7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Two extremely strong personalities clash over the computerization of a TV network's research department.
Starring: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Gig Young, Joan Blondell, Dina MerrillRomance | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.36:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Was there ever an odder match in Hollywood than Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy? She of the cool, patrician air and he of the gruff, no nonsense demeanor. She, a sober minded New Englander and he, a hard drinking Midwesterner, would hardly seem to be a likely pair, but as that old adage evidently rightly states, “opposites attract”. Hepburn and Tracy engaged in a longstanding affair which was shielded from the public, a public which instead was relegated to enjoying the pair in a celebrated series of films the two made together. While some of this nonet, films like Woman of the Year, State of the Union, Pat and Mike and Adam’s Rib, have been acclaimed as among the best movies of their era, at least a couple of others in the set, like Keeper of the Flame and Without Love, are often barely remembered, even by diehard Hepburn and Tracy fans. Desk Set came toward the end of the vaunted Hepburn-Tracy pairing, released in 1957, ten years before the final film the two would make together, 1967’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Desk Set is probably neither the best nor the worst film Hepburn and Tracy made together, but it’s reasonably amiable even if it’s rarely very believable. The film posits Hepburn as a reference librarian at a broadcast facility in New York which is undergoing a “modernization” phase in preparation for a secret merger which entails the installation of two gigantic computers to help manage work flow. Tracy portrays the computers’ inventor, a kind of absent minded professor who also happens to be an efficiency expert who isn’t that sure that the newly created merged company will even need a reference librarian once his gargantuan machines get control of the place. A frankly predictable series of squabbles and skirmishes ensues, until true love—and a few thousand punch cards—win out in the end.
Desk Set is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.36:1. This CinemaScope feature looks great on Blu-ray, sourced from elements with little real damage to report, and with deeply saturated, widely varied colors and some rather remarkable fine detail—especially when one considers that director Walter Lang and cinematographer, the great Leon Shamroy, tend to want to exploit the wide frame and therefore keep their actors at arm's length most of the time. As with Fox's concurrent release of Carmen Jones , there are some minor (inherent) focus problems, usually toward the center of the frame (though they aren't nearly as pronounced as in the Dandridge film). Contrast is strong and grain structure is natural looking (grain and softness take an expected uptick during the film's use of then trendy split screen sequences—see screenshot 19). Some of the process photography also looks a bit soft by comparison, as should be expected.
Desk Set was screened theatrically in mono, and that original mix is delivered here via a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track. This suffices perfectly well for what is largely a dialogue driven comedy. Cyril J. Mockridge's buoyant score and the occasional foley effect—including EMERAC's spinning and churning sounds—all come through loud and clear, with no problematic dropouts, damage or other distractions.
It's always a bit ironic to look back on older films which are touting some kind of "modernism", only to realize how incredibly dated they are. That's certainly the case with Desk Set, but the real interest here isn't with the machines (which are, after all, a bit of a MacGuffin, to quote Hitchcock), but the effervescent pairing of Hepburn and Tracy. The two slip into their roles like the pros that they were, and if the film never really amounts to much, it's impeccably well produced and often quite enjoyable. This new Blu-ray offers nice looking video and sounding audio, and comes with a decent, if intermittent, commentary. Recommended.
1955
Universal 100th Anniversary
1959
1962
1942
Limited Edition to 3000
1959
Nine to Five | Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1980
Indiskret
1958
2009
1957
Warner Archive Collection
1954
Includes "The Shop Around the Corner" on DVD
1998
1996
2009
2003
50th Anniversary
1973
1993
Rental Copy
2015
1964
1969
Warner Archive Collection
1951