With a keen ear for construction, Brackett picks out the best of the Wilder offerings, works on them for structure and style, then deploys them effectively in the script. It is impossible to tell from a study of one of their scripts where Wilder ends and Brackett begins. This homogeneity is the more amazing to observers who regard them as total opposites. Brackett, tolerant, philosophic, exhibits the diplomacy of the legal mind. The restless, intense, acidulous Wilder skitters around the sets in a T-shirt and battered Tyrolean hat, handling the proceedings in a manner that gives off a real flavor of theatre.
Wilder loves exercise and the outdoors.
Brackett abhors sunshine, vitamins and fresh air. If Brackett and Wilder know, they won't say what it is that has made each of their twelve pictures click. Their stories have followed no set pattern, except that each has shown some plot novelty. Crosby breaks into song frequently, but each vocal outburst is tied in with the plot, something of a departure for musicals.