Pat and Mike

Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon specifically wrote this screenplay because of Katharine Hepburn's real sports ability.

This is a terrific comedy and a great vehicle for Hepburn and Spencer Tracy....this gives Tracy a chance to play a Brooklyn sports thug. Very funny.

Also, this is a rare chance to see some famous Women golfers of the early 1950's on film...not mention a great performance by Jim Backus.

George Cukor's direction is relaxed and natural.

There's also a funny set-piece with Hepburn having a panic attack during a tennis match.

A great movie.

Katharine Hepburn has said this deceptively casual 1952 comedy is her favorite of the nine on screen pairings with longtime partner Spencer Tracy, and one can see why as the film takes advantage of her natural athletic prowess. Directed by the redoubtable George Cukor and written by the husband-and-wife team of Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon ("Adam's Rib"), this is not so much a rollicking screwball farce as a sly opposites-attract love story set in a world pitched between professional sports and the street-slang and pinstripe suits of Damon Runyon. It's not a complicated plot. Mike Conovan is a dem-and-dose sports promoter who already manages a punch-drunk fighter named Davie Hucko. On a country club golf course, he sees a great golfing talent in Pat Pemberton, a college physical-education instructor who turns out to be accomplished in a number of sports including sharp-shooting and tennis. Mike immediately sees the financial possibilities of promoting a "lady athlete", and a mutual attraction develops.

However, he also discovers Pat's one major Achilles' heel – her self-doubt is such that she cannot perform to her world-class standards under the patronizing eye of her selfish fiancée Collier. Naturally, this impediment gives rise to the movie's funniest sight gags, including a particularly hilarious tennis match with real pro Gussie Moran where Pat's tennis racket gets smaller, Moran's get larger, and the net grows higher. The rest of the film consists of scenes highlighting Pat's ascending trajectory as a pro star, and consequently, the fortyish Hepburn's impressive physical talent facing off with the likes of Olympic champion Babe Didrickson Zaharias in a pro golf tournament. The Tracy-Hepburn team shows a genuine rhythm to their banter here, and Tracy seems to be having fun playing a street-savvy huckster. I find it amusing how Hepburn's character - with her crisp New England-based diction – is supposed to be from Oakland. Aldo Ray makes a memorable impression as Davie, while a young Charles Bronson can be seen as one of the hoods subject to Pat's masterful judo moves. There are no extras offered with the 2000 DVD.

PAT & MIKE is the seventh Tracy-Hepburn collaboration, and it stars Spencer Tracy as Mike Conovan, the moneyminded sports racketeer with a heart of gold, and Katharine Hepburn (looking a great deal younger than she did in 1951's THE AFRICAN QUEEN) as his beautiful 'property', Pat Pemberton. Pat is an all-round 'lady athlete', adept at golf and tennis (not to mention shooting, basketball and presumably swimming), but completely frazzled whenever her fiance Collier Weld (a suitably smarmy William Ching) is around and watching her. In a bid to become more in control of herself and her life, she (contrarily) submits to Mike's management and he takes her around the country as a golf and tennis pro. It doesn't take much imagination to realise what happens next--Mike's 'handling' of Pat is the kind of handling she's willing to accept (switch 'Tracy' for 'Mike' and 'Hepburn' for 'Pat' and you get also a description of Tracy and Hepburn's real-life relationship), and before long, Collier is pretty much left in the dust.

This film is evidently a star vehicle for Tracy and Hepburn, containing next to no artistic pretensions or even any real attempt to press a subtle feminist point (in contrast with other Tracy/Hepburn films like WOMAN OF THE YEAR or ADAM'S RIB). In fact, the film seems to be just a comfortable, familiar joke between actors, writers and audience--we know these characters, we know these actors, we know what kind of relationship they always have (bantering, sparring, and in the end just a perfect fit)... the only thing that's different is the names of the characters. Sam, Adam, Mike--Tess, Amanda, Pat--what's the difference?

