- Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy movies on TCM: On Sept. 1 (daytime), Labor Day in the United States, TCM will be presenting Woman of the Year, Adam’s Rib, and four other Hepburn-Tracy titles from their MGM years, in addition to 20th Century Fox’s workplace comedy Desk Set.
Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy movies on TCM: 7 titles on Labor Day, including Woman of the Year and Desk Set
The world celebrates Labor Day on International Workers Day, May 1. But since 1894, the United States and, however oddly, Canada,* have celebrated Labor Day on the first Monday in September. This year, that’s Sept. 1.
On that date, Turner Classic Movies will be staging a Labor Day celebration in honor of both urban professionals and jungle laborers: Daytime will be dedicated to Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy; Primetime/Nighttime will be dedicated to Tarzan and Jane.
In this post, we’ll be covering TCM’s seven features starring Hepburn and Tracy. Six of these are Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer releases, including the job-focused Woman of the Year, Adam’s Rib, and Pat and Mike; one lone title, the workplace comedy Desk Set, came out via 20th Century Fox. (See TCM’s Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy movie schedule further below. Most titles will remain available for a while on the Watch TCM app.)
Missing from the lineup: The 1948 MGM release State of the Union, directed by Frank Capra, and Columbia’s 1967 blockbuster Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, directed by Stanley Kramer and costarring Sidney Poitier.
* Especially considering the weird goings-on South of the Border, Canada just might want to move its Labor Day celebrations to May 1. The less it looks like the United States’ 51st state, the better.
Below is a brief overview of TCM’s Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy movies. Note: The list below follows TCM’s non-chronological schedule.
The Sea of Grass (1947)
Directed by eventual two-time Academy Award winner Elia Kazan (Gentleman’s Agreement, 1947; On the Waterfront, 1954), The Sea of Grass has the distinction of being a) the only Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy movie with a period setting b) the only Hepburn-Tracy movie with an outright rural setting c) the weakest Hepburn-Tracy pairing in any setting.
A solid box office hit ($4.7 million in worldwide rentals*; $742,000 in profits), The Sea of Grass stars Spencer Tracy as a ruthless New Mexico cattle baron who sees government (i.e., the people’s) property as an extension of his own. Katharine Hepburn plays the rancher’s increasingly disturbed wife, while Melvyn Douglas is his political and romantic nemesis.
Based on Conrad Richter’s 1937 novel, The Sea of Grass was adapted by Vincent Lawrence, Marguerite Roberts, and Edward E. Paramore Jr. First-rate black-and-white cinematography by Harry Stradling.
* The share of the box office gross that goes to the studios.
Without Love (1945)
Oftentimes in movies, you’ll have one half (or maybe both halves) of a couple/potential couple who “doesn’t believe in marriage” for various reasons (e.g., it destroys love, it destroys freedom, it destroys sexual desire). In Without Love, the two lead characters do believe in marriage – as long as love isn’t part of the arrangement. But then, of course…
A middling comedy-drama, Without Love was directed by the largely forgotten Harold S. Bucquet from a screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart, adapting Philip Barry’s 1942 play. Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy go through the motions as a widow and a military research scientist who, out of convenience, decide to tie the knot in wartime Washington.
* Donald Ogden Stewart had previously adapted Philip Barry’s Holiday (1938, with Sidney Buchman) and The Philadelphia Story (1940), both starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.
The issue of marriage has a central role in both narratives, in addition to Barry’s Paris Bound (filmed in 1929 with Ann Harding [who also starred in the 1930 version of Holiday] and Fredric March) and The Animal Kingdom (filmed in 1932 with Ann Harding and Leslie Howard).
Keeper of the Flame (1942)
Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy first joined forces in George Stevens’ romantic comedy Woman of the Year, which opened in February 1942.
Reportedly (at least in part) thanks to Hepburn’s efforts, the couple were brought back together that same year* in the more serious-minded Keeper of the Flame, directed by George Cukor from Donald Ogden Stewart’s adaptation of I.A.R. Wylie’s novel that also came out in 1942. (MGM had bought the rights the previous year.)
A warning about the clear and present danger stemming from the domestic fascist front,† Keeper of the Flame stars Katharine Hepburn as the titular character – the widow of a wealthy, powerful, and widely admired American – whose self-appointed job is to preserve the memory of her deceased husband. Before the final fadeout, however, she learns that Democracy (capital “D”) cannot exist without sociopolitical transparency.
One could carp about various elements in Keeper of the Flame – e.g., Hepburn should have had more to do than mope around – but the movie, though not as powerfully anti-fascist as Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, is better than its reputation.
At the time Keeper of the Flame Out was released, Donald Ogden Stewart – who, in fascist fashion, would end up blacklisted later in the decade – remarked to The New York Times that he had written “an adaptation from a novel that tells about the fascist mice who are nibbling away at our country while we’re busy fighting a good war.” In that same article, Stewart also praised the film’s producer, British import Victor Saville (The Citadel; Goodbye, Mr. Chips), “who struck his chin way out for the sake of a story we believed in.”
