Pat and Mike

Written, like several other Cukor films of the period, by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, and charting the conflict between what Carlos Clarens called 'the redneck paternalism of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn's outraged liberal sensibilities', this is a lazy, episodic, conventional but strangely charming variation on the old comedy formula of initially hostile misfits falling in love (here platonic). Hepburn gets to show off her considerable athletic talents as the bright, upper middle class sporting all-rounder; Tracy gets to be gruffly loveable as the rough-diamond promoter-manager who finally becomes her protector. There are far too many shots featuring real-life sports stars, but the sparring leads, and Ray's dim boxer, work superbly together under Cukor's deceptively effortless, always elegant direction.