Customer Reviews

Woman of the Year

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Kate & Spencer began a 25 year on and off the screen romance with Woman of the Year. The movie itself is fine but unspectacular. Basically, the message seems to be that a woman can't have it both ways: work and family. Odd message considering the female lead. WOTY is more important as a piece of film history for the pairing it started. Hepburn was pretty much the only woman as ahead of her times as she was. Fortunately she could put her money where her mouth was and deliver the goods. Several of her films are classics and she is a Hollywood Goddess.

"Woman Of The Year" is a Katherine Hepburn Spencer Tracy comedy MGM movie story of a powerful career woman "Tess Harding" who meets a powerful career man "Sam Craig" and they marry and the problems begin because they both have careers though her career is more public than his.She's a person that just about everyone knows in the world and she knows just about everyone by 1st name.There are some Great comedy scenes and the conflicts between career and home are good and they have a happy closing scene.This was the 1st of 9 movies that Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy starred in and they were good together in movies especially this one if you watched any of their movies then you would know and if not this is a good movie you would enjoy.This is the best Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy movie.The movie was popular with audiences and later the movie "Woman Of The Year" was made into a musical play.Barbara Eden played the role in a national touring production of "Woman Of The Year" in 1984 and it was this movie that the musical play was based on.A Great story.A Great movie.A Great DVD.

Aside from Hepburn & Tracy's debut as a team, all credit should be given to director George Stevens for putting together this very complicated story so seamlessly. Mr. Stevens finally won an Oscar in 1951 for "A Place in the Sun" and again in 1956 for "Giant". After "Woman ofthe Year", Stevens was nominated for "The More the Merrier", another complicated plot that he handled with brilliance (remade in the 60's as a Cary Grant romp). Tracy & Hepburn are wonderful (Kate getting a nomination), and Kate's pant-suits certainly must've made a fashion statement; Kate was certainly more comfortable in those clothes than the glamour girls of the time, and though not a great beauty, she was glamorous. I still don't understand why Kate became "box-office poison" in the late 30's; I thought she was brilliant in "Stage Door", "Holiday" and "Bringing Up Baby". I don't see any difference in her choice of roles as with Irene Dunne, who did crazy comedy ("The Awful Truth") as well as sensitive drama ("Love Affair"). Who's to say what tastes were at the time? Though "Woman of the Year" has a few slow, serious moments, it's the light-hearted moments that hold interest. It won an Oscar for Screenplay, much deserved by Michael Kanin and the later black-listed Ring Lardner, Jr. And there's a particularly lovely performance from Fay Bainter who seemed to be over-looked. I enjoy this film for many reasons; it was timely, due to its release during the WWII years, as well as attacking attitudes of society which are today ever-present. I think it's most entertaining.

Katherine Hepburn is ravishing in this movie. She and Spencer Tracy have never been more sexy together. The scene with Hepburn in her big hat at the basball game while Tracy is explaining the game to her is very funny. The scene in Hepburn's New York apartment which is shot in all shadows where you only see Hepburn's and Tracy's silhouettes is very sexy and a clever way to shoot a romantic scene. The chemistry between Hepburn and Tracy in their first movie together gives the feeling of a new love just beginning(which it was!). Hepburn plays a very smart and sophisticated woman, but also convincingly plays a woman with no knowledge of sports or any "know how" in the kitchen - clearly a strong, capable woman who is still vulnerable. This is a wonderful film which has a good script, fine acting and great direction by George Stevens.

George Stevens' "Woman of the Year" is a romantic comedy mixed with social commentary. Between the laughs is mixed in a pair of messages: (1) that success in life can feel somewhat empty if you have no one to share it with, and (2) a domestic home life can prove to be a daunting challenge to even the most accomplished of public figures.

Newspaper columnist Tess Harding (Katharine Hepburn) is drawn into a good natured war of words with a co-worker over comments she made during a radio show. Although entertaining to readers, the printed jabs hurled between her and sportswriter Sam Craig (Spencer Tracy) comes to an abrupt end when their boss makes it clear he wants his newspaper writers to maintain a united front to the public. During this announcement, the two writers meet for the first time and become smitten with one another. Although Tess and Sam seemingly have nothing in common, they grow closer and eventually marry. However, problems begin almost immediately as Tess is unable to comprehend the importance of being married and Sam becomes frustrated with her inability to keep her work life and home life separate. Tess, however, soon gains some valuable insight into her situation when she attends her father's wedding and soon Tess and Sam are reunited with a much better understanding of their relationship.

