Wow! Such a good movie.

Too much of everything

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Copyright 1957 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 15 May 1957. U.S. release: May 1957. U.K. release: 12 August 1956. Australian release: 11 July 1957. Sydney opening at the Regent. 9,305 feet. 103 minutes. U.K. release title: HIS OTHER WOMAN.SYNOPSIS: Love and automation clash when an efficiency expert takes stock of a broadcasting company's research department.NOTES: The play opened on Broadway at the Broadhurst on 24 October 1955. Shirley Booth starred opposite Byron Sanders. Also in the cast: Elizabeth Wilson, Joyce Van Patten, Louis Gossett, Frank Moran, Mary Gildea. The director was Joseph Fields. The play closed after a very satisfactory 296 performances.Fox's 75th CinemaScope feature and the 8th teaming of Tracy and Hepburn. COMMENT: A very pleasant and even more pertinent comedy in 2017 than it appeared when originally released. Most contemporary critics liked the film, but nearly all complained how slight the story was and if it were not for the superlative acting teamwork of Tracy and Hepburn... While there is a certain amount of truth in these assessments — it's hard to imagine "Desk Set" succeeding so entertainingly well in the hands of any other players but the warmly likable yet sympathetically odd-people-out Spencer and Kate — there are quite a few other aspects of the movie to enjoy as well. Not least of these enjoyments is the excellent support cast. As the gossipy Smithers, Harry Ellerbe (in movies since at least 1932) has the best role of his entire career. Making their movie debuts are Dina Merrill (from the New York modeling world), and Sue Randall (from a television and Broadway stage background). Oddly, so far as I know, the lovely Miss Randall never made another picture, whereas the equally attractive but somewhat less personable Miss Merrill went on to enjoy a modest but reasonably successful career.I could single out other players for praise, but will content myself with a tip of the hat to Joan Blondell, a skilled comedienne who makes the most of her every entrance and exit.Ephron has realized this little gem on a fair-sized budget. It's untrue to say that "Desk Set" is simply a photographed stage play. It's correct that a lot of the action still takes place in the one set, but not only is this one set more extensive and elaborately furnished than the stage equivalent, there are actually quite a few changes of scene.Shamroy has photographed his players to their considerable advantage, whilst Lang has directed in an unobtrusive but thoroughly professional manner. Admittedly, he has made little use of CinemaScope until the 3rd Act when "Emmy" is cleverly made to fill those wide open interior spaces.If you can afford to laugh at the computer revolution, "Desk Set" will certainly tickle your funny bone.

