Woman of the Year (1942)
Director: George Stevens
Starring: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn
Honors:
Tracy and Hepburn, together they would one of the most notable screen
Hollywood couples in the industry’s history. Here in Woman of the Year we see these two accomplished stars united for the
first time in their careers, a relationship that would span several decades. In
this romantic comedy we watch as the two strong minded individuals struggle
with idea of giving up a piece of one’s self for the sake of love for one
another. It is a comedy that plays on the idea of a career woman who must learn
that a relationship is a series of give and take versus the lifestyle she had
built for herself.
Woman of the Year is a
romantic comedy about a relationship between an international correspondent and
a sports writer and the marital problems that arise from her unwavering
commitment to her work. Tess Harding (Katharine Hepburn) and Sam Craig (Spencer
Tracy) are two journalists that come from very different backgrounds, her a
life of privilege with social awareness and him more of an average, blue collar
world. Despite the two falling in love and marrying Sam finds fitting into Tess’s
world to be one of difficulty as she is preoccupied with her philanthropy other
endeavors she feels are most important. When Tess is to be honor with a “Woman
of the Year” award for her all her work, it becomes apparent to Sam that she is
too wrapped up in her work to juggle with marriage and even surprising adopted
child she had for a very short time, making Sam feel secondary in her life.
Through these events Sam decides to leave Tess as he feels as if an
afterthought in her mind, leaving her troubled with the idea that she failed at
something. While attending her father’s wedding and listening to the words of
love Tess realizes that she cannot let this opportunity for romance to pass her
by. After a failed attempt to win back Sam by forcing herself to act like as
she feels Sam wants her to act, as a housewife to him, Sam proclaims he just
wants her to be her, but include him in her life, and idea humorously stamped
home in agreement as Sam kicks her ever-present assistant out of the room to
close the film.
The film is humorous and touching picture that wanders into the realm
of a working woman, an idea that was at the time still not well spread
throughout the country. Katharine Hepburn was made for a role such as this, as
a stubborn, strong will woman that is so determined to make herself into this significant.
She is an independent individual that she loses focus on fact she now has a
husband. Hepburn was herself a determined woman that literally willed much of
her own success into existence. She embodies the spirit of the Tess character
that brings about a new style of woman in the working world with stature and
determination.
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| Tess focuses on herself more that Sam. |
When it comes to the production of Woman
of the Year all aspects of the picture revolves around Katharine Hepburn,
who found the script, sold it to MGM, and was even given choice of co-star and
director. Long wanting to work with whom she thought was the best actor in the
business Hepburn cast Academy Award winner Spencer Tracy and thus began a long
professional relationship, as well as off-screen secret romance.
To entice Tracy to joining the project as well as help smooth out
production Hepburn reached out to director George Stevens. Hepburn originally
wanted good friend and accomplished filmmaker George Cukor to direct the
picture, but she felt a more “manly” man would help ease Tracy through their
first project together over the more effeminate Cukor who was better known for handling women
in his films. Stevens had worked with Hepburn in Alice Adams, but his work on films such as Gunga Din demonstrated his ability to work with men.
Through production it was apparent that Tracy and Hepburn were becoming
romantically involved with each other which the studio overlooked despite Tracy
was married. Hepburn helped Tracy through his alcoholism while Tracy was able
to keep Hepburn grounded and taught her how to deal with the press, a struggle
through much of her earlier career.
The film is a progressive picture that shows a more modern woman who
finds herself working in a man’s world. She is accomplished and respected,
fighting for women’s justice while attempting to make an impact for the greater
good of the world. She is a woman that does not struggling working with or
above other men, which is a progressive character in the world of motion
pictures which usually kept women in a status below men or at least in a need
of help from men. That is clearly not the case with Hepburn or her character of
Tess.
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| Sam takes Tess to her first ballgame. |
Spencer Tracy’s performance is charming and lovable as an average guy,
and a sports’ writer at that to better yet make him the average man with
average interests. He wins over audiences just being himself which would be necessary
in order to gain the sympathy when Tess overlooks his importance in her life.
He is the character by which we follow the story arch as we watch Tess break
his heart and ours, proclaiming him to practically unimportant in a heartbreaking
scene where she lets out a slip of the tongue that hits like a dagger in his
heart. Tracy’s performance is subtle, but true and amiable.
The film had its fair share of difficulties, the primary one being the
original ending. After testing the picture producers determined the original
ending was not satisfying enough for the audience. They felt Tess needed to
“get her comeuppance” for basically not being a good wife. So while the
screenwriters were on vacation the producers and George Stevens rewrote the
ending for reshoots, much to the protest of Katharine Hepburn who found the
story in the first place and felt it did not need to be changed.
The final scenes where Hepburn is attempting to cook a breakfast for
Sam comes off a bit slapstick comparative to the rest of the film and can be
understandable as to why it would have upset the original screenwriters as well
as Hepburn. In any case the scenes make Tess appear more humbled by experience
of Sam leaving her for not being a wife in their marriage and proved to satisfy
audiences. In the end the film and its screenwriters would walk away from the
Academy Awards with the honors for Best Original Screenplay.
The outcome of the film was one of good profits for MGM, another Oscar
nomination for Hepburn, as well as decades of adulation for the film by critics
and film historians as one of the top American comedies of all time. In 1981
the film would be adapted to a Tony Award winning Broadway musical to further
the impact of the film in entertainment history.
This picture would be the first of what turned out to be nine pictures Spencer
Tracy and Katharine Hepburn worked on together. Their professional and romantic
relationship would benefit both of them and lasted until Tracy’s death in 1967.
It is here in this romantic comedy where they finally found the opportunity to
work together and it was thanks to it that Hollywood found one of its most
successful romantic pairings.
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