The Hepburn & Tracy Signature Collection (Woman of the Year / Pat and Mike / Adam's Rib / The Spencer Tracy Legacy)

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Summary: Three prime examples of Tracy & Hepburn at their best
Review: Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy made nine films together: "Woman of the Year" and "Keeper of the Flame" (1942), "Without Love" (1945), "The Sea of Grass" (1947), "State of the Union" (1948), "Adam's Rib" (1949), "Pat and Mike" (1952), "Desk Set" (1957), and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967). I think the lineup for "The Hepburn & Tracy Signature Collection" would be slightly improved if you substituted "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" for "Pat and Mike," only because you would then have their first and last movies together, but the key moments from their final film are included on "The Spencer Tracy Legacy." "Woman of the Year" and "Adam's Rib" are the two best movies the legendary pair did together and represent their on-screen battles of the sexes at its best. The main common denominator between the three films selected are that the scripts were all at least nominated for Oscars.

It is hard to watch the moment in "Woman of the Year" when Tracy's Sam Craig, a down-to-earth sportswriter for the "New York Chronicle," first sees Hepburn's Tess Harding, the paper's international columnist fixing her stockings. If you never noticed that Hepburn had great legs to go along with those great cheekbones and her clipped manner of speaking, this scene will rectify that shortcoming. Despite the fact they are totally mismatched, it is love at first sight. He calls her the "Calamity Jane of the fast International set," and tries to introduce her to baseball, vainly trying to explain the finer points of the game to her. Sam and Tess get married, when she has time to squeeze the ceremony into her busy schedule, but he discovers that being married to the "Woman of the Year" is no picnic. The Oscar winning original screenplay by Ring Larnder, Jr. and Michael Kanin does not back off from the ugly side of this particular marraige. The film, directed by George Stevens, also featured the screen debut of William Bendix as a bartender who once fought Jim Braddock, with Fay Bainter as Tess' aunt, Minor Watson as her father, and Dan Tobin as her officious secretary. Hepburn received her fourth Oscar nomination for Tess Harding, but lost out to Greer Garson's Kay Miniver.

"Adam's Rib" was written for Tracy and Hepburn by their good friends, Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, whose screenplay was nominated for an Oscar. Amanda Bonner (Hepburn) is an attorney who ends up defending the dizzy blonde (Judy Holliday) who has shot her two-timing spouse (Tom Ewell). The only problem is that her husband, Adam (Tracy), a sharp assistant district attorney, has been assigned to prosecute the case. The battle in the courtroom between the two spills over into the bedroom of their swank New York apartment, and visa versa (it becomes part of the official court record that he calls her "Pinkie" and she calls him "Pinky"). The Bonners are happily married, but that does not stop them from arguing out the battle of the sexes in and out of court, with David Wayne as the songwriting lothario trying to take advantage of the rift to woo Amanda (but it is Cole Porter who write "Farewell, Amanda" for the film). The battle of the exes ends up as a split decision in this one, but it makes perfect sense given the twin battles being fought.

"Pat and Mike" reunited Tracy and Heburn, the Kanins and director George Cukor for a film that would show off Hepburn's athletic skills in a story that seems like it was written by Damon Runyon, or at least populated by people who talk in that manner. As Pat Pemberton, Hepburn ends up playing golf and tennis against real sports stars including Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Gussie Moran, Alice Marble, Betty Hicks, and Helen Dettweiler. Shady sports promoter Mike Conovan (Tracy) sees the opportunity to make money promoting her as the all-around Queen of Sports. The film has not only Tracy's famous line when watching Hepburn walk away ("She ain't got much meat on her...but that she's got is cherce!"), but a scene in which Hepburn turns the table on a thug played by a young Charles Buchinski (a.k.a. Charles Bronson). It terms of Tracy-Hepburn films "Pat and Mike" is one of the rare ones where he gives in to her in the end.

"The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn" aired in 1986 and has the actress looking at her co-stars career from start to finish. There are clips from Tracy's greatest films, including "Libeled Lady" (1936), "A Guy Named Joe" (1943), "Bad Day at Black Rock" (1955), "Inherit the Wind" (1960), and "Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961). The documentary reminds us that Tracy received nine Oscar nominations throughout his career and won two of them, for 1937's "Captains Courageous" and 1938's "Boys Town." It was not until Tom Hanks in the 1990s that another actor would win two Oscars in consecutive years (Hepburn is one of the few actresses to have done so as well). Along with Laurence Olivier and Marlon Brando, Spencer Tracy represented the epitome of the acting tradition and this documentary combines great clips with glowing testimonials from the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra.

The good news is that once you watch this trio of films starring Hepburn and Tracy there are six more of them out there, although a few of them are rather disappointing given our expectations for this pair of stars. However, if as your rule of thumb you check out the films for which either Tracy or Hepburn were nominated for Oscars you will be on much safer ground and you will have ample evidence for why they were two of the most admired movie stars of the 20th century.