Without Love

Buy This Item Without Love by MGM (Warner)  Available from Amazon  $14.95  on 11-15-2008     Spencer Tracy and his dog look for suitable premises. He does research work on behalf of the Air Force who entrusts him with the development of a new oxygen-mask. Katharine Hepburn's house meets his requirements and the young widow is impressed by his charm. They have one thing in common: Both of them repress their carnal appetite. HE is disappointed ("She was vivacious, amusing aand dull") while HER marriage brought her a fullfilment she thinks is impossible to relive. Tracy plays the piano (Schubert) and listens to her biography ("I was born in 1917" is not entirely truthful but Hepburn looks beautiful with her pigtails). When he treats her with contempt - her world-weariness is in his eyes nothing but self-complacency - she would have turned him out, but his lab is already equipped, military supplies arrive - and not even Katharine Hepburn can say "no" to the Ministry of War. Infected by his patriotism she offers her services as assistant and guinea-pig and proposes to him. Not love will be their basis but "honesty, courage and humor". He would have turned her down but his ex is on his track and revenge is sweetSo Tracy assures Hepburn of his honorable intentions and gives her a peck on the cheek and she gives him a peck on the cheek - and so they seal their deal.<p>Their business connection is fertilefecundfruitful: she spends her time in a pressurized cabin and when he reduces the pressure she turns a somersault. Their conjugal connection does not take place: they implore a friend to stay during their wedding night and when Tracy goes astray - in Hepburn's bed - she is willing to buy his justification: somnambulism! Spring arrives, two lovebirds (Lucille Ball & Keenan Wynn) bill and coo and Hepburn decides to bring competition (a latin lover) into play<p>and you can guess the rest. The last half hour could have been less plodding, but there is an imaginative scene when Hepburn mimics Tracy's ex - long cigarette-holder, feathers-boa, affected french accent - because she thinks he finds this type of woman sexy. The funniest moment: Tracy transports his dog - in a suitcase with an oxygen-mask! The title "Without Love" is misleading: Tracy & Hepburn flirt without intermission Reader Reviews "Without Love" is an often overlooked romantic comedy gem starring the iconic pair of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, who made nine immensely popular films together. This 1945 black and white film was their third movie, and features witty dialog and almost non-stop flirting by the pair, who were a real-life romantic couple off-screen for decades until Tracy's death in 1967. Tracy, a Catholic, was married and never divorced despite a loveless marriage and his enduring relationship with Hepburn. For her part, Hepburn refused to publicly acknowledge their inspiring love affair until after the death of Tracy's wife, Louise, to spare Mrs. Tracy more pain and embarrassment. Tracy and Hepburn, both Academy Award winning actors, became one of Hollywood's most recognizable and popular pairs. Hepburn, with her agile mind and distinctive New England accent, complemented Tracy's easy working-class machismo. When Joseph Mankiewicz introduced the two, Hepburn, who was wearing special heels that added several inches to her lanky frame, said, "I'm afraid I'm too tall for you, Mr. Tracy." Mankiewicz retorted, "Don't worry, he'll soon cut you down to size." As the Daily Telegraph observed in Hepburn's obituary, "Hepburn and Tracy were at their most seductive when their verbal fencing was sharpest: it was hard to say whether they delighted more in the battle or in each other." "Without Love" certainly underscores that observation. Originally written for Hepburn by her frequent collaborator Philip Barry, "Without Love" had enjoyed a moderately successful run on Broadway from 1942-1943 with Elliott Nugent in the role Tracy played on the screen. Most of the Tracy-Hepburn films stress the sparks that can fly when a couple try to find an equable balance of power. The sexy sparring over power and control is almost always resolved in an agreement to share-and-share-like. "Without Love" is unusual in that their characters actually marry. In this film, Tracy portrays dedicated scientist Patrick Jamieson who is working to design a high-altitude oxygen helmet for the war department during World War II. Jamieson desperately needs someplace to do his work because there is a housing shortage in Washington, D.C., as a result of the war. Invited by a drunken Quintin Ladd (Keenan Wynn), Jamieson - and his dog - move into a mansion belonging to Ladd's cousin, Mrs. Jamie Rowan (Hepburn). It soon appears that Jamie shares Pat's deep distaste for romantic love. Highly interested in Jamieson's work, and tired of being courted and chased by men, an emboldened Jamie proposes marriage to confirmed bachelor Pat, insisting that theirs would be a union and partnership uncomplicated by love, thus platonic. Pat readily agrees and their characters marry, "without love." To ensure a chaste wedding night, they implore a friend to stay with them. But, Jamieson ends up in Jamie's bed, blaming somnambulism! The two settle into a seemingly well-functioning life of shared passion for the oxygen experiments. But when Pat's former girlfriend turns up, portrayed by Patricia Morison, Jamie discovers that she has fallen in love with her new husband after all, and attempts to win his love. In one of her first comedic roles, the brilliant Lucille Ball played Hepburn's real estate agent, while Gloria Grahame plays a flower girl. Hepburn gives a mischievous performance as the young woman who really wants to be chased, and Tracy is charmingly acerbic when confronted with her cool or coy wiles. The action chiefly flows from nimble words, spoken with smooth and saucy savour, and in which feats of little patter abound. But, at the core of the film is the remarkably intense -- and real -- smoldering sexual chemistry between Tracy and Hepburn. Also enjoyable are fun bits including Tracy's character sleep walking, and Hepburn's character trying without success to keep her feet warm on long, lonesome winter nights in bed. "Without Love" became the final film of MGM contract director Harold S. Bouquet, who died of cancer soon after its completion. Ironically, Tracy died of cancer June 10, 1967, 17 days after he and Hepburn completed their last film together, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." Hepburn died June 29, 2003, of natural causes at the age of 96. "Without Love" is scheduled to be released May 29, by Warner Home Video and Turner Classic Movies honoring the anniversary of Hepburn's 100th birth month. She was born May 12. The film is scheduled to be simultaneously released separately, as well as in a Hepburn boxed set of other films never-before-released on DVD including, "Morning Glory," "Undercurrent," "Sylvia Scarlett," "Dragon Seed," and "The Corn is Green." For fans of Tracy and Hepburn, and for anyone who loves wonderful films, this classic is long overdue on DVD and is a must buy!

Without Love Available from Amazon Price: $14.95 Updated on 11-15-2008.

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