To be fair, Hepburn's character of Pat Pemberton is much softer and more vulnerable than either Tess Harding or Amanda Bonner. This character variation doesn't hide the real point of the screenplay though--Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin evidently wanted a chance to display both Hepburn's natural athletic abilities (phenomenal for a non-professional, but possibly not 100% believable against sports stars like Babe Zaharias) and her incredible legs. Well, they did succeed at both of these things, to great effect. It's great fun for a Hepburn fan, having read about her deep and abiding love of any and all sports, to get a chance to actually watch her playing golf and tennis onscreen. (This doesn't mean, of course, that the frequent and long golf scenes don't test one's patience occasionally!)

Spencer Tracy has great fun as Mike as well, the sports agent who originally wants Pat to flub a game and come in second. He claims early on in the film that the trouble with her is that she's got too honest a face--it's only Tracy's ability to make rough-and-tumble characters believably vulnerable at heart that makes his later declaration ("I must have caught something from you" i.e. honesty) acceptable. The chemistry between the two is probably closer to the comfortable rapport they shared in ADAM'S RIB as man and wife than the fireworks that went off between them in WOMAN OF THE YEAR. Whatever the case, it is still always a joy to watch Tracy and Hepburn together onscreen, and it's largely because this film stars who it does that you can allow yourself to enjoy and be taken in by what is evidently a cutesy star vehicle written by the stars' friends (Gordon and Kanin), and directed by the leading lady's best and favourite director George Cukor. (Some of the visual tricks, particularly Hepburn's face appearing on that of a horse, are actually more disturbing than flattering, and I--for one--would prefer not to pursue the metaphor through to its end.) Tracy and Hepburn are also boosted by an excellent supporting cast, particularly William Ching as Pat's obnoxious suitor and Aldo Ray as Mike's dimwitted star protege (until Pat comes along, that is!).

PAT & MIKE is a romantic comedy, but it's also romantic-comedy-*lite*. There are no forced or fake separations that are geared towards wringing tears from viewers before a reconciliation (contrast again with ADAM'S RIB and most formulaic films in recent years). The film is just a little piece of joyful fluff--not taxing at all for either the writers, the actors, or the viewers. For a brilliant comic set-piece, watch out for the scene in which Pat takes on the two seedy sports racketeers and dispenses them with remarkable ease and efficiency. Otherwise, watch PAT & MIKE with the knowledge that this is neither Tracy and Hepburn's best, nor is it their worst. If you keep your expectations down, you'll certainly enjoy watching this film because it aims low (aiming only to please and amuse, and not necessarily to engage and thrill), and fulfils those aims very well. 8/10.

In this disappointing follow-up to the excellent "Adam's Rib," Hepburn plays a multi-sport athlete who is managed and promoted by Tracy. There are two funny scenes: one involving a tennis match and another where Hepburn slugs a couple of goons to protect Tracy. The other ninety percent of this supposed comedy is devoid of laughs and there is little plot. Cukor can't overcome the witless script by Gordon and Kanin. In fact he makes matters worse by inserting extended sport sequences, particularly golf, that are neither funny nor exciting. The film provides early roles for Bronson, Backus, and Connors, as well as the opportunity to see various famed tennis and golf stars.

During a friendship that last many years, Tracy and Hepburn made many movies together and this is a good example of the chemistry that existed between them. In this movie, directed by George Cukor, Hepburn plays an athlete who comes under the management of a small town sports promoter in Mike Conovan, played by Tracy. In the role of Pat Pemberton, Hepburn is a free-spirited woman with spunk and personality. Mike has a number of colorful characters as his clients. One of the gags lands the group in a police station explaining their actions to a puzzled sheriff, played Chuck Conners. The acting is good all round.

The golf game between Pat and Babe Zaharias (outstanding golf pro in real life) translates beautifully to the screen with the crowd moving from green to green, golfers teeing off, putting and shooting into the rough. A very good movie, entertaining from start to finish, and a good chance to see Tracy and Hepburn in action.