Woman of the Year
Tags: comedy

Plot synopsis:
Tess Harding (Katharine Hepburn) and Sam Craig (Spencer Tracy) are journalists for the fictional New York Chronicle, with two drastically different backgrounds and worlds. Tess is an educated, well-travelled political affairs columnist who speaks several languages fluently. Sam is a knowledgeable and informed sports writer. Their difficulties are presented as stemming from class and emotional differences as well as from those of gender.
A feud in their columns erupts over baseball, and their editor tells them that he will not stand for an intramural feud at his paper. Sam invites Tess on a date to a baseball game, and she inadvertently breaks the "men only" atmosphere of the press box. She is confused and unfamiliar with the rules of the sport. Tess then invites Sam to her apartment later that night. What he thought would be a romantic occasion is actually a dinner party where none of the guests is speaking, or can speak, English. Despite the seemingly wide differences between their lives and personalities, the two fall in love.
After Sam and Tess marry, a conflict arises over Tess's priorities and Sam's place in her life. They have several minor disagreements about not being together enough, but a bigger problem occurs when Tess volunteers to take on the care of a Greek refugee child, Chris (George Kezas), without consulting Sam. Tess is excited but trepidatious about Sam's reaction. He initially believes Tess is pregnant when she announces they're having a child. Upon meeting Chris, however, he is angry and doesn't want an unrelated six-year-old orphan. Still, he tries to befriend the boy and introduces him to sports.
Tess learns that she has received the award of "America's Outstanding Woman of the Year", to be awarded at a gala ceremony. She plans to leave Chris by himself. When Sam finds out, he refuses to leave Chris alone, though Tess wants him to be beside her on her big night, and is embarrassed at the thought that the public will wonder where he is. Sam says she can tell everyone he had more important plans. Tess offends him by asking if anyone would believe he could find something more important to do. While Tess is at her ceremony, Sam returns the child to the orphanage and walks out on Tess. She learns of this upon her return home, when she goes to change for photographers – only to discover that Sam and Chris and their belongings are all gone. She attempts to reclaim Chris, but he refuses, preferring to stay with his fellow refugees.
The next day, Tess receives an invitation, addressed to both of them, to the home of her prominent Senator father (Minor Watson) and the world-famous feminist aunt who raised her (Fay Bainter). Sam is covering a championship boxing match that evening and tells her he cannot go. Tess arrives alone, only to be told that her aunt and her father are to be married that night, after 15 years of "making the same mistake" and saying nothing of their mutual attraction. Listening to the words of the wedding ceremony encourages Tess to attempt a reconciliation with Sam.
Tess enters Sam's Riverside home the next morning and starts to prepare breakfast. Eventually awakened by her noisy incompetence in the kitchen, he watches her surreptitiously. She proclaims her intention of being nothing more than his wife and thinking only of his domestic needs, but he believes it is an insincere tactic to win him back. Trying to prove herself, Tess once again tries to cook breakfast, only to fail because she knows nothing of cooking.
Sam tells her this is the first time he is disappointed in her, faulting her for going to extremes. He says he does not want Tess Harding or "just Mrs. Sam Craig," but instead "Tess Harding Craig." Tess happily agrees, and they reconcile. Gerald, Tess' ultra-competent secretary (Dan Tobin), arrives with a bottle of champagne and reminds Tess of her commitment to launch a ship. Sam takes Gerald outside, the bottle smashes, and Sam returns, claiming to have "launched" Gerald.

Review: Legend has it that Spencer Tracy said he would cut Katharine Hepburn down to size when upon meeting her in heels for the first time on the set of Woman of the Year.I think that's what the authors of the screenplay Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner, Jr., had in mind in the script as well.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Aside from the historical value of first teaming Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn (she had wanted Tracy in the previous year's THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, but scheduling conflicts had prevented it), WOMAN OF THE YEAR holds its own as a bright, smart 'Odd Couple' romantic comedy/drama, with witty dialog, a rich, textured performance by the reliable Tracy, and Hepburn showing a sexiness that she rarely gets to project on film.The scenario is simple; Beautiful, brilliant Claire Booth Luce-type journalist(Hepburn) and practical, salt-of-the-earth sportswriter (Tracy) clash over whether athletic events should be suspended for the duration of the war (she finds them too frivolous in such serious times, he believes them essential for morale).
