Spence & Kate - Recap from a Simple Saturday

Turner Classic Movies was running Spencer Tracy flicks all day (and night) on Saturday. We managed to watch three Tracy-Hepburn classics in succession -- Adam's Rib, Desk Set, and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. I should probably be more ashamed that I'd never seen any of these before. At the same time, I've tried to limit my obsessions to a manageable few (music, Red Sox, sometimes work) and that means films have typically been put on the back burner.

Of the three, there's no question that Who's Coming To Dinner was the strongest. The missed notes all come from the weakness of casting Hepburn's niece as the young female lead. In a particularly sad note, her naivete is born out today in a far more pathetic way. Big points to Isabel Sanford for her blunt performance as the family maid, and of course to Sidney Poitier for portraying the perfect mix of hope and pragmatism at the same time.

Surprisingly, Desk Set held the most interest for me... just the sheer prescience to make a film in 1957 about how "the computers are coming to take our jobs away." Of course, the punchlines can be spotted from a mile away (garbage in, garbage out) -- but there's something endearing and innocent about it, too. This film should be required viewing for every person using "Google" as a verb. (Plus, the in-building christmas party was a hoot in today's PC, over-litigated society.)

I tuned out much of Adam's Rib. An over-the-top "battle of the sexes" comedy + my lack of affinity for courtrooms (whether real or fictional) = a good time to catch up on browsing and deferred reading.