(George Stevens, US 1942, 114 min., DCP)
This first pairing of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy was written by Rochester-born Michael Kanin, along with Ring Lardner, Jr. Tess Harding and Sam Craig (Hepburn and Tracy) are rival journalists at the same New York newspaper — she in politics and he in sports. After Tess suggests on a radio program that baseball should be shut down for the duration of the War, she and Sam are called into their editor’s office to head off any internal feuds. Sam decides to invite Tess to a Yankees game to expose her to the national pastime, sparking a romance that sees them battling not only with their differences, but also with a Greek orphan and their own insecurities. Kanin and Lardner won the Academy Award for their screenplay, while Hepburn received her fourth nomination. A decade later, Michael’s brother Garson also wrote a script for Hepburn and Tracy, Pat and Mike (screening at the Dryden in April), and also received an Oscar nomination.