Desk Set

Desk Set

Original cinema poster
Directed by Walter Lang
Produced by Henry Ephron
Screenplay by Phoebe Ephron
Henry Ephron
Based on Desk Set (play)
by William Marchant
Starring Katharine Hepburn
Spencer Tracy
Music by Cyril J. Mockridge
Cinematography Leon Shamroy
Distributed by 20th Century-Fox
Release dates
  • May 1, 1957 (1957-05-01) (US)
Running time
 103 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $1,865,000[1]
Box office $1.7 million (US rentals)[2]

Desk Set (released as His Other Woman in the UK) is a 1957 American romantic comedy film directed by Walter Lang and starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. The screenplay was written by Phoebe Ephron and Henry Ephron from the 1955 play, The Desk Set, by William Marchant.

Plot

Spencer Tracy with Katharine Hepburn in a promotional image for Desk Set (1957)

At the Federal Broadcasting Network in Midtown Manhattan, Bunny Watson (Katharine Hepburn) is in charge of its reference library, which is responsible for researching facts and answering questions on all manner of topics, great and small. Watson has been involved for seven years with rising network executive Mike Cutler (Gig Young), with no marriage in sight.

The network is negotiating a merger with another company, but is keeping it secret. To help the employees cope with the extra work that will result, the network head has ordered two computers, or "electronic brains." Methods Engineer and efficiency expert Richard Sumner (Spencer Tracy), the inventor of EMERAC ("Electromagnetic MEmory and Research Arithmetical Calculator"), is brought in to see how the library functions, to figure out how to ease the transition. Though extremely bright, as he gets to know Bunny Watson, he is surprised to discover that she is every bit his match.

When they find out the computers are coming, the employees jump to the conclusion they are being replaced. Their fears seem to be confirmed when everyone on the staff receives a pink slip printed out by the new payroll computer. Fortunately, it turns out to be a mistake; the machine fired everybody in the company, including the president.

Richard Sumner reveals his romantic interest in Bunny Watson, but she believes that EMERAC would always be his first priority. Sumner denies it, but then Watson puts him to the test, setting the machine to self-destruct. Sumner resists the urge to fix it as long as possible, but finally gives in. Watson accepts him anyway.

Cast

Production notes

In the play, Watson (played by Shirley Booth, who was originally intended for the film as well) had only brief interactions with Sumner, and somewhat hostile. Screenwriters Phoebe and Henry Ephron built up the role of the efficiency expert and tailored the interactions between him and the researcher to fit Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.[3]

The exterior shots of the "Federal Broadcasting Network" seen in the film is actually the RCA Building (now known as the Comcast Building) at 30 Rockefeller Center in Rockefeller Center, the headquarters of NBC.

The character of Bunny Watson was based on Agnes E. Law, a real-life librarian at CBS who retired about a year before the film was released.[4][5]

This film was the eighth screen pairing of Hepburn and Tracy, after a five-year respite since 1952's Pat and Mike, and was a first for Hepburn and Tracy in several ways: the first non-MGM film the two starred in together, their first color film, and their first CinemaScope film. Following Desk Set their last film together would be 1967's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

The computer referred to as EMERAC is a homoiophone metonym for ENIAC ("Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer"), which was developed in the 1940s and was the first electronic general-purpose computer.

The researchers furnish incorrect information about the career of baseball player Ty Cobb, who played for both the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Athletics.

Reception

Bosley Crowther, film critic of The New York Times, felt the film was "out of dramatic kilter", inasmuch as Hepburn was simply too "formidable" to convincingly play someone "scared by a machine", resulting in "not much tension in this thoroughly lighthearted film".[6]

Today the film is seen far more favorably, with the sharpness of the script praised in particular; it currently has a rare 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 17 reviews.[7] Dennis Schwartz of Osuz' World Movie Reviews called it an "inconsequential sex comedy", but contended "the star performers are better than the material they are given to work with" and that "the comedy was so cheerful and the banter between the two was so refreshingly smart that it was easy to forgive this bauble for not being as rich as many of the legendary duo's other films together."[8]

Legacy

A Canadian radio program, Bunny Watson, was named for and inspired by Hepburn's character.


The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1
  2. ↑ "Top Grosses of 1957", Variety, 8 January 1958: 30
  3. ↑ Turner Classic Movies Notes: Entry for Desk Set
  4. ↑ Duralde, Alonso (2010). Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas. Wisconsin: Limelight Editions. p. 61. ISBN 0879103760.
  5. ↑ "Former Teacher Receives Honor" June 20, 1957. Richfield Springs Mercury, pg 7.
  6. ↑ Bosley Crowther (May 16, 1957). "Desk Set (1957)". The New York Times.
  7. ↑ "Desk Set". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  8. ↑ Dennis Schwartz (March 9, 2005). "So Refreshingly Smart". Osuz's World Movie Reviews. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
  9. ↑ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-18.
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