|
Post by taylorfirst1 on Mar 27, 2017 0:00:21 GMT
I would like to read your opinions on this Tracy and Hepburn comedy. Thanks in advance.
|
|
|
Post by Carl LaFong on Mar 27, 2017 23:38:49 GMT
Not a fan of the Tracy/Hepburn pairing.
Tracy is probably my least favourite Hollywood giant.
|
|
|
Post by Wesley Crusher on Mar 27, 2017 23:54:48 GMT
I am not a big fan of Pat and Mike 5/10 (it felt just average) It's not a bad film, it just wasn't good either.
Pat and Mike ... Spencer Tracy's.... #30 of 39 films seen. Katharine Hepburn's #23 of 31 films seen.
Current Actor Rankings Spencer Tracy #13 Katharine Hepburn #25
Current Director Rankings George Cukor #13
|
|
|
Post by marshamae on Mar 28, 2017 1:26:35 GMT
Well it's my favorite Tracy Hepburn, because they are both playing parts.
Tracy is a Brooklyn Damon Runyonesque sports agent, so close to a low level gangster the border is blurred it's the only time he played a role with an accent and managed it comfortably
Hepburn played a gifted athlete, which she was, who was desperately insecure whenever her fiancé showed up. This was, and is a common problem for talented women, but I have a hard time believing Hepburn would give this much energy to a clod like this fiancé. Still she made me believe Pat Pemberton could not free herself from his criticism.
I find the Ruth Gordon- Garson Kanin script sharp and funny. The direction is beautifully paced and the support cast is wonderful, from Aldo Ray , to Phyllis Povah as the annoying golf partner , to Chuck Connors and Charles Bronson as tough guys who get beat up by Hepburn . I really love seeing Babe Deidrikson Helen Detweiller and the other athletes.
i adore Adam's Rib and it's a nearly perfect comedy but I slightly prefer Pat and Mike . I think the growth of the two leads and their struggle with each other is more engaging. In tge end Adam and Samantha are both so privileged , they aren't really risking anything. Pat and Mike take risks , go outside their comfort zones to meet and find common ground.
|
|
frogarama
Freshman
I actually thought Prometheus both sucked and blowed.
@frogarama
Posts: 53
Likes: 25
|
Post by frogarama on Apr 1, 2017 4:50:10 GMT
I thought Aldo Ray was very good in this.
|
|
|
Post by teleadm on Apr 1, 2017 20:41:26 GMT
According to "The MGM Story" this movie was a huge hit when it came out.
I also remember that it got notices for all the wrong reasons in the early VHS days, Charles Bronson got beated up by Katherine Hepburn!
Hepburn's and Tracy's non legal love affair also helped boosting it to become a hit,
It's not a bad movie at all, after all itäs directed by George Cukor, and has all production values that a big studio could afford back then, but it's not funny, the laughs are far between, Hepburn's superwoman just becomes too much (based on a real athlete I've forgotten the name of, maybe Didricksen?)
|
|
|
Post by Doghouse6 on Apr 1, 2017 21:50:19 GMT
Well it's my favorite Tracy Hepburn, because they are both playing parts. Tracy is a Brooklyn Damon Runyonesque sports agent, so close to a low level gangster the border is blurred it's the only time he played a role with an accent and managed it comfortably Hepburn played a gifted athlete, which she was, who was desperately insecure whenever her fiancé showed up. This was, and is a common problem for talented women, but I have a hard time believing Hepburn would give this much energy to a clod like this fiancé. Still she made me believe Pat Pemberton could not free herself from his criticism. I find the Ruth Gordon- Garson Kanin script sharp and funny. The direction is beautifully paced and the support cast is wonderful, from Aldo Ray , to Phyllis Povah as the annoying golf partner , to Chuck Connors and Charles Bronson as tough guys who get beat up by Hepburn . I really love seeing Babe Deidrikson Helen Detweiller and the other athletes. i adore Adam's Rib and it's a nearly perfect comedy but I slightly prefer Pat and Mike . I think the growth of the two leads and their struggle with each other is more engaging. In tge end Adam and Samantha are both so privileged , they aren't really risking anything. Pat and Mike take risks , go outside their comfort zones to meet and find common ground. I'm sorry I didn't catch your comments when first entered a few days ago. I had wanted to jump in and heap some praise upon Pat and Mike at the thread's advent, but just couldn't get my thoughts to resolve. You've said everything I'd have liked to. I'm especially pleased you zeroed in on the unusually emphasized characterization aspects of Tracy's performance. In spite of his Oscar and the general affection for Captains Courageous, I've simply never been able to buy into his "leetle feesh" characterization of Manuel. I remember reading something he said later in his career about the approach he'd come to settle upon for any role: "I'm playing Spencer Tracy, but not Spencer Tracy the actor: I'm playing Spencer Tracy the judge...or Spencer Tracy the mayor...or Spencer Tracy the priest." However he did it, though, he successfully integrated unfamiliar speech patterns and mannerisms into his performance as Mike Conovan and, as you say, managed it comfortably. The subtlety with which he did it is not unlike that achieved by Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker, who so adeptly disguised his intelligent, thoughtful and well-spoken manner without conveying artifice. If you wouldn't mind a small correction, Chuck Connors played not one of the tough guys, but the cop who listens with steely-eyed bemusement to the story of how Pat single-handedly bested all those "mugs" (among whom young Charles Bronson - still Buchinski - makes the most of his limited screen time).
|
|
|
Post by Doghouse6 on Apr 1, 2017 23:16:29 GMT
To Doghouse and marshamae:After your thoughtful comments, I feel that I need to give this film another viewing. It would appear to me that I've been mistaken in my estimation. Thanks to you both for your interesting insights. I have to admit it took me some little time to really warm to PaM; perhaps three viewings before I keyed into its sharply smart and well-observed sense of humanity that the sensitive and sophisticated Kanins and Cukor capture. A sports milieu isn't something that normally calls out to me and I might initially keep them at arm's length, but some of the best of them - especially those of the so-called classic period - have spoken to me in unexpected ways when allowed to: although distinctly different in tone (and I hate boxing), 1950's Right Cross and 1956's The Harder They Fall are among them (overnight, I gave Pride Of the Yankees another shot, but I haven't yet been able to make it past what feels to me like excessive sentimentality, and I much prefer Cooper in his very early or very late roles).
|
|
|
Post by Doghouse6 on Apr 2, 2017 0:55:47 GMT
You know, it may be the sports angle that made it hard for me to really see the value of the film. That's generally not my genre. Not sure now, so I'll definitely give it another look. And I haven't seen the films you mention, save Pride of the Yankees, which I agree is a bit sentimental, but I enjoyed it though I've never watched it again. But I did like a couple of other sport films from that era, actually a little earlier (boxing, which I also hate; go figure): Champion and Body and Soul. I probably owe Body and Soul another look after many years (the elegant Lili Palmer is a favorite even if Garfield isn't), and as for Champion, it's one of those that hasn't attracted me, but much of Mark Robson's early work has been deft and compelling (particularly that done for Val Lewton), and he happens to have directed The Harder They Fall as well, so I'll resolve to give Champion a fair shake at the next opportunity.
|
|
|
Post by taylorfirst1 on Apr 2, 2017 2:20:27 GMT
Not at all. This is exactly the type of discussion I was hoping for. BTW, I'm a big fan of Champion and The Harder They Fall
|
|
|
Post by louise on Apr 2, 2017 18:21:16 GMT
i like it. My second favourite Tracy/hepburn film after Desk Set.
|
|