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.
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.
The comedy of the film comes from their characters' different worlds -- Tracy is a sportswriter and Hepburn an international politics columnist.
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.
In their first of nine co-star rings, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy play Tess Harding and Sam Craig, reporters at a newspaper who get married.
This delight from director George Stevens was the first Tracy/Hepburn collaboration and as we all know by now, they fell in love.That the film doesn't always portray them as a loving couple is down to their superb acting - they had to act as though they hated each other at times.Back at the time, during WW2 (film was released in 1942) and with women having more and more general employment, due to the men having been conscripted, many could see possibly a situation where the woman wore the trousers, to coin an outdated expression.
Never-the- less, this is still extraordinarily good film-making and a fine movie.I watched the DVD as part of the Tracy/Hepburn 4 disc boxset..
Well, in WOMAN OF THE YEAR she manages to exude that sex appeal - even shows a little leg.Hepburn and Spencer Tracy are paired up for their first time and began their real-life romance with this film.
Though they're mismatched they start seeing each other and then ultimately get married, which turns out not to be the best idea; Spencer feels left out and alone while Katharine is hopping around and keeping active with her influential friends.Though there are some humorous moments (the baseball game is a highlight) the film's not consistently funny and after a while I found myself not very interested in the bumps these two were experiencing in their personal life together.
As things play out in the film, this comes as too little too late, but it's a sophisticated attitude for the time and makes the movie much more relevant today, when women are being forced to juggle multiple roles.Overall I enjoyed this movie, but I thought it was strangely directed by Stevens.
Not because of the plot, which is pretty thin (super accomplished political journalist Tess falls for down to earth sports writer Sam), but because of the definite sparks flying between Tracy and Hepburn.
I think we'd all have Sam's response to Tess' sniffy secretary Gerald though(yes, of course Miss Accomplished has a male secretary!).Not a great film, but fun to watch in parts and the start of a great team on and off the screen..
Rival reporters Sam (Spencer Tracy) and Tess (Katharine Hepburn) fall in love and get married, only to find their relationship strained when Sam comes to resent Tess' hectic lifestyle."Woman of the Year" was the first of nine films Hepburn and Tracy made together.
"Woman of the Year" marked the first of nine big screen pairings of Katherine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy.
In attendance is Sam Craig (Spencer Tracy), a sportswriter, and his date, foreign correspondent Tess Harding (Katharine Hepburn).
It annoys everyone around her, except for the enchanted Sam — Phil's (jokingly?) sexist comment is well-timed but funny, as we're aware that Tess is a ball of fire that just won't be constrained like some clean canary.The first forty-five minutes of "Woman of the Year" are a romantic comedy dream, a battle- of-the-sexes marriage satire that wonders aloud if a tough-guy like Spencer Tracy can handle having a wife that wears the pants of the relationship and brings home most of the bacon, while he, a mere sportswriter, sits around, waiting to be loved.
The film decides to turn against its titular Woman of the Year, critical that she likes to work hard, wishing that she could become a dream spouse, a wife full-time.
They were and are a dynamite pair, but "Woman of the Year" depletes what makes them so charismatic (though not all the time), placing them in roles that attempt to turn them into that old, cute married couple upstairs.When Tess Harding and Sam Craig first hear of each other, fireworks hardly set off.
I would have preferred a story in which Tess maybe brought Sam along with her on her many globetrotting endeavors, turning him into an odd- man-out while enjoying some pleasing comedic situations.But most of the time, "Woman of the Year" stays serious, a disappointing fact considering how funny it can be.
"Woman of the Year" would have been better as a screwball comedy, or a romantic drama without Tracy that saw career woman Hepburn flying around the globe, using men along the way, perhaps falling in love accidentally.
In 1937, moviegoers might dream of having just such a kitchen and such a life, and when things go wrong it's truly funny, but I'm not so sure in 1942.) Take two very opposite news writers and have them clashing and then falling in love (the woman a worldly political writer who speaks a dozen languages, the man a likable but uncomplicated sports writer).