Watching Hepburn and Tracy work their magic on screen gives "Woman of the Year" a special charm. Yet the film produces some mixed reactions. Despite the quality of its performances and its addressing of relevant social issues, its messages come across as a little misguided. The film implies that a successful career and a fulfilling domestic life are incompatible for women. To make matters worse, the screwball manner in which Tess is portrayed in the last third of the film causes the film to lose more of its luster. It seems that the intent was to add in more comedy to the final act to help offset the mounting drama, but the comedy comes at the expense of undermining Tess' character. The positive role model she created for women up to this point is washed away as the bumbling Tess finds it difficult to accomplish such simple tasks as lighting a stove or making toast. Yet, despite this unfortunate turn of events, "Woman of the Year" is still an entertaining film. The writing is sharp for the most part and the baseball game sequence is a classic. Tracy's final scene in the film is also great as he finally lets Tess' personal assistant know what he really think of him. Chalk up "Woman of the Year" as a film that fell short of its aspirations but is still solid entertainment nonetheless.

What's surprising about this film is it's age. Despite the enormous social changes that have occurred since this film was made (6 decades?) it's funny how these two characters could still be genuinely portrayed today. This character study of a socially and politically sophisticated woman, very well respected locally and globally for her charm, brains and political savvy ways, and her odd love for a regular guy who almost becomes a novelty to her after their marriage is not far cry from what could be made today. Spencer Tracy, as a newspaper sportswriter, crosses into the world of a social sophisticate played by Katherine Hepburn through an argument over some glib comments she makes about baseball which makes it into her radio address. Despite their differences there is a spark. That spark is nurtured by both of them until it becomes a passion leading to a brief but poignant romance. Once married, however, they are too different from each other. This wouldn't be so bad but Hepburn's character, rather than resolving the issues between them decides to resume her life and it's time consuming pace leaving her understanding but frustrated husband to his own pursuits while he evidently would rather have more of her attention. It comes down to a question of what a person wants. Hepburn's "Woman of the Year" is used to doing things her way and doesn't understand her commitment to making a marriage. This comes to head and the film makes a brave attempt to resolve these differences. Katherine's character is not an ice queen but a motivated person who's used to having her own life. Spencer's character is a sincere guy who's married to woman who has a demanding life who doesn't balance her time between home and career. In the end she realizes that she's not the perfect person and tries to bring her marriage back from the brink of failure. He cautions her that life is not as simple as just walking away from commitments and learning how to cook and expects her to make compromises not sacrifices.While there is some silly kitchen scenes at the end it's really an effort by the director to point out the futility of a person suddenly trying to reinvent herself. Her husband doesn't expect too much even if he's not a great motivational speaker. He also doesn't blame her for her plight but lets her know that she has options she has to consider. Reverse these rolls and it's easy to see how this film works on the two levels. If this were a man there would be no doubt that the woman was making sense. This film is almost revolutionary. It turns the tables on social roles at a time when people weren't even aware there was a table.

Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy team up for their first of about nine films in a wonderful story about a sports writer, Spencer Tracy, who falls for his lovely and intelligent co-worker, Hepburn. The drama unfolds as the two get married but Hepburn's character sometimes forgets to make room in her life for her new husband. This film is one of the best of the pair's films and should be amoung those that should be seen by all people from every generation. Truly a timeless classic.

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. It's an acting tour de force, to be sure--the two of them make the best of (and often far surpass) a somewhat limited script and interesting but stiffly played-out plot. In fact, their chemistry in this film is palpable. When someone speaks of cinematic magic, of chemistry sparking off (if not engulfing) the screen, *this*--Tracy, Hepburn, Tracy and Hepburn--is what they are talking about, even back in the days of the Hays Code. It's all mostly chaste kisses and long eye contact, often carried out in semi-darkness, and yet the two main players establish a relationship more sexual and believable than so many of the relationships portrayed in films these days. (Take the tiny moment in the cab--not the drunk scene that everyone loves, but that moment when he says, "I've got to get something off my chest", and she mumbles, "I'm too heavy", and raises her head. When he gently pulls it back to where you feel it would always belong, you know that these actors are doing something incredible.)