It’s unclear, however, how much of Stewart’s messaging remained in the finished film released by the Culver City studio whose president was staunch Republican Louis B. Mayer.
Now, just try to imagine the spouses/widow(er)s (or parents, grown children, siblings, cousins, etc.) of today’s fascists and Nazis coming clean about their spouses’/etc. depravities without a multimillionaire book or movie deal to prod their conscience.
* Keeper of the Flame was shot in summer 1942. As per the AFI Catalog, it premiered (some time) in “December 1942.”
† As per the New York Times article linked to above, Keeper of the Flame was “reportedly” the first Hollywood movie to deal with the domestic fascist front. However, besides Citizen Kane (admittedly, mostly set in a different era), there was at least one other previous major title, Warner Bros.’ Anatole Litvak-directed Confessions of a Nazi Spy, which exposes the threat of the red-white-and-blue Nazi movement.
Adam’s Rib (1949)
Directed by George Cukor from a screenplay by real-life couple Ruth Gordon (future Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner for Rosemary’s Baby, 1968) and Garson Kanin, Adam’s Rib is a witty comedy that also takes the trouble to raise some dead serious questions:
- Is it okay for a wife to shoot her cheating husband?
- How would TikTok, BlueSky, Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter/X,* etc. users react to such an occurrence?
- Would their outrage be directed at females with murder in mind or at dishonest males who had it coming?
- Which type of outrage would get the most likes and shares, you think?
- Lastly, if your male neighbor – who claims to be infatuated with your wife – composes a song called “Farewell, Amanda,” would that mean he’s gay and you shouldn’t take his infatuation seriously?
In Adam’s Rib, Katharine Hepburn elegantly plays the defense attorney for Judy Holliday, on trial for the attempted murder of husband Tom Ewell and his lover (Jean Hagen). Spencer Tracy, at his least actorish, plays the prosecutor. Our sympathies are mostly with the Hepburn-Holliday team, but Tracy has the rules of both logic and ethics (re: murder) on his side.
Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin’s work was deservedly shortlisted in the 1950† Oscars’ Best Story and Screenplay category.
Note: Cole Porter (who was gay) wrote “Farewell, Amanda,” but the musical neighbor in question is played by David Wayne. (Hepburn is the titular Amanda [Bonner].)
* Adam’s Rib is a timeless comedy; hence, 21st-century connections are perfectly appropriate.
An aside: Apart from fascists, Nazis, and two-legged roaches, what sort of person would still choose to spend time swimming in the Twitter/X sewer?
† In decades past, it wasn’t uncommon for major movies to open in the Los Angeles area weeks or even months after their New York City premiere. That could mean an Oscar nod/win (see Casablanca) more than a year after their official release date.
Pat and Mike (1952)
After a three-year gap, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were reunited in another comedy directed by George Cukor, and written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin: Pat and Mike, in which Hepburn, in excellent thespian and physical form, proves that women can handle their own both in the world of professional sports and (okay, with some assistance) in the realm of life. Spencer Tracy has the role of a sports manager turned (her) personal trainer.
Although neither as clever nor as funny as Adam’s Rib, Pat and Mike earned Gordon and Kanin an Oscar nod for Best Original Screenplay.
Indeed, there’s one major problem with Pat and Mike: If Hepburn’s golf- and tennis-playing college athletic coach had a modicum of sense, she would have remained with handsome (if confidence-demolishing) fiancé William Ching while making sure to keep him away whenever she was on the turf/court. Really, there was zero need for her to hook up with her haggard trainer.
Note: Garson Kanin also penned Tracy and Hepburn: An Intimate Memoir, in which he talks about his friendship with the two stars. Although great reading – and very mild in terms of what is revealed – the book reportedly led to a falling out between Kanin and Hepburn. (Tracy had been dead for a few years.)
Woman of the Year (1942)
As mentioned further up, producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz* and director George Stevens’** romantic comedy-drama Woman of the Year marked the first pairing of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.
Future Hollywood Ten member Ring Lardner Jr. and Michael Kanin’s (brother of Garson) Oscar-winning original screenplay revolves around a driven political columnist (Hepburn) who chooses to ignore her “female side” until her salt-of-the-earth sports journalist husband (Tracy) and adopted Greek refugee (George Kezas) remind her that there’s no running away from the fact that she’s a woman.
Although Woman of the Year does have a reactionary side – does anyone ever question Tracy’s personal responsibilities as a family man? – one must keep in mind that Hepburn’s journalist is allowed to have both a career and a husband/family at the end. She just can’t ignore the latter. (And there’s no need for cooking lessons.†)
Unfortunately for the movie, Tracy is the husband. After all, Hepburn worked great with Cary Grant and would have made a great team with The Sea of Grass’ Melvyn Douglas. Or, for that matter, with Brian Aherne (see Sylvia Scarlett). But then again, if any of these three actors had been cast in Woman of the Year, the “class” element would have needed to be drastically altered.
Oh, but wait … Wasn’t Randolph Scott available?
