Pat and Mike (1952)

the audience applauded

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Pat (Kate Hepburn) is a women's sports sensation unless her fiancé is around. Her new shady manager Mike keeps them apart and develops feelings for her.Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon were friends with Hepburn and Tracy, and had the idea of writing a film to showcase Hepburn's athletic abilities. She was an avid golfer and tennis player, and indeed performed all the sports footage in the film herself.I continue to maintain that Katharine Hepburn may be the most overrated actress in the history of Hollywood. She has no range, no emotion. But when paired when Spencer Tracy, her films aren't too bad, because he really does a fine job of adding some personality to the screen. This is by no means as good as "The Desk Set", for example, but still a decent combination.

"Pat and Mike" from 1952 is a delightful Tracy-Hepburn film, one of nine they made together. I guess of all of them, Sea of Grass was the worst. But I digress.Pat (Hepburn) is an athletics teacher engaged to a somewhat domineering guy. She is told by the manager of a golf club (Jim Backus) that she has the goods to make the womens national golf team, and she should go for it. She does, and there, she's discovered by a marginal manager, Mike (Tracy), who gives her his card, even though the presence of her fiancée (William Ching) made her choke on her game and always does. Mike's managing consists of fixing events, but after he feels Pat out and realizes she's honest, and he sees how talented she is, he decides to take her on as a client. He at present has a boxer client (Aldo Ray) and a horse, Little Nell.Pat goes to see him after she quits her job. When Mike asks her if she can do anything besides golf, it turns out that golf isn't even her best sport. That's tennis. But she can also do sharpshooting and a bunch of other things. They go the tennis route. And without realizing it, their feelings go beyond manager and talent.Very good film, with real-life golf stars Babe Didrickson Zaharias and Gussy Moran on hand as golfers, and Charles Bronson and Chuck Conners in small roles.Pat and Mike works because of the tremendous chemistry between Tracy and Hepburn.

Kate Hepburn was the consummate professional, and never hit a false note, in this film or any other. It was fun to see her show her athleticism in spite of her petite build. And the chemistry with her and Spencer Tracy was undeniable. I actually liked some of her later films much better, like "African Queen" and "The Lion in Winter". This film had a lot of familiar faces including Jim Backus, Chuck Connors, and Charles Bronson. Listed in the uncredited cast was Roger Moore as "Photagrapher". I looked for him but never saw him. Some famous athletes of the day were also featured, such as Babe Zahariah and Don Budge. Aldo Ray as the dim-witted boxer rather overplayed his part, but I suppose that this was the style for movies in those days. Overall, not Hepburn/Tracy's best, but pretty decent anyway.

"Pat and Mike" is one of the many collaborations between Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, and it is, of course, a romantic comedy. As everyone knows, Hepburn and Tracy were real-life lovers, and the chemistry between them lights up the screen in this as in their other movies. Since everyone also knows the formula, it's obvious, long before they do, that Hepburn and Tracy will wind up together. "Pat and Mike" is one of Hepburn's better comic turns as a professional athlete unafraid to step into the middle of a fight to protect tough guy Tracy from gangster associates when they try to rough him up because he hasn't persuaded Pat to cooperate with their crooked gambling scheme. As in most of the Hepburn/Tracy movies, the premise doesn't much matter. The magic is between them, no matter the characters, no matter the story, and it is wonderful to watch since I can think of no present day movie couples who generate this kind of electricity and deliver this much fun.