid out, dated though it may seem to some, the interpersonal relationships clearly delineated and squeezed of every chuckle.

But it's the performers that get the job done here. Blondell's role seems to have been made for her, the down-to-earth blonde. Gig Young too is smooth in his usual careless charming playboy part, a touchstone for his career, as in "That Touch of Mink" and "Ask Any Girl." There are certain lines that no one can deliver better than he. Hepburn has been trying to get him to marry her for a long time and when he finally suggests they tie the knot, there is an argument, and he storms out the office door, but not before delivering his exit line: "Seven YEARS I've waited!" The other "girls" are intelligent and sexy. I have to mention Neva Patterson too, as Emerac's nurse. When the obscene machine begins to pant and puff out smoke, the other staff rush to help, but a hysterical Patterson screams at them, "Don't you TOUCH her!"

Tracey and Hepburn, no longer kids, are superb. They're top notch all the way through, and they have a couple of set pieces that are about as funny as anything they've done on screen. One is a sort of quiz Tracey gives her on the roof. Another, the best in the film, takes place while Tracey visits her apartment to dry his clothes and is caught in a bathrobe by Gig Young, who happens to drop in at the incriminating moment. I defy anyone not to laugh as Tracey clumps out the door with his shoes smoking and his hat pulled down around his ears. The third, having to do with EMERAC's nervous breakdown, is also well done if a bit frantic.

Not a comic masterpiece. It's too relaxed for that. But recommended without qualification.

I watched this movie on You Tube and enjoyed it immensely. The fast wit in practically all the lines, the cleverness in the script, the utter elegance of all the women involved in it (even Joan Blondell, quite "developed" by then with several extra pounds), but specially Dina Merrill, absolutely exquisite in her (natural) ice-blond beauty, and Katherine Hepburn, with an unbelievably slender silhouette, all dressed, made up and coiffed to kill (modest employees with an average office job and complaining about their low salaries), changing outfits on practically every scene (and what outfits!!).

But that doesn't matter, it was escapist entertainment to the nth degree, so all that eye candy was completely acceptable, and so were the sets, that confronted with nowadays sets were like the Sistine Chapel Ceiling by Michelangelo.

When you consider that every single setting was painted cardboard you flip!!: The New York street with all that traffic and the heavy rain, the executive office, the girls office, later their office with the immense computer with all its lights and noises, the terrace of the skyscraper!! Fantastic sets!! and then the color palette for the whole movie.

Palette studied to the last detail, so pleasing to the eye in its entirety. Only one example: Hepburn gives Tracy a striped scarf, later on she wears the same scarf momentarily over a dress whose color matches to perfection those on the scarf. Unreal. And then last but not least, we appreciate the way these people interacted with such decent sentiments, so elegant, with such civilized maturity (so adult!!), that we instantly realize to have lost a lot comparing that generation to the present one.

The acting is sublime, by all of them, from Hepburn to the messenger boy. What a sensational movie! Top entertainment.

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.

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. "Desk Set" is a five-star gem!*****