Pat and Mike

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Movie
German title Pat and Mike
Original title Pat and Mike
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1952
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK without age restriction
Rod
Director George Cukor
script Ruth Gordon
Garson Kanin
production Lawrence Weingarten (producer) for MGM
music David Raksin
camera William H. Daniels
cut George Boemler
occupation

Pat and Mike is an American feature film ( romantic comedy , sports film ) directed in 1952 by director George Cukor for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .

action

The action takes place in a university town in California , time the present. Pat Pemberton, an attractive young widow, is a sports coach at the (fictional) Pacific Technical College . Her boyfriend Weld is a good-looking heartthrob, who, however, constantly criticizes her and undermines her self-confidence so much that she can hardly show off her talents - which are extraordinary in the sporting field. However, she finds a golf trainer who prepares her for the Women's National Match Play Championship .

During the competition, Mike Conovan tries to persuade her to forego her possible first place for a cash payment. Mike is a little New York sports manager who's a good guy but won't say no to a profitable deal. Pat refuses; since her friend Weld shows up during the last round and makes her a bundle of nerves through his mere presence, but loses her anyway.

After another argument with Weld, Pat bursts the collar. She travels to New York and asks Mike to sign her as a professional. Pat is a multi-talent who has mastered half a dozen sports, and golf is actually her weakest discipline. Mike decides to make her a tennis player. He is a sports manager of the toughest kind, who leads the athletes he signs under a strict regime and regulates their lives down to the last detail. If he breaks the rules, he keeps the following dialogue with the boxer Hucko:

Mike: Who made you, Hucko?
Hucko: You, Mike.
Mike: Who owns the biggest piece of you?
Hucko: You, Mike.
Mike: What will happen if I drop you?
Hucko: I go right down the drain. And stay there.

German:

Mike: Who made you, Hucko?
Hucko: You, Mike.
Mike: Who owns the biggest piece of you?
Hucko: You, Mike.
Mike: What if I drop you?
Hucko: I'm going straight to the gutter. And stay there.

Immediately after signing the contract, Pat also noticed that she had given up her self-determination with the training clause. Mike forbids her good food, alcohol, cigarettes and men. Mike soon discovers that Pat only wins a competition when her friend Weld is not watching. He manages to keep Weld away from Pat's competitions for a while; at a golf championship, however, Mike's windy business partners Spec, Henk and Sam appear and demand that Pat let her opponent win. When Mike doesn't give in to her pressure, two of them reappear to beat him up; Pat saves him by incapacitating the crooks in turn. Mike is appalled to find a "Mrs. Frankenstein ”is also glad to have got rid of the unpleasant business partners.

When Weld encounters Pat and Mike, who - unacknowledged - have long since fallen in love, in a precarious situation, he confronts Pat, who, however, takes Mike's side. Weld leaves the field to his rival. Pat realizes that she doesn't need him and that Mike is her best partner. She wins the next competition.

shape

A number of prominent athletes of the time can be seen in cameo roles : the golfers Helen Dettweiler , Beverly Hanson , Betty Hicks Nevell and Babe Didrikson Zaharias and the tennis players Don Budge , Alice Marble , Gussie Moran and Frank Parker .

Katharine Hepburn was an accomplished golf and tennis player who never had to be replaced by a double for the film. The sports sequences, especially the scenes during the golf competition, in which the crowd swayed back and forth in front of the camera like in a ballet choreography, were among the best of their kind.

Spencer Tracy was unusually gifted with complex emotions without words and gestures; H. to express only with his face. During the competition sequences in which Mike Pat is watching, there is always a cut back and forth between Pat's golf or tennis game and Mike's face, which means that Tracy's art of expression is at least as much the focus of the film as Hepburn's athletic ability.

In the presence of her boyfriend, Pat, who as a sportswoman is actually superhuman in size, regularly turns herself into a helpless mistress. In order to illustrate their distorted perception, the director repeatedly uses the stylistic device of grotesque exaggeration in the relevant scenes: their tennis opponent is shown with an oversized racket, while Pat's own racket is suddenly very small; the net is at a dizzying height; she has to fend off not just one ball but a whole bunch of balls; Weld, whose judgment Pat is so afraid of, sits in the audience not just once, but everywhere at the same time.

Production and reception

Production history

Pat and Mike is the seventh of a total of nine films in which Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn starred as a screen couple, and their fourth comedy together (after The Woman We Talk about , Too Smart for Love and Marital War ) . The script was written by Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, who were close friends with the couple, especially Hepburn. Tracy and Hepburn had long been friends with director Cukor; Cukor has directed more films with Tracy than any other director.

Filming took place in Los Angeles from January to March 1952.

Theatrical release

The film premiered in the United States on June 13, 1952.

Awards

Pat and Mike have been nominated for several film awards:

  • Oscar (best script)
  • WGA Writers Guild of America Award (Best Screenplay)
  • Directors Guild of America DGA Award (Director)
  • British Film Academy Award (best foreign actress: Katharine Hepburn)
  • Golden Globe (best leading actress: Katharine Hepburn, best young actor: Aldo Ray)

Reviews

"An amusing comedy that is particularly captivating due to the intelligent and punchy presentation, original, funny, with attractive sports shots."

- Lexicon of international film

literature

  • Donald Deschner: The Complete Films of Spencer Tracy , Citadel, 2000. ISBN 0-8065-1038-2
  • Romano Tozzi: Spencer Tracy , New York: Pyramid Publications, 1973. ISBN 0-515-03246-8 ; German edition: Spencer Tracy. His films - his life . Heyne, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-453-86009-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for Pat and Mike . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , January 2007 (PDF; test number: 108 675 DVD).
  2. ↑ Pat and Mike. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 2, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used