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Pat and Mike
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Wikipedia article
'Pat and Mike' is a 1952 American romantic comedy film starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. The movie was written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, and directed by George Cukor. Cukor directed 'The Philadelphia Story' (1940) with Hepburn, and Cukor, Gordon and Kanin teamed with Hepburn and Tracy again for 'Adam's Rib' (1949). Gordon and Kanin were nominated for the 1952 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. for their work on 'Pat and Mike.' (They had been similarly honored for 'Adam's Rib'.)
Hepburn was nominated in the Best Actress category at the 10th Golden Globe Awards, while Ray was nominated for "New Star of the Year".[https://www.goldenglobes.com/person/aldo-ray Aldo Ray]
Plot
Pat Pemberton (Katharine Hepburn) is a brilliant athlete who loses her confidence whenever her charming but overbearing fianc Collier (William Ching) is around. Women's golf and tennis championships are within her reach; however, she gets flustered by his presence at the contests. He wants her to give up her goal and marry him, but Pat does not give up on herself that easily. She enlists the help of Mike Conovan (Spencer Tracy), a slightly shady sports promoter. Together they face mobsters, a jealous boxer (Aldo Ray), and a growing mutual attraction.
Cast
* Spencer Tracy as Mike Conovan
* Katharine Hepburn as Pat Pemberton
* Aldo Ray as Davie Hucko
* William Ching as Collier Weld
* Sammy White as Barney Grau
* George Mathews as Spec Cauley
* Loring Smith as Mr. Beminger
* Phyllis Povah as Mrs. Beminger
* Charles Buchinski as Hank Tasling
* Frank Richards as Sam Garsell
* Jim Backus as Charles Barry
* Chuck Connors as Police Captain
* Joseph E. Bernard as Gibby
* Owen McGiveney as Harry MacWade
* Lou Lubin as Waiter
* Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer as Bus Boy
* William Self as Pat Pemberton's Caddy
'Sports Stars'
* Gussie Moran as Herself
* Babe Didrikson Zaharias as Herself
* Don Budge as Himself
* Alice Marble as Herself
* Frank Parker as Himself
* Betty Hicks as Herself
* Beverly Hanson as Herself
* Helen Dettweiler as Herself
Production
Development
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.Filming
'Pat and Mike' was filmed partly on location in California. The golfing scenes were filmed at the Riviera Country Club and Ojai Valley Inn. Tennis scenes were filmed at the Cow Palace in Daly City, near San Francisco. The opening scenes were filmed at Occidental College, standing in as fictional Pacific Technical College.Casting
Many notable athletes appear in cameo roles as themselves in the film, including golfers Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Betty Hicks, and Helen Dettweiler, and tennis champions Don Budge, Gussie Moran and Alice Marble. Other notables in the cast include Charles Bronson (credited as Charles Buchinski) in his second credited movie role, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Jim Backus, and, in his acting debut, former athlete Chuck Connors, later known as the star of 'The Rifleman' television series.Music
The score for the film was composed and conducted by David Raksin, with orchestrations by Robert Franklyn and Ruby Raksin. Of his music, Raksin said "My music was sly and a mite jazzy, and despite the fact that everyone seemed to like it, so did I."
The complete score was issued on CD in 2009, on Film Score Monthly records.
Reception
According to MGM records the film earned $2,050,000 in the US and Canada and $646,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $74,000.
In his June 19, 1952 review in The New York Times, Bosley Crowther praised the film as a pleasing blue-plate of al fresco warm-weather fare a shaky combination of, let us say, 'Woman of the Year' and (if you can imagine without music) the theatrical 'Guys and Dolls'. But, withal, it is a likable fable about a highly coordinated dame who moves in upon and takes over a positive, authoritative guy, with slight overtones of honor triumphing over shadiness and greed. And it is smoothly directed by George Cukor and slyly, amusingly played by the whole cast, especially by its due of easy, adroit, experienced stars. Mr. Ray, as a dumb, moody fighter; Sammy White, as a shifty hanger-on, and William Ching, as the stuffed-shirt fianc, are outstanding in support. George Mathews and Charles Buchinski are also fun as "the kind of types that have been known to act very hot-headed in their day and age." (They are neatly manhandled by Miss Hepburn, using judo, in one scene.) And, as for the real professional athletes and the exhibitions they give, they are credible, colorful and exciting. That's enough in these hot summer days.
'Variety' wrote: The smooth-working team of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn spark the fun Hepburn is quite believable as a femme athlete taken under the wing of promoter Tracy. Film settles down to a series of laugh sequences of training, exhibitions and cross-country tours in which Hepburn proves to be a star. Tracy is given some choice lines in the script and makes much of them in an easy, throwaway style that lifts the comedy punch.
Garson and Kanin were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. TCM notes: Husband and wife screenwriters Kanin and Gordon wrote Pat and Mike specifically for their actor friends, tailoring the script to the streak of devilish humor lurking beneath Tracy's solid, consummately male persona and taking advantage of Hepburn's natural athletic abilities as a superior golfer and one of the best tennis players in Hollywood. The combination of Tracy's gruff, working-class demeanor and Hepburn's ladylike, patrician bearing provides 'Pat and Mike' with some of its best comic moments, as when Mike, watching Pat walk across a golf course green, remarks to his partner in a thick Brooklyn accent There's not much meat on 'er, but what there is, is cherce." (The American Film Institute says it is a Bronx accent.) Such earthy humor endeared Pat and Mike to both critics and audiences and undoubtedly helped win...(the) nomination.... (The) witty script also took great advantage of the cozy, intimate rapport between Hepburn and Tracy who were an off-screen couple as well, and played upon the apparently mismatched but sizzling chemistry between the two lovers...As with 'Adam's Rib', 'Pat and Mike' is an honest, amusing account of the battle between the sexes, but also a celebration of male-female chemistry made all the more exciting when the romantic leads are also equals, a specialty of the Kanin-Gordon writing style.
See also
* List of American films of 1952
References
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