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Pat and Mike
Pat and Mike
	Theatrical-release poster
Directed by	George Cukor
Screenplay by	Ruth Gordon; Garson Kanin
Produced by	Lawrence Weingarten
Starring	Spencer Tracy; Katharine Hepburn; William Ching; Aldo Ray; Jim Backus; Sammy White; Charles Bronson
Cinematography	William H. Daniels (as William Daniels)
Edited by	George Boemler
Music by	David Raksin
Production; company	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributed by	Loew's Inc.
Release date	June 14, 1952;
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1,618,000
Box office	$2,696,000

Pat and Mike is a 1952 American romantic comedy film starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. The movie was written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, and directed by George Cukor. Cukor directed The Philadelphia Story (1940) with Hepburn, and Cukor, Gordon and Kanin teamed with Hepburn and Tracy again for Adam's Rib (1949). Gordon and Kanin were nominated for the 1952 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for their work on Pat and Mike. (They had been similarly honored for Adam's Rib.)

Hepburn was nominated in the Best Actress category at the 10th Golden Globe Awards, while Ray was nominated for "New Star of the Year".^[2]

Plot

Pat Pemberton is a brilliant athlete who loses her confidence whenever her charming but overbearing fiancé, Collier, is around. Women's golf and tennis championships are within her reach; however, she gets flustered by his presence at the contests. He wants her to give up her goal and marry him, but Pat does not give up on herself that easily. She enlists the help of Mike Conovan, a slightly shady sports promoter. Together they face mobsters, a jealous boxer, and a growing mutual attraction.

Cast

Spencer Tracy as Mike Conovan
Katharine Hepburn as Pat Pemberton
Aldo Ray as Davie Hucko
William Ching as Collier Weld
Sammy White as Barney Grau
George Mathews as Spec Cauley
Loring Smith as Mr. Beminger
Phyllis Povah as Mrs. Beminger
Charles Buchinski as Hank Tasling
Frank Richards as Sam Garsell
Jim Backus as Charles Barry
Chuck Connors as Police Captain
Joseph E. Bernard as Gibby
Owen McGiveney as Harry MacWade
Lou Lubin as Waiter
Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer as Bus Boy
William Self as Pat Pemberton's Caddy

Sports Stars

Gussie Moran as Herself
Babe Didrikson Zaharias as Herself
Don Budge as Himself
Alice Marble as Herself
Frank Parker as Himself
Betty Hicks as Herself
Beverly Hanson as Herself
Helen Dettweiler as Herself

Production

Development

Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon were friends with Hepburn and Tracy, and had the idea of writing a film to showcase Hepburn's athletic abilities. She was an avid golfer and tennis player, and indeed performed all the sports footage in the film herself.

Filming

Pat and Mike was filmed partly on location in California. The golfing scenes were filmed at the Riviera Country Club and Ojai Valley Inn. Tennis scenes were filmed at the Cow Palace in Daly City, near San Francisco. The opening scenes were filmed at Occidental College, standing in as fictional Pacific Technical College.

Casting

Many notable athletes appear in cameo roles as themselves in the film, including golfers Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Betty Hicks, and Helen Dettweiler, and tennis champions Don Budge, Gussie Moran and Alice Marble. Other notables in the cast include Charles Bronson (credited as Charles Buchinski) in his second credited movie role, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Jim Backus, and, in his acting debut, former athlete Chuck Connors, later known as the star of The Rifleman television series.

Music

The score for the film was composed and conducted by David Raksin, with orchestrations by Robert Franklyn and Ruby Raksin.^[3] Of his music, Raksin said "My music was sly and a mite jazzy, and despite the fact that everyone seemed to like it, so did I."^[4]

The complete score was issued on CD in 2009, on Film Score Monthly records.

Reception

Box office

According to MGM records the film earned $2,050,000 in the US and Canada and $646,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $74,000.^[1]

Critical reaction

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised the film as "a pleasing blue-plate of al fresco warm-weather fare... a shaky combination of, let us say, Woman of the Year and (if you can imagine without music) the theatrical Guys and Dolls. But, withal, it is a likable fable about a highly coordinated dame who moves in upon and takes over a positive, authoritative guy, with slight overtones of honor triumphing over shadiness and greed. And it is smoothly directed by George Cukor and slyly, amusingly played by the whole cast, especially by its duo of easy, adroit, experienced stars."^[5] William Brogdon of Variety wrote: "The smooth-working team of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn spark the fun ... Hepburn is quite believable as a femme athlete taken under the wing of promoter Tracy. Film settles down to a series of laugh sequences of training, exhibitions and cross-country tours in which Hepburn proves to be a star. Tracy is given some choice lines in the script and makes much of them in an easy, throwaway style that lifts the comedy punch."^[6]

Among latter reviews, Felicia Feaster, in a review posted on Turner Classic Movies, notes: "As with Adam's Rib, Pat and Mike is an honest, amusing account of the battle between the sexes, but also a celebration of male-female chemistry made all the more exciting when the romantic leads are also equals, a specialty of the Kanin–Gordon writing style."^[7] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an aggregate score of 85% based on 26 sampled reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy take competition to a romantic-comic highpoint in this elegantly directed sports comedy by George Cukor."^[8]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
^ Aldo Ray
^ Bettencourt, Scott (2009). "David Raksin at MGM (1950-1957)". Film Score Monthly (CD online notes). 12 (2). David Raksin. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
^ Bradford, Marilee (2009). "David Raksin at MGM (1950-1957)". Film Score Monthly (CD liner notes). 12 (2). David Raksin. Los Angeles, California: 18.
^ Crowther, Bosley (June 19, 1952). "The Screen in Review: 'Pat and Mike,' With Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, New Film at Capitol". The New York Times. p. 32. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
^ Brogdon, William (May 14, 1952). "Film Reviews: Pat and Mike". Variety. p. 6. Retrieved July 12, 2021 – via Internet Archive.
^ Feaster, Felicia (September 27, 2002). "Pat and Mike". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
^ "Pat and Mike". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 28, 2024.