This isn't to say that the film is without flaws. Far from it. The writing is clipped and most of the words on their own have little spark. (It takes Spencer Tracy's glowering eyes, or Katharine Hepburn's radiant smile, to add life to those words.) Even the relationship between Sam and Tess isn't set up in the most fluid of ways, leap-frogging from moment to moment, from scene to scene, without quite making the necessary connections--if you believe in Sam and Tess together (and I do), it's only because you can truly believe in Tracy and Hepburn together. 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. However, the ending (a hilarious set-piece of comedy though it might be) leaves things largely unresolved. We have a wonderful, strong female character in Tess Harding--this is clear enough in the first half of the film. But her strength, her forceful personality and go-getting attitude, become her weakness in the second half, so much so that she becomes almost a caricature of the original Tess Harding. Some of the things she does (her 'humanitarian' wholesale adoption of Chris, for example; her rudeness and blithe ignorance of Sam's worth) are truly reprehensible, and the point the writers are making is clear--a female who tries too hard to be a male loses her feminity, and cannot ever really be fulfilled. In this sense, the gender politics, as other commenters have pointed out, is 'deplorable'.

And yet there is a grain of truth in it; if one *can* be brought to believe that Tess could really treat Chris and Sam in the way she does, one can't help but applaud Sam's decision to leave. The role reversal is almost complete--Sam himself comments on the fact that she 'makes love' to him to smooth over their quarrels. She charges on her own merry way without asking him about his life, his opinion, or anything that remotely matters to him. Their union was neither perfect, nor a marriage, as he justifiably charges.

The uneasy tension between the admirable and the deplorable Tess Hardings comes at the end: you most certainly get the impression that the film itself didn't quite know whether or not to affirm the Tess character. 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. It was both an affirmation of Tess the character, and a lingering question mark about the Harding-Craig reunion.

Test audiences didn't like it. (Apparently, it was the *women* who felt threatened by the character Hepburn portrayed on screen. She was too strong, too beautiful, too *everything* all at once.)

What transpired in the end, then, was a re-shot ending that muddied the moral of the film in suggesting that women could not really be fulfilled without their men. Sam wants her to be Tess Harding Craig; she wants to be Mrs. Craig; she wants to change; he thinks (and probably knows) she can't. 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. The original ending would have better borne out the logic of the film--a valuable DVD extra if ever there was one. You can perhaps applaud the spirit of the film, without accepting the fact that it seems to let that spirit fade away in the end.

So what is there of worth in WOMAN OF THE YEAR, with its original ending gone, and its revolutionary potential muted by a slapstick scene in a kitchen with exploding waffles, too much coffee, and a woman who just can't seem to figure out how to separate eggs? Well, the answer is simple, and it's already been given. This is a movie to watch, and to watch *again*, because it is the first cinematic pairing of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. For a couple of hours, you're allowed to watch these two great, mythical actors playing two people in love... while falling in love themselves. That is most certainly a rare privilege, if ever there was one.

Wow is all I can say after watching this movie! Even though they are acting in a movie you can see their love for each other.Its just amazing. Its such a good movie, I would reccomend it to anyone!

"Woman of the Year" is known more for being Tracy and Hepburn's first screen pairing than for being an oustanding film. It's certainly not a bad one; the dialogue just seems a bit stilted and overly dramatic at times. In lesser hands, this would've been stuffed on a back shelf awhile ago. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn are extremely talented, though, both alone and as a team, so the end result is a cheerful, electric little romantic comedy. The subject matter -wife has more prestigious job than husband- is actually rather controversial for its time (I wonder how the ending would have changed if it was remade now). It's a joy to watch Tracy and Hepburn together; they rank right up there with Bogie and Bacall as one of the best screen teams of all time.