Woman of the Year

DVD review from The Movie Snob

Woman of the Year (C-). In this 1942 release, Spencer Tracy (Adam's Rib) plays Sam Craig, an ordinary guy who's a sportswriter for a New York City newspaper. He crosses paths with Tess Harding (Katharine Hepburn, The Philadelphia Story), who also writes for the paper but is otherwise out of his league in more ways than one -- she's wealthy, she's on familiar terms with political leaders around the globe, she speaks about 7 languages, etc., etc. But they fall in love after he takes her to a baseball game, and the question inevitably arises whether a romance can work for long when the woman's achievements are so much greater than the man's. The first half of the movie is pretty good, and the early going of the romance is well done. But the picture falls apart during the second act to such an extent that I can't really recommend it.