Product Description

A sports promoter thinks he can make some money by convincing a physical education teacher at a small college to throw a tournament. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 01/08/2002 Starring: Spencer Tracy Katharine Hepburn Run time: 95 minutes Rating: Nr Director: George Cukor

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24311 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2000-09-19
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 95 minutes

Amazon.com
Kate plays Pat Pemberton, a college physical education teacher who excels at just about every sport there is. She's also a great athletic competitor, except when her overbearing, worrywart fiancé, Collier Weld, is around. (As Weld, William Ching does an admirable job in a thankless role.) All Pat has to do is see Collier's face on the sidelines and her golf swing loses its power; her tennis game goes haywire. It takes crooked sports manager Mike Conovan (Spencer Tracy, of course) to recognize Pat's outstanding talent. He takes her on as his most important client and handles her with the same loving care that he gives to his favorite racehorse. Naturally, Pat and Mike's relationship is destined to overstep its professional boundaries. The mutual attraction grows from the moment they meet. Watching Pat walk away, Mike comments to his partner, "Not much meat on her, but what's there is 'cherce'."

The film carries a powerful feminist message, especially considering that it was made in the early 1950s: Pat is undone by Collier, who would rather have her stick to being "the little woman" and forget about succeeding. But with Mike in her corner, Pat can have a great career. Her union with him is a true partnership; everything is, as he says, "Five-oh, five-oh." In the end, he's secure enough to be comfortable as "the man behind the woman." The film features terrific comic performances by Aldo Ray as a bone-headed boxer, a young Charles Bronson (before he changed his name from Buchinski) as a small-time gangster, and Our Gang's Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer as a high-strung bus boy. --Laura Mirsky

Customer Reviews

Tracy & Hepburn are CLASSIC in this remastered DVD!!!
MGM does a grand job in restoring this 1952 comedy classic to DVD perfection!!! Presented in Black/White, Standard Screen size (4:3 tv aspect ratio - before WideScreen (1953)).

This was Spencer Tracy's & Katherine Hepburn's 7th film together and as always are Classic Team mates!!! Now digitally remastered and on DVD makes it even better. Flawlessly digitalized makes the picture quality absolutely astounding to watch. Hepburns athletism can be more appreciated especially during the golf scenes when she drives the balls into the far distance (only now can we see these tiny spheres in the distance with DVD clarity!).

Summary; Masterfully directed by George Cukor, Athletic Pat (Hepburn) plays a very skillful amateur female sports nut who seems trapped in a rich socialite engaged to be married life. Mike (Tracy) a sports promoter eyes Hepburn in a Pro-Amatuer Golf match & sees a gold mine to be had. Hustling her to turn pro & be his client Hepburn decides this is a way to escape her miserable dominating fiances & to be married life. Hepburn shows hows some amazing athletic talents in golf & tennis. Tracy & Hepburn are a grand pair to watch & Hollywoods 1950's happy ending prevails. This is a keeper and the DVD is a beauty!

Special Features include: Cast & Crew, Behind the Scenes, Theatrical Teaser & Trailer.

Pat & Mike is great family entertainment & Katherine Hepburn shows how women can be independent (wearing slacks), athletic (amazing golfer& tennis player) & feminine (beautiful & vunerable) all in one. Enjoy.

"You're a beautiful thing to watch... in action."
PAT & MIKE is the seventh Tracy-Hepburn collaboration, and it stars Spencer Tracy as Mike Conovan, the moneyminded sports racketeer with a heart of gold, and Katharine Hepburn (looking a great deal younger than she did in 1951's THE AFRICAN QUEEN) as his beautiful 'property', Pat Pemberton. Pat is an all-round 'lady athlete', adept at golf and tennis (not to mention shooting, basketball and presumably swimming), but completely frazzled whenever her fiance Collier Weld (a suitably smarmy William Ching) is around and watching her. In a bid to become more in control of herself and her life, she (contrarily) submits to Mike's management and he takes her around the country as a golf and tennis pro. It doesn't take much imagination to realise what happens next--Mike's 'handling' of Pat is the kind of handling she's willing to accept (switch 'Tracy' for 'Mike' and 'Hepburn' for 'Pat' and you get also a description of Tracy and Hepburn's real-life relationship), and before long, Collier is pretty much left in the dust.

