Woman of the Year
Short description
Woman of the Year is a 1942 romantic comedy-drama about two newspaper reporters in New York who could hardly be more different. Tess Harding writes a political column, travels in diplomatic circles as the daughter of a diplomat, and moves easily through high society and political causes. Sam Craig covers sports and values a quieter life of baseball games and evenings with friends. They clash over work, then fall in love and marry, but the marriage quickly strains as her demanding public life and his simpler tastes pull them apart.
The film was directed by George Stevens, the seventh of eleven features he made between 1935 and 1965, and produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz from a screenplay by Ring Lardner, Jr. and Michael Kanin. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn lead the cast as Sam and Tess, supported by Fay Bainter, Reginald Owen, Minor Watson and William Bendix among 62 credited performers. It was the first of several pairings of Tracy and Hepburn.
Made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for about 1 million dollars, it took roughly 3 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.1 out of 10 from around 12,000 votes, and on TMDB 7 out of 10 from 169 votes, while a critics' rating of 7.9 out of 10 from 30 reviews places it somewhat above those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) firmly refused to disclose the names of the screenwriters to producer and one of the founders of the film company “MGM”, Louis B. Mayer (1884-1957), until he bought the screenplay from Hepburn. She feared that Mayer would make an unfair deal with Michael Kanin (1910-1993), who was then still unknown to the general public and industry professionals.
- The difference between Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy (1900-1967), who starred in the leading roles, was that she enjoyed rehearsing and working through each scene in advance, while he preferred to improvise, and the best take with Tracy was often the very first one. Hepburn had to accept his acting style and adapt to it.
- Before filming was completed, it became known throughout the studio that Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy had begun a romance. Usually, in such situations, studio management would try to suppress these relationships, but in this case, it was decided to simply remain silent on the matter and ignore it for two reasons. First, Hepburn and Tracy themselves tried not to publicize their romance. Second, it was clear that a relationship with Hepburn helped Tracy keep his excessive drinking more or less under control. When he had a relapse, she often slept on the floor near the door to his room, waiting for things to calm down so she could go inside and help him regain his composure before heading to the set.
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