... then start here, where they were introduced to each other and fell in love. You can actually feel that love in their performances. Tracy plays a sportswriter, Sam Craig, not a particularly well traveled man or a deep thinker. Hepburn plays Tess Harding, an international affairs correspondent, and with the world at war there is much to correspond about. Thus she runs around at a dizzying pace and I lost count of how many languages Tess spoke. Her mother died when she was an infant, and she grew up globetrotting with her father, and only returned to America as an adult.

Tess and Sam meet when they have a war of words in their articles over baseball, and when the editor tells them to make up, that is when they begin seeing each other. Now Tess doesn't hide how busy she is, or how full her apartment often is of people from all over the world that she knows, yet Sam marries her and I get the feeling that he is disappointed that nothing changes. Their wedding being practically a drive through affair should have given him a hint.

So naturally the marriage eventually fails when Sam walks out. That is Tess' first surprise. Her second surprise is when the woman she has patterned herself after for years and years, Ellen Whitcomb (Fay Bainter),makes a totally unexpected, but not unwelcome, move. How does this all work out? Watch and find out.

I'm not sure this film is ultimately sexist or feminist. It does look like the script was trying to paint Hepburn's character as an ice queen, and she just acted her way out of being portrayed in that fashion. She ultimately plays it as a person who, if she takes up a task, goes all the way with it, right down to the humorous scene where she tries to make breakfast and acts like every utensil in the kitchen is from another planet, yet she persists in the face of hilarious adversity and inexperience. However, if you turn the roles of Sam and Tess around, you could say this was a feminist film, maybe giving men a dose of their own 1942 medicine when they expected women to just live with whatever work schedule the man had, even if they sat home alone at nights.

I'd highly recommend this as one of the great romantic films, and they didn't make many of those during WWII outside of Casablanca.

This was the first pairing of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn and it's one of their better films together. Hepburn is a sort of Claire Booth Luce-type woman who has traveled the world and conquered pretty much everything she's tried. However, when it comes to love, she is a novice and her relationship with sports writer, Tracy, does not come easy--about the only thing in her life that doesn't. Tracy is forced by her frequent travels to try to be both husband and housewife but is too old fashioned to take to it. Eventually, their very different and complex lives take a toll on their marriage. Will it survive? Will love triumph after all? Well, this is a Hollywood film of the 1940s, so it's not hard to guess how it all ends. However, the acting and writing is so good, you'll have a great time watching their journey.

Have loved a lot of Spencer Tracy's and Katharine Hepburn's performances and their pairing is deservedly widely considered one of the greatest pairings/collaborations in cinematic history. Can never get enough of seeing them together and it is not hard at all to see why it lasted for so long (all the way up to 1967 with Tracy's death). Also like to love quite a number of the films directed by George Stevens, 'Shane', 'A Place in the Sun' and 'Swing Time' in particular and remember being very fond of 'Penny Serenade'.

'Woman of the Year' is most notable for being the first pairing of Tracy and Hepburn. It is one well worth seeing, but to me it is not one of their best films and that they went onto much better things, my personal favourite of their films being 'Adam's Rib'. That it is one of their lesser films and still have a lot working and be mostly very good is testament to how the standard of their collaborations is generally so high. That 'Woman of the Year' is their first film together is the main interest point but it is far from the only one.

Any faults that 'Woman of the Year' has do not lie with Tracy and Hepburn. Both are superb in polar opposite roles, with Tracy being significantly more subtle yet always with immense appeal and Hepburn having the showier role and thrillingly throws herself into it. It is not often when polar opposites sparkle, thrill and entertain on film, the contrasting roles do all three here and one doesn't get it to this extent all the time. Tracy and Hepburn at this point work so well together, the wit and tension in their chemistry near-second to none in all their films together.

The supporting cast also fare very strongly, if not quite reaching the same level as Tracy and Hepburn. Hence why they tend to be overlooked and they shouldn't really be. Fay Bainter and William Bendix are especially fine. Stevens directs with adroit subtlety, while the snappy wit, poignant pathos and sharp sophistication of the script is to be admired, a lot of extremely funny moments and it is without emotion and relatability regardless of how of the time some of the material is. 'Woman of the Year' is well-made visually and Franz Waxman's score is lush and stirring without being overwrought.

For all those good points, 'Woman of the Year' is not without weaker elements. The tonal shift from comedy to melodrama is rather jarring and the second half does feel like a different film, one that's far from badly done but one that juxtaposed a bit too much tonally. The drama is poignant certainly but at times feels on the heavy side.

Apparent particularly in the adoption subplot, well intended but a bit out of place and draggy. Did get some amusement out of the ending, but it also felt on the contrived and abrupt sides.

In summary, good but not great. 7/10 Bethany Cox