Without Love

i was able to see this movie for the first time over the weekend & have to say that i immediately fell in love with it.

the tenderness of both characters & understanding of each other's problems showed how in love might grow to being in love so deeply.

the love of the characters was not based on sexual situations or any of the vulgar material that is produced today, although they were deeply attracted to each other, first mentally and then physically.

i truly wish that they would release this film so that i could get a copy of it. it is one of the best, sweetest romances i have seen in a long time.

Spencer Tracy is Patrick Jamieson, a hard-headed scientist whose heart gave up on love a long time ago and which now takes refuge in facts and only facts. Katharine Hepburn is Jamie Rowan, a young widow who, having had her perfect first love and husband die in a riding accident, has closed herself off to love and life, believing she should--and could--never love again. So, from this common ground and the respect they share for the sciences, Pat and Jamie decide to get married: how perfect, how *convenient* a marriage without love can be! No jealousy, no bickering, just companionship.

Well, that's the *idea* anyway... the viewer knows with pretty much any Hepburn/Tracy vehicle that the two leads are going to wind up together, and very happily so, in the end. The thrill in coming to a film of theirs fresh is seeing how their characters get there. It's a pretty fun ride in WITHOUT LOVE: Hepburn is pitch-perfect as a widow set on becoming a spinster, and Tracy has his slightly bemused, man-(sorta)-above-the-fray character down to a T. The love story is given a lot of care in this film, so that you really can believe that eventually, love--or more importantly, the *lack* of love--can get in the way of a marriage. You watch Pat getting used to Jamie, beginning to find her indispensable; you see Jamie opening up, smiling, even longing for love again. Jamie's loneliness within their self-declared 'loveless' marriage is especially well-handled, because it is *her* heartache, at the loss of a perfect husband and true love, that seems so insurmountable and must be overcome first. Of course, it can't hurt to have the main characters played by Hepburn and Tracy--already there's a built-in audience waiting and expecting these two to get together! But the script also had quite a part to play in that, by the end of the film, I was definitely willing Pat and Jamie to discover their love for each other, and to voice it out loud instead of pretending that their marriage 'without love' hadn't already turned into one full of love. The final scene between Pat and Jamie is startlingly sweet: the roundabout way in which Pat admits his love for Jamie is both heartfelt and true to the relationship between the characters.

All this having been said, WITHOUT LOVE, along with the two melodramas KEEPER OF THE FLAME and THE SEA OF GRASS (and perhaps also Frank Capra's THE STATE OF THE UNION), still remains one of the forgotten--or at the very least, much lesser-known--movies of the nine collaborations between those immortal screen (and real-life) lovers. There probably is a reason for this--the film is entertaining (witness the scene where Pat quite literally sleepwalks into Jamie's bed!), with a clever script ("Are you trying to be vulgar?"/"It takes no effort.") and a great cast (Hepburn and Tracy, of course, but Lucille Ball and Keenan Wynn also shine and charm in their small roles to great effect). However, WITHOUT LOVE (also based on a Philip Barry play) is quite simply *not* THE PHILADELPHIA STORY. The script just doesn't have the same zing or exuberance (though you can tell Barry has tried his hardest), and the actors don't share and feed off that same electric current that charged Hepburn's acting against Cary Grant and James Stewart. It can't have been too difficult to figure out, given the greatly contrasting Broadway runs the two plays (both starring Hepburn in the role she originated on stage) had--one smooth and receiving tumultuous welcome wherever it went, the other... well, not *quite* so joyously received.

Still, how often *does* a film like THE PHILADELPHIA STORY come along? Surely while waiting between classics, it couldn't hurt to watch a few solid, sweet and thoroughly engaging films like WITHOUT LOVE. And this film has bonuses as well--Pat and Jamie are more truly equals than any of the characters I've seen Hepburn and Tracy play so far... no 'slapping down' of the Hepburn character by the big gruff bear-paw of the Tracy character. Hepburn fans also get to see her sing (in French!) and totter around in the most alarming feathery get-up (that ending scene is really a hoot!). Keenan Wynn plays a delightful Philip Barry drunk--which means that he's wittier and more lucid than the rest of us, even when we're sober on a good day!--and Lucille Ball is luminous in her small role as Kitty Trimble.

So why not give WITHOUT LOVE a chance to put a smile on your face? With any luck, it'll do that and much, much more...!

Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn are "Without Love" in this 1945 romantic comedy, also starring Keenan Wynn, Patricia Morison, and Lucille Ball.

Based on a play by Philip Barry, Tracy plays Pat Jamieson, a scientist looking for a place to live in Washington, D. C. in wartime; he signs on as a caretaker for the home of Jamie Rowan (Hepburn), a widow.

Jamieson has had his heart broken by a French woman, Lily Vine, and Jamie feels that she can never again recapture what she had with her late husband. The two decide to marry but keep it platonic.

This light comedy is obviously predictable, elevated by the excellent cast. Tracy and Hepburn are both delightful with their usual great chemistry. Keenan Wynn and Lucille Ball are on hand as an on-again, off-again couple; the Wynn character is engaged to Patricia Morison, a bossy woman, but he keeps flirting and kissing Ball. Ball's delivery is priceless.

Hollywood didn't know what to with Morison for most of her films, either B movies or small parts in A movies; in fact, her fabulous role in "Kiss of Death" was cut by the censors.

Instead, she became a tremendous musical stage star on Broadway and in London, her best role being Kate in "Kiss Me, Kate." At this writing, she's 96 and still with us.

An entertaining film, good watch.

If it wasn't for "Adam's Rib", this film would be my favourite of the Tracy/Hepburn movies. I like the characters they both play, and there's a plus of another plot going on in the background between Lucille Ball and Keenan Wynn. Of course you know what's going to happen by the end but the movie is entertaining and the obviousness doesn't matter. I heard that Tracy wouldn't play in this on stage which seems a shame as he's so good on the screen as the cranky scientist taking up residence in Hepburn's cellar. Hepburn is fabulous as ever and the brittle widow is a perfect part for her. Of course no one who marries in the movies 'without love' stays that way. If they did we wouldn't have had these kind of movies in the golden age of Hollywood!

WITHOUT LOVE is such an uneven film--some of it is quite inspired--but it's safe to say that there are a few scenes that make it worth watching even if it is a bit overlong in getting to its inevitable conclusion. Hepburn and Tracy are at their most polished as romantic partners. The subplot is handled with skill by Lucille Ball and Keenan Wynn (who does a great drunken bit) and fans of Tracy and Hepburn won't be disappointed in their handling of rather unusual roles.

Hepburn has never been one of my particular favorites--I find her mannerisms are a turn-off by the time any film starring her has gone beyond fifteen minutes--but here she is actually showing a warmth, tenderness and vulnerability that she seldom really showed in any of her more well-known comedy roles. And Tracy is so natural, you forget he is just acting.

The plot has two unlikely people who have given up love for opposite reasons actually finding out that they truly do love each other--but not until the last reel. All of their scenes are enhanced by the added device of having a dog who looks just like Toto (from the 'Wizard of Oz') steal many a scene. For added measure, Lucille Ball pops up in a brief but delightful supporting role opposite Keenan Wynn.

Hepburn is more appealing here than she was as the stