I showed "Desk Set" to my fourteen-year-old computer guru and for him the "Brain" in this charming Tracy/Hepburn romantic comedy might as well as have been used in a Flintstones flick.
Spencer Tracy is efficiency expert Rich Sumner, hired to introduce computerization to a TV station. While several departments will "benefit" from modernization his focus is on the all-female research department headed by Bunny Watson, Katharine Hepburn. Bunny is a spirited manager whose staff clearly adores her. Veteran character actress Joan Blondell is especially good as Peg, the older member of the library team.
Through confusion and wrong deduction, Bunny fears that Rich's eagle-eye observation of the department's functions adumbrates the severance of all and their replacement by a soulless machine. Of course underlying the heightened anxiety of the librarians is a budding romance between Rich and Bunny. And any growing attraction between Hepburn and Tracy is first-class entertainment (in real life they were sort of close, too).
When the computer and its sterile female operator arrive, the scene is set for a bit of slapstick cyber-comedy, years ahead of the actual havoc that humans create (and still do).
"Desk Set" is pure fun with the finest cinema couple of all time interacting assuredly and amusingly.
One distraction was my kid interjecting why the computer couldn't have been based on a real model of the times. This stopped when I reached for my ever-handy roll of duct tape.
The special features here - some commentary - add little. So what? The movie on DVD is well worth the price.
9/10.
Spencer Tracy is efficiency expert Rich Sumner, hired to introduce computerization to a TV station. While several departments will "benefit" from modernization his focus is on the all-female research department headed by Bunny Watson, Katharine Hepburn. Bunny is a spirited manager whose staff clearly adores her. Veteran character actress Joan Blondell is especially good as Peg, the older member of the library team.
Through confusion and wrong deduction, Bunny fears that Rich's eagle-eye observation of the department's functions adumbrates the severance of all and their replacement by a soulless machine. Of course underlying the heightened anxiety of the librarians is a budding romance between Rich and Bunny. And any growing attraction between Hepburn and Tracy is first-class entertainment (in real life they were sort of close, too).
When the computer and its sterile female operator arrive, the scene is set for a bit of slapstick cyber-comedy, years ahead of the actual havoc that humans create (and still do).
"Desk Set" is pure fun with the finest cinema couple of all time interacting assuredly and amusingly.
One distraction was my kid interjecting why the computer couldn't have been based on a real model of the times. This stopped when I reached for my ever-handy roll of duct tape.
The special features here - some commentary - add little. So what? The movie on DVD is well worth the price.
9/10.