Desk Set (1957)

by Tristi Pinkston | More from this Blogger

02 Jun 2008 12:00 PM

Over the course of their careers, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn made a heap of movies together. All were enjoyable, and one of my favorites is "Desk Set."

Hepburn is Bunny Watson, head of the research department at a television studio. As persons all throughout the building prepare the upcoming shows, they call down to research to verify facts and figures, and Bunny and her team of three other women look that information up for them. With a small library at their disposal, but also with a lot of memorized knowledge, they keep that station up and running, often having to figure out such things as, "How heavy is the earth?" and quoting pieces of poetry over the phone. All in a day's work, and never dull.

But one day, a man by the name of Richard Sumner (Spencer Tracy) comes waltzing in and starts measuring their room. He's been hired by the network bigwigs to do a special job, but he won't tell Bunny what that is. He's constantly in her way, though, and although she comes to accept him as a part of the furniture, she wonders why he's still hanging around.

His secret does come out eventually, though. He has designed a computer that will look up all the information the research ladies have been digging up, thereby cutting back thousands of human work hours. Sure that their jobs are on the line, Bunny and the other ladies start wondering what they'll do for work, but Bunny never realizes she might be falling in love with Sumner.

This movie is full of great humor. The one-liners are great, especially those delivered in Hepburn's trademark dry tone of voice. If you're a Hepburn/Tracy fan, or even if you just like older classics, this is definitely a movie for you.

This film was not rated.

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Learn more about Tristi Pinkston

I've been a blogger for Families.com since August of 2006.

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