Desk Set

I saw this movie as a double feature with Adam’s Rib, which I also recently reviewed for the site, and while I think Adam’s Rib might be the better overall movie, I enjoyed myself during Desk Set more.  This movie surprised me, in all the best possible ways.

The movie is really fun.   On the most basic level, it is a deftly executed workplace romantic comedy about two smart and capable people discovering how compatible they are and what a great team they make when they work together.  Perhaps not surprisingly, given their history, Hepburn and Tracy have an easy chemistry that makes you root for their relationship way earlier in the film than is even justified by the narrative. Amazingly, a small wrinkle of the eyebrows or a wry smirk during their rooftop lunch at the beginning of the film sells Tracy’s growing admiration of Hepburn’s character easily as much as the more obviously romantic scenes, such as their impromptu dinner during the rainstorm or Tracy’s quasi-confession during the Christmas party.

The only thing that struck me as strange with the romance was how quickly it resolved.  Perhaps it is my modern sensibilities talking, but while there was flirting and chemistry, the two main characters jump passed courtship and straight into marriage so fast it felt a tad jarring.  This might have been intended to create a contrast between Tracy and Hepburn’s previous non-committal boyfriend, but even considering that angle it did feel a bit odd. Setting that quirk aside, however, it is a joy to watch interesting people fall in love in a realistic way.  In that sense it reminded me a bit of what made Jim and Pam’s romance in the early seasons of The Office so great.

Another aspect of the film that surprised me was how it doesn’t feel dated at all.  The B-plot of Desk Set centers on Hepburn and her cohorts feeling threatened by the addition of computational index systems that will make their work as researchers obsolete.  I was impressed by how this concept was still amazingly relevant. While the computers in Desk Set are the size of a room, use punch cards, and can’t operate if there is too much dust in the air, the story taps into the same fears that a modern audience might have over automation and other forms of technology driven labor displacement.  I went in thinking that the technology focused side of the movie would be so of its time that it would be a laughable, but largely ignorable, backdrop to the love story I was more likely to be interested in. The fact that this wasn’t the case was such a pleasant surprise.

This little gem from the 1950s upended my expectations of a dated, but fun, classic romance played against a backdrop of a dated, but amusing, story about early computers by being a tremendously fun, smart, and in many ways timeless film about love and modernization.  

Would Recommend: If you think Shop Around the Corner is better than You’ve Got Mail.

Would Not Recommend: If you can’t enjoy You’ve Got Mail because it already feels dated.