This film is evidently a star vehicle for Tracy and Hepburn, containing next to no artistic pretensions or even any real attempt to press a subtle feminist point (in contrast with other Tracy/Hepburn films like WOMAN OF THE YEAR or ADAM'S RIB). In fact, the film seems to be just a comfortable, familiar joke between actors, writers and audience--we know these characters, we know these actors, we know what kind of relationship they always have (bantering, sparring, and in the end just a perfect fit)... the only thing that's different is the names of the characters. Sam, Adam, Mike--Tess, Amanda, Pat--what's the difference?

To be fair, Hepburn's character of Pat Pemberton is much softer and more vulnerable than either Tess Harding or Amanda Bonner. This character variation doesn't hide the real point of the screenplay though--Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin evidently wanted a chance to display both Hepburn's natural athletic abilities (phenomenal for a non-professional, but possibly not 100% believable against sports stars like Babe Zaharias) and her incredible legs. Well, they did succeed at both of these things, to great effect. It's great fun for a Hepburn fan, having read about her deep and abiding love of any and all sports, to get a chance to actually watch her playing golf and tennis onscreen. (This doesn't mean, of course, that the frequent and long golf scenes don't test one's patience occasionally!)

Spencer Tracy has great fun as Mike as well, the sports agent who originally wants Pat to flub a game and come in second. He claims early on in the film that the trouble with her is that she's got too honest a face--it's only Tracy's ability to make rough-and-tumble characters believably vulnerable at heart that makes his later declaration ("I must have caught something from you" i.e. honesty) acceptable. The chemistry between the two is probably closer to the comfortable rapport they shared in ADAM'S RIB as man and wife than the fireworks that went off between them in WOMAN OF THE YEAR. Whatever the case, it is still always a joy to watch Tracy and Hepburn together onscreen, and it's largely because this film stars who it does that you can allow yourself to enjoy and be taken in by what is evidently a cutesy star vehicle written by the stars' friends (Gordon and Kanin), and directed by the leading lady's best and favourite director George Cukor. (Some of the visual tricks, particularly Hepburn's face appearing on that of a horse, are actually more disturbing than flattering, and I--for one--would prefer not to pursue the metaphor through to its end.) Tracy and Hepburn are also boosted by an excellent supporting cast, particularly William Ching as Pat's obnoxious suitor and Aldo Ray as Mike's dimwitted star protege (until Pat comes along, that is!).

PAT & MIKE is a romantic comedy, but it's also romantic-comedy-*lite*. There are no forced or fake separations that are geared towards wringing tears from viewers before a reconciliation (contrast again with ADAM'S RIB and most formulaic films in recent years). The film is just a little piece of joyful fluff--not taxing at all for either the writers, the actors, or the viewers. For a brilliant comic set-piece, watch out for the scene in which Pat takes on the two seedy sports racketeers and dispenses them with remarkable ease and efficiency. Otherwise, watch PAT & MIKE with the knowledge that this is neither Tracy and Hepburn's best, nor is it their worst. If you keep your expectations down, you'll certainly enjoy watching this film because it aims low (aiming only to please and amuse, and not necessarily to engage and thrill), and fulfils those aims very well. 8/10.

Diverting, but not their best
One of the most amusing things about this romantic comedy is the fact that Katharine Hepburn was 44 years old when it was made. She played a super athlete. I think modern audiences would find it hard not to cringe watching her play tennis. Certainly Hepburn was in great shape for a woman her age, but the flight of imagination necessary to allow me to see her as a world class athlete was beyond my reach.

Still this is a cute little story highlighted by the usual fine chemistry between Hepburn and co-star Spencer Tracy. He plays a grammatically challenged sports manager/promoter with the familiar Spencer Tracy heart of gold who falls in love with his "property." In small roles, Chuck Conners plays a cop and Charles Bronson a not too bright thug. Aldo Ray is a feeble minded heavyweight boxer and William Ching is Hepburn's incompatible boyfriend. The Ruth Gordon/Garson Kanin script was ahead of its time as it had Hepburn kicking male tail with the greatest of ease, albeit facetiously. This is worth seeing for the good snapshot of mid-century American values presented.