Note: It’s a bit surprising that even though Katharine Hepburn was nominated for 12 Oscars and Spencer Tracy for nine, only once did they receive nods for a mutual title: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. She won; he lost to Rod Steiger for In the Heat of the Night.
Apart from that, Hepburn was shortlisted for Woman of the Year. She ultimately lost to Greer Garson for Mrs. Miniver.
* Joseph L. Mankiewicz would win back-to-back directing/writing Oscars for A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and All About Eve (1950).
** Woman of the Year was the third and final Katharine Hepburn film directed by George Stevens, following Alice Adams (1935) and Quality Street (1937).
† According to Ringer Lardner Jr., the original Woman of the Year ending didn’t include Hepburn’s disastrous breakfast-making scene. Instead, as proof of her wife-love the political journalist tried to cover a boxing match for the sports journalist, back in school trying to learn a foreign language or two.
Remember, Woman of the Year was released at a time when women were about to leave their homes for the workplace, as their husbands, fathers, brothers, and/or boyfriends/lovers went to war.
Desk Set (1957)
Walter Lang’s generally entertaining romantic comedy Desk Set marked not only the eighth pairing of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy but also their first away from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Based on William Marchant’s 1955 play, Phoebe Ephron and Henry Ephron’s screenplay has its share of witty lines that mostly go to the female reference librarians (Hepburn, Joan Blondell, Dina Merrill [in her big-screen debut], Sue Randall) whose positions at a network television station are about to go the way of the dinosaurs following the arrival of the supercomputer EMMARAC.
Tracy plays the guy whose job – with the assistance of an unfeelingly efficient Neva Patterson – is to make sure EMMARAC does its job, which, once again, means pink slips for the librarians.
The good: Hepburn, as usual, delivers a first-rate performance in Desk Set. The bad: Tracy, as usual, delivers a problematic one. And just stop and think about it: She leaves TV executive Gig Young for him. There should be a legal limit even for Hollywood fairy tales.
Note: Marchant’s play The Desk Set starred Shirley Booth, who, coincidentally, had also originated the role (in Arthur Laurents’ The Time of the Cuckoo) of the traveling “spinster” that Hepburn brought to screen life in David Lean’s wistful 1955 romantic comedy Summertime. (In The Desk Set, Byron Sanders had Tracy’s role, which would be beefed up for the movie.)
Note II: A whole decade after Desk Set, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy would be reunited for the ninth and final time in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, which turned out to be – by far – the biggest box office hit of their careers. Seventeen days after filming was completed, Tracy suffered a fatal heart attack at age 67.
In her 1991 autobiography, Me: Stories of My Life, Hepburn would recall, “He looked so happy to be done with living, which for all his accomplishments had been a frightful burden for him.”
Immediately below is TCM’s Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy movie schedule.
Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy movies: TCM schedule (EDT) – Sept. 1
6:00 AM The Sea of Grass (1947)
Director: Elia Kazan.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Melvyn Douglas, Robert Walker, Phyllis Thaxter, Edgar Buchanan, Harry Carey, Ruth Nelson, William ‘Bill’ Phillips, Robert Armstrong, James Bell, Robert Barrat.
131m8:15 AM Without Love (1945)
Director: Harold S. Bucquet.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Keenan Wynn, Carl Esmond, Patricia Morison, Felix Bressart.
111m10:15 AM Keeper of the Flame (1942)
Director: George Cukor.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Richard Whorf, Margaret Wycherly, Forrest Tucker, Frank Craven, Stephen McNally, Percy Kilbride, Audrey Christie, Darryl Hickman, Donald Meek, Howard Da Silva.
101m12:00 PM Adam’s Rib (1949)
Director: George Cukor.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell, David Wayne, Jean Hagen, Hope Emerson, Eve March, Clarence Kolb, Emerson Treacy, Polly Moran, Will Wright, Marvin Kaplan.
101m2:00 PM Pat and Mike (1952)
Director: George Cukor.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Aldo Ray, William Ching, Sammy White, George Matthews, Phyllis Povah, Charles Bronson, Jim Backus, Chuck Connors, William Self.
95m
A sports promoter falls for a golf- and tennis-playing college athletics coach. One problem: She has a handsome (albeit confidence-deflating) fiancé.4:00 PM Woman of the Year (1942)
Director: George Stevens.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter, Reginald Owen, Minor Watson, William Bendix, Gladys Blake, Dan Tobin, Roscoe Karns.
112m6:00 PM Desk Set (1957)
Director: Walter Lang.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Gig Young, Joan Blondell, Dina Merrill, Sue Randall, Neva Patterson, Harry Ellerbe, Nicholas Joy, Diane Jergens, Merry Anders, Ida Moore.
103m
A male efficiency expert introduces a supercomputer that will wipe out the jobs of several female reference librarians at a television network.
“Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy Movies on TCM” notes
Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy movie schedule and several of the synopses via the TCM website.
Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy Woman of the Year image: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
“Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy Movies on TCM: 7 Pairings” last modified in September 2025.