First screen-teaming of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn peaks too early, and unconscionably trades in its salty wit for silly screwball laughs in the final reel, but fans of both stars should have a good time.
It has more than enough ingredients to make a fine movie: Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, interesting characters, and a story that holds possibilities for both drama and comedy.
Hepburn is refreshing playing a working girl when Tracy is naturally an easy guy, deeply fond on this woman at first sight.Public was laughing at the time and we are still doing the same now because time as change, society too but great movies don't seem to age like this star couple, still making us dream!.
This was the first time anyone had dared pair her with anyone as rough and earthy as Spencer Tracy, although they were to become one of the most enduring and successful screen couplings of their day.While all Hepburn's blue-chip comedies were adaptations of plays or books, Woman of the Year was an original story written for the screen, and this is appropriate.
Hepburn was one of the first women in film to wear pants and just the way she sat was considered scandalous for the era!But Hepburn (as Tess) is too busy with her feminist projects to find time for Tracy (as Sam) and their "adopted" Greek child, Chris.
He eventually leaves her.The rest of the movie deals with Tess learning about what is truly important in life and trying to win her husband back.It's a funny, poignant look at marriage that is just as timely today as it was 50 years ago.Definately see this movie!.
The formula romantic comedy plot moves like clockwork, with Hepburn and Tracy very much in character playing a globetrotting political journalist and an old-style sports reporter; the two meet, marry, and only then realize how little (besides love) they have in common.
Ah,Spencer and Kate.Few on screen couples,if any at all,matched their chemistry.Here,in Woman of the Year,they were paired for the first time.It is no secret that they were a couple in real life for many years,and you can just tell by watching this film that they not only matched well together on screen,they had something special off camera as well.This story of a sportswriter and columnist getting married only to have their lifestyles clash after the fact seems to be tailor made for the two,and it is very well done.Luckily,we would see them together eight more times on screen,and would have possibly seen them more than that had he lived.For fans of both actors,it's a must see..
This is where it all starts, the first of nine film collaborations of Tracy and Hepburn, whose off-screen, extramarital romance would continue until Tracy's death quarter a century later.Naturally, one would not expect a 40s Hollywood studio rom-com to be progressively egalitarian on the front of gender politics, although George Stevens' picture holds a grand promise by allowing Tess Harding (Hepburn), a polyglot, international affairs correspondent and Sam Craig (Tracy), her fellow fourth estate practitioner, a homespun sports journalist, falling for each other, which accentuates the rub, Sam's consternation and frustration living under the shadow of Tess, who defies every possible definition of what an American wife traditionally means, especially after she is bestowed with the title as "America's Outstanding Woman of the Year", can Sam live up to the standard of the husband of "the Woman of the Year"?No, this film is not a whirlwind screwball inundated by ceaseless banters and repartee, in lieu a standard meet-cute that jostles the funny bone when Tess and Sam fumble in their respective new territories which are the other's turfs, opposite attracts, that is the axiom.
But clearly, male chauvinism inexorably sneaks in when the plot makes Tess do many a gormless thing to irk Sam to a fault, not least by adopting a 6-year-old Greek refuge boy Charlie (Kezas) without giving Sam a heads-up, and finally suffixed with a reshoot ending that compromises the movie's initial liberal-minded stance, not every woman is a natural to the kitchen chores, if that simple fact can be construed as a laughing matter constructed with painstaking lengths, the movie forsooth has trouble to find empathy in today's audience.Be that as it may, Hepburn is Oscar-nominated for her quintessential capacity of turning on the waterworks and ignites some magical chemistry with an avuncular if somewhat grumpy Tracy, who in the final scene, leaves Tess's scene-stealing secretary Gerald (Dan Tobin) at the receiving end of his petty protest, if that is not thinly-veiled male chauvinism, why on earth a man who is simply very good at doing his job (as a woman's secretary) deserves to be in the butt of the joke?.
Also like to love quite a number of the films directed by George Stevens, 'Shane', 'A Place in the Sun' and 'Swing Time' in particular and remember being very fond of 'Penny Serenade'.'Woman of the Year' is most notable for being the first pairing of Tracy and Hepburn.
