Make the office a wonderful place to love in!
Desk Set is a smart romantic office-based comedy starring the legendary on-screen/off-screen couple, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, and an interesting man (or in this case, woman) vs. machine theme, with a sly twist of woman vs. man thrown in.
Miss "Bunny" Watson (Hepburn) is the operational head of the Reference Department of a large corporation (the fictional Federal Broadcasting Network, it says on Wikipedia), where she oversees a small team of women researchers, fending a host of queries by phone. Watson has moulded her researchers into a capable and productive team, and she herself is stunningly encyclopaedic in her knowledge. Into this smoothly-running department comes a mystery consultant assigned by top management, Richard Sumner (Tracy), a self-effacing tight-lipped but strangely likeable character who spends his time poking into obscure corners, measuring things with his tape measure, and crawling around on the floor with a piece of chalk. He turns out to be an efficiency expert, or "methods engineer" as he puts it, whose work in the Accounts Department is rumoured to have resulted in the installation of a new computer system, and a large number of workers losing their jobs. As one would expect, such rumours lead to high anxiety among the Reference Department staff, particularly as, because of a possible upcoming merger deal, Sumner has been sworn to secrecy by the top brass as to his true goals within the department.
There are some very enjoyable scenes, including one where Sumner, hoping to prove to Watson how useful a computerised reference system would be, tests her with the sort of questions that computers are very good at but most humans are rather poor at, with interesting results. Another excellent scene pits the women in the reference department against a computerised system, like a modern version of John Henry, the legendary railway worker who pitted his skills against a mechanical steam hammer (or drill, depending on the source [Wikipedia: John Henry (folklore)]).
As for the romantic angle, Watson is in a long-term relationship with her immediate boss, titular head of the department, Mike Cutler (Gig Young), and as the film begins, is waiting for her invitation to accompany him to some upcoming key social event. There is more than a little anxiety on her part due to the length of their relationship, and the way he seems to take her for granted. Sumner's arrival introduces an interesting twist. Watson is unexpectedly asked out to lunch by Sumner, and there is a little flutter of excitement at a potential rival suitor, though the lunch engagement turns out very differently to how Watson imagines.
For those familiar with the genre of romantic comedies (and who is not?), there is little suspense to be had here, but a great deal of pleasure in watching the easy interplay between the two leads in their familiar double act (they first teamed 15 years earlier, according to Wikipedia), with Tracy playing the quiet straight man, the understated foil, to Hepburn's high intensity comic. Of course, as often happened in the old Hollywood studio system with its stables of highly charismatic and capable but ageing stars, Tracy and Hepburn are too old for their roles. The role of Watson would be best suited to someone in her late thirties, at a guess, while Hepburn was a decade older, and Tracy was in his mid-fifties at the time of filming. Perhaps this is partly why Hepburn ramps her performance up to such high levels of energy, simulating youthful vigour and joie de vivre.
Viewed as a group, the women represent a cline of romantic options in the office environment. At one extreme is the fresh young recruit, Ruthie (Sue Randall), so green she has to ask how far you can go with male co-workers at office parties (the unwritten rule being, apparently, whatever you can get away with without having to lock the door). At the peak of her powers is Sylvia (Dina Merill), still young and confident that she can have her choice of men, (it is she who pins a sprig of mistletoe to the inside of the department door so that she can nab any good-looking men on entry). Further along is Watson, older and on the border of hope and despair, languishing in an excessively long and uncommitted relationship with her immediate boss and worried that, like a dependable old suit of clothes that he knows will be waiting for him at the back of the closet, he might tire of her and pass her over for a younger woman. Finally, at the end of the road is Watson's best buddy, Peg (Joan Blondell), more mature, not quite so attractive, perhaps, who describes herself as having passed the point of no return, and is now on the shelf with no hope of romantic salvation.
This all begs the question of why the men should seem to have all the initiative in romantic relationships, severely disadvantaging the women, and leads on more generally to the issue of equality in the workplace. The script clearly establishes that Watson is the brains of the department, with Cutler exploiting their relationship to get her to help him with his work, which he then takes credit for. The women are clearly on relatively low salaries, with Ruthie struggling to find an affordable party dress, and even Watson having insufficient funds in hand to repay a co-worker ten dollars until another colleague repays her loan of five dollars, putting them almost at the level of the office errand boy, happy to be able to extract another five dollars in tips with their advice.
- Rating: High matinee
- When seen: 16 Apr 2011
- Where seen: Home
- More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia
Sources:
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Amendments: Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.
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