Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy Movies

Considered their finest pairing, Adam's Rib stars Hepburn and Tracy as the married prosecutor and defense lawyer in a sensational murder trial, with Hepburn defending a woman (Judy Holliday's first role) who shoots her unfaithful husband.  Based on a a true story, the couple battles in the courtroom and at home, over equality, women’s rights and the law - and the resulting tension leads each to consider the attractions of someone new. Intelligent, funny and beautifully written by another husband-wife team, Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin.

An unabashedly feminist film that allowed Hepburn to show off her real-life, world-class skills as a golfer and tennis player, Pat and Mike is a light comedy that allows the audience to relax and enjoy the stars’ chemistry.  Hepburn is a bored college athletics teacher who meets up with a sketchy sports promoter (Tracy) and goes pro, although every time her fiancee shows up at an event, she flops.  I’ve never understood why people actually watch golf, but the writing team of Gordon and Kanin delivered another entertaining vehicle for the classic couple.  

Patient elders will one day have to explain just about every aspect of Desk Set to the young ‘uns, from the lack of technology to the bizarre treatment of women in the work force.  Hepburn plays almost-spinster librarian Bunny Watson, the head of research for a New York network news department.  She uses reference books.  Tracy plays a computer inventor who brings his new-fangled machine (blinking lights and rolling magnetic tape) into her office, and  Bunny is afraid she and her crack team will be automated right out of their jobs.  Not hard to see how this will all turn out, but the two stars are delightful in this sweet romantic comedy.

‘State of the Union’ - 1948
Often forgotten in the Hepburn-Tracy pantheon, State of the Union is a pretty good movie about politics, with Tracy and a successful industrialist being urged to run for the presidency, and Hepburn as the wife who has her doubts about the moral compromises running for office require.  Directed by Frank Capra, with a blazing performance by a young Angela Lansbury as an ambitious schemer almost stealing the movie for its stars. Not their best, but worth a look on may levels.

The first Hepburn-Tracy film,  but not the best.  The couple plays a pair of reporters for the same newspaper, but Tracy begins to resent the demands that his wife’s busy career as a feminist wrier (who is named Woman of the Year), and longs for a more traditional union.  While their chemistry in this first outing is genuine and warm, the pasted-on “happy” ending with Hepburn messing up the kitchen and promising to be a good wifey just doesn’t feel right.