"Woman of the Year" is a 1940's style "battle-of-the-sexes" story where it's both parties who want to be the one who's wearing the pants in this rocky relationship.When it comes to the realm of romance - Spencer Tracy (as sportswriter, Sam Craig) and Katherine Hepburn (as international columnist, Tess Harding) are the "least-likely-to succeed" couple.Matching wits and wisecracks against each other - Tracy and Hepburn verbally duke it out on screen for the obvious enjoyment of the audience.Filmed in b&w - "Woman of the Year" was directed by George Stevens.
However, if you turn the roles of Sam and Tess around, you could say this was a feminist film, maybe giving men a dose of their own 1942 medicine when they expected women to just live with whatever work schedule the man had, even if they sat home alone at nights.I'd highly recommend this as one of the great romantic films, and they didn't make many of those during WWII outside of Casablanca..
Its a film that will live on for at least another 72 years due to it being incredibly relatable between couples these days.I believe this is the first of nine films Tracy and Hepburn collaborated and you can tell the great chemistry they developed while making this movie.
If anything, watch this movie for the treasure that it holds within it: the first on-screen pairing of the immortal team of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn.
Katharine Hepburn, the famous feminist pioneer, and a married Spencer Tracy fell in love on the set, and their twenty-five year affair was one of the most famous Hollywood romances ever.
The scene where Hepburn gets drunk and Tracy tells her that he loves her is one of the most beautiful, romantic things I've ever seen on screen - their first kiss is movie magic.
!. If anything, the only reason to see Woman of the Year is for its pairing of the often-replicated but never duplicated team of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn.
The well-known opening exchange between them in real-life, of the taller Hepburn pointing this out to Tracy to meet with the rejoinder "Don't worry, I'll soon cut you down to size" could inform the whole plot here, although it has to be said, it takes pretty much the whole of the movie to get there.What I like about Stevens' direction is the way he lets things play out almost it seems in real time, from the chaotic party at Hepburn's, all action news reporter Tess Harding's bursting-at-the-seams apartment, supposedly the site of her first date with Tracy's craggy, cynical sports reporter Sam Craig, then when Sam invites sports-virgin Tess to a US football game, to the couple's wedding night being hijacked by a high-profile Nazi- dissenting refugee statesman and his entourage arriving up at the near-silent final scene where Tess hilariously attempts to make Sam a conciliatory breakfast while he sleeps in his bachelor pad, after he's finally walked out on her.The two stars are marvellous, especially when they're together on the screen as signalled from their very first meeting as Tracy leeringly but guiltily eyes up Tess's leg from bottom to nearly the top as she straightens out her stocking seam.
I was looking through the AFI top ten romantic comedies a few years ago and realized I have never seen Adam's Rib. My wife and I loved the pairing of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn so much that this summer I decided we ought to try out every move with the famous duo.Tonight we watched Woman of the Year (1942) directed by George Stevens and starring Hepburn and Tracy.
It's definitely really funny to see Tracy playing the "I wear the pants in this family" type of man, and Hepburn playing the feminist working girl who can support herself well!"Woman of the Year" is really great.
It helps that Mr. Stevens was working on the screenplay created by Ring Lardner and Michael Kanin, two men that clearly understood how to deliver a comedy that has shown its endurance as a favorite from those golden years of Hollywood.This was the start of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn collaboration as a couple in the movies.
This was the first pairing of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn and it's one of their better films together.
But the plot...well, starts off nicely highlight how two very different people can fall in love...but then devolves into a slow-placed second act as the marriage begins to fall apart...and never quite recovers as Tess (Hepburn) realizes she desperately wants the marriage to work...but Tracy is already gone.
In a personal essay kind of program about her career that she made for television in the 1990s Katherine Hepburn pointed out that technically this was not the first time she was in a film (in one version or another) with the man she would appear in movies with more often than anyone else, and the man most romantically linked to her: Spencer Tracy.
Tracy is a sports columnist, Sam Craig, and Hepburn is a political columnist, Tess Harding.