...to watch these two, Tracy and Hepburn, play so expertly together. The writing team of Kanin and Gordon knew these two offscreen and supposedly based their writing of this picture on the way Kate and Spence interacted in private life, and based the story on two married lawyers that they also knew. However true this may have been about how Tracy and Hepburn were together in private life (there seems to be some evidence that their very real friendship was turned into more than friendship by all of the participants to cover up what was, in fact, REALLY going on in their lives), on screen it works beautifully. They spar, make up, break up and come back together again in sweet, lighthearted fashion.
The director George Cukor of course knew all of them intimately too, and so his direction is equally responsible for its success: he seemingly points the camera at them, gets out of the way of the actors and the material, and lets the sparks fly.
The supporting cast is expert, especially Judy Holliday in her first real screen performance. David Wayne and Tom Ewell were well-known by Broadway and radio audiences at the time and this was also their first film. Ewell plays the husband perfectly, as a sleazy cheat.
Wayne plays the successful Broadway songwriter for just what he is, a not very likable gay guy who puts up the pretense of not being gay, though everyone knows he is and goes along with his "down low" ploy. This may seem revolting to contemporary audiences but was just the way it was for many in the 40s and 50s. It was the only way guys like him could survive and have any kind of success. If you didn't play the game you got nowhere. This is not as true as it used to be but in certain circles it certainly is, or people think it is.
The writers, actors and director were all people who knew New York very well, and from my own memories of it this does indeed capture the flavor of postwar New York City beautifully, the street life, the wildly crowded and even then ancient subways, the speech accents and rhythm of the place. The location shooting, what little there is of it, is excellent, and even the stock footage used as background looks just right for 1949 New York.
But it's the on screen work of the two stars that pulls this together. See it for that, and for a picture of a New York which no longer exists.
The director George Cukor of course knew all of them intimately too, and so his direction is equally responsible for its success: he seemingly points the camera at them, gets out of the way of the actors and the material, and lets the sparks fly.
The supporting cast is expert, especially Judy Holliday in her first real screen performance. David Wayne and Tom Ewell were well-known by Broadway and radio audiences at the time and this was also their first film. Ewell plays the husband perfectly, as a sleazy cheat.
Wayne plays the successful Broadway songwriter for just what he is, a not very likable gay guy who puts up the pretense of not being gay, though everyone knows he is and goes along with his "down low" ploy. This may seem revolting to contemporary audiences but was just the way it was for many in the 40s and 50s. It was the only way guys like him could survive and have any kind of success. If you didn't play the game you got nowhere. This is not as true as it used to be but in certain circles it certainly is, or people think it is.
The writers, actors and director were all people who knew New York very well, and from my own memories of it this does indeed capture the flavor of postwar New York City beautifully, the street life, the wildly crowded and even then ancient subways, the speech accents and rhythm of the place. The location shooting, what little there is of it, is excellent, and even the stock footage used as background looks just right for 1949 New York.
But it's the on screen work of the two stars that pulls this together. See it for that, and for a picture of a New York which no longer exists.