"Desk Set" is a middle-of-the-road romantic comedy, a love story that finds its fifty plus-year-old actors fascinated by feelings they had given up on pursuing years ago. The romance in "Desk Set" is I had given up on marriage until now love, I love you but I like you more love, you saved me from a mid-life crisis love, not cheapened studio fare obsessed with the courtship of a fresh-faced blonde bombshell and a Robert Cummings lookalike. It's impossible not to admire the screen repartee perfected by Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Bogie and Bacall could cause an audience member to spontaneously combust with a cigarette lit make-out session; Garbo and Gilbert could start a house fire just by glancing at each other. Not Hepburn and Tracy. Though real-life lovers, their nine films together were never defined by sexual chemistry; never an issue was a will-they-or- won't they hot and heavy love scene. If anything romantic occurs between the two, they first must size each other up, figure out the other's IQ. Maybe they will find the time to peck the other on the cheek in spite of repressed affection, but partaking in particularly witty conversation is much more fruitful than tiresome romance."Desk Set" is their most underrated hour; most favor 1949's wonderful "Adam's Rib" or 1942's "Woman of the Year" (whose popularity I am still perplexed by). Released in 1957, there is more studio flavor than usual, lavish CinemaScope photography having something to do with it —but a dexterity akin to "Designing Woman" is becoming for the two aged stars. The loud colors of the atmosphere, along with energy abundant dialogue, only reflect the pair's million-miles-a-minute personalities. We find comfort in seeing them together, relishing each other's company at the hands of a budget happy studio.Hepburn plays Bunny Watson, the head honcho of a TV network's research department. Knowledge hungry individuals call on an hourly basis, loaded with statistically minded questions. Bunny and her female associates, hardly breaking a nail, are almost human computers, able to recite obscure factual evidence as if it were a golden memory from their childhood.Problems arise when Richard Sumner (Spencer Tracy) arrives on the scene. An efficiency expert hoping to increase productivity in the research department, Richard hopes to eventually replace Bunny and her associates with a supercomputer. He doesn't make this quite clear right away, though; he instead inserts himself in the area, analyzing every moment, only slightly hinting at his ulterior motive. It doesn't take much time for a relationship to develop between Richard and Bunny, two lonelyhearts who never had the time, or the drive, to distract themselves with marriage. If only Bunny's longtime boyfriend (Gig Young), who hardly has plans for the future, would stop getting in the way!"Desk Set"'s premise is among the most dated (just take a look at that computer!) of the 1950s, but its charm has hardly faltered — in some ways, it has gotten better with age, as though its best characteristics were thrown into the air, its confetti exploding over our cynical hearts. Not much imagination is put into the direction or the set design — most of the film is locked in one setting — but Hepburn and Tracy kill (as does their always welcome co-star Joan Blondell), and the screenplay, written by husband and wife team Henry and Phoebe Ephron, positively glides with its seamless wit. It's all very lightweight and it's all very busy, but "Desk Set" is a shining fixture in the Hepburn/Tracy canon.

In this their second to last feature together and arguably their best Tracy and Hepburn light up the screen with their special spark which shines a little brighter here than in most of their other pairings. Perhaps the reason for that is here they play mature adults who respect each other first and then very slowly give in to their attraction with cute misunderstandings along the way. While that isn't so far removed from several of their other comedies by this point they were able to do it so deftly the whole thing takes on an extra sheen. Another big plus is the superior supporting cast of the picture. Gig Young does the slick, slightly caddish glad hander he did so well and a very young Dina Merrill is clever and chic as one of the other office girls. But the real standouts are Neva Patterson as the tightly wound, buttoned up computer Nazi supervisor Miss Warriner but better still is the divine and vastly underrated Joan Blondell, as Kate's best buddy Peg she is adorably entertaining. A little man hungry, but worldly wise she walks off with any scene she is in. The tipsy scene between she and the stars is a superb chance to see three great actors elevate a simple situation by infusing it with their seasoned skill.

I watched this movie on You Tube and enjoyed it immensely. The fast wit in practically all the lines, the cleverness in the script, the utter elegance of all the women involved in it (even Joan Blondell, quite "developed" by then with several extra pounds), but specially Dina Merrill, absolutely exquisite in her (natural) ice-blond beauty, and Katherine Hepburn, with an unbelievably slender silhouette, all dressed, made up and coiffed to kill (modest employees with an average office job and complaining about their low salaries), changing outfits on practically every scene (and what outfits!!). But that doesn't matter, it was escapist entertainment to the nth degree, so all that eye candy was completely acceptable, and so were the sets, that confronted with nowadays sets were like the Sistine Chapel Ceiling by Michelangelo.When you consider that every single setting was painted cardboard you flip!!: The New York street with all that traffic and the heavy rain, the executive office, the girls office, later their office with the immense computer with all its lights and noises, the terrace of the skyscraper!! Fantastic sets!! and then the color palette for the whole movie.Palette studied to the last detail, so pleasing to the eye in its entirety. Only one example: Hepburn gives Tracy a striped scarf, later on she wears the same scarf momentarily over a dress whose color matches to perfection those on the scarf. Unreal. And then last but not least, we appreciate the way these people interacted with such decent sentiments, so elegant, with such civilized maturity (so adult!!), that we instantly realize to have lost a lot comparing that generation to the present one. The acting is sublime, by all of them, from Hepburn to the messenger boy. What a sensational movie! Top entertainment.