Film Review
Desk Set brings together
Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn for the last but one time, their
eighth screen collaboration in fifteen years, and easily one of their
most enjoyable. The film was a timely satire on the threat posed
by computers in the workplace, although it loses its satirical teeth
about halfway through and ends up resembling a promotional film for the
computer industry (not surprisingly, as IBM part-financed the
film). The film may have appeared upbeat when it was made but,
given the prevalence of computers today, it now seems rather
prophetic. The thing that most dates the film is the enormity of
the computer - it is a room-filling monstrosity that looks like it has
been borrowed from the set of a sci-fi B-movie. Were IBM happy
with the computer's habit of going wrong and repeatedly having to be
fixed with a hair grip? Maybe it wasn't the best promotion they
could have asked for...
Although the computer ultimately steals the show, the film is primarily
another vehicle for the comedic talents of Tracy and Hepburn, who spark
off one another with as much gusto as they did in earlier films,
such as
Woman of the Year (1942) and
Adam's Rib (1949).
Their scenes together have enough electricity to power a small town, and they are
particularly well-served with a script that crackles with wit and
intelligence. The high points are a rooftop lunch break which
turns into a Mensa-style inquisition and a Christmas office party in
which a champagne-fuelled Hepburn shows us why she never made it into
the musicals (accompanied by Tracy on the bongo drums), whilst
intermittently reeling off the names of Santa's
reindeer. Just as side-splittingly funny is the scene in which
Gig Young discover Hepburn and Tracy innocently having supper together,
in their dressing gowns, in Hepburn's apartment.
Desk Set is a delight, a superior
romantic comedy that has worn well and is as warm and tirelessly
entertaining as every other Hepburn-Tracy hook-up.
© James Travers 2011
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Film Synopsis
Bunny Watson runs the reference department of the Federal Broadcasting
Network, leading a team that provides answers swiftly and accurately on
a whole range of topics to anyone else in the company. Bunny is
happy in her work but has a frustrated love life. For seven years
she had been dating company executive Mike Cutler, but the prospect of
marriage continues to be a distant dream. One day, a strange man
turns up in Bunny's offices, equipped with a tape measure and sardonic
humour. The man, Richard Sumner, introduces himself as an
electronics engineer, the inventor of the EMERAC computer, and explains
that the company intends to purchase two of his machines in the
interests of efficiency and cost reduction. Bunny and her team
soon realise what this means. They are all to be replaced by a
computer!
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.