A small-time sports promotor takes on a woman champion.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: NR
Release Date: 19-SEP-2000
Media Type: DVDKate 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
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April 28, 2010
#1
A comedy almost classic. I am more disapointed in this multi pro cameo line up with Katheryn in awe playing with them. Her tennis and golf swings are amusing to watch as the balls dribble off to the sides. Watch this when you are bored and cann’t sleep.
April 28, 2010
#2
This was just recently on the Golf Channel which prompted me to buy it. It’s an enjoyable piece of fluff, and I wouldn’t call Hepburn’s athlectic skills great, but maybe in those days it was considered good form. The movie is fun to watch though. I have one warning. When William Ching’s character tosses his coat to a black porter and say’s Here you go, boy’, it’s cringworthy. But the movie was made in the 50′s and that has to be taken into accont.
April 28, 2010
#3
I’ve seen eight of the nine Hepburn-Tracy movies & Pat & Mike makes the first bracket, as do all the comedies. The least of them is better than any of the dramas the two stars did. Cherce. Pat is an all-seasons atheletically gifted amateur. Mike is a slightly bent promoter who sees her as his meal ticket. She really doesn’t do the cause of women any favors in this one. She’s totally flustered & befuddled with her boyfriend, which is part of the plot & listens to & obviously has great affection for Mike. Light but not bad. There are also cameos of golfers & tennis pros of the era.
April 28, 2010
#4
This is a disarming little movie about a woman athlete and her coach. It is a somewhat romantic comedy but it is more about developing a female athlete and coaching her to be a winner. Katherine Hepburn was apparently a terrific athlete and Garson and Kanin wrote their screenplay around her. It is not a raccuous or exaggerated romantic comedy like Adam’s Rib or even Woman of the Year. It is much smaller but very charming. Take it for what it is and don’t expect it to be like the other films. This is not what Pat and Mike are about.
April 28, 2010
#5
Bought this for my daughter for a course she was taking at UF called Women in Films. It arrived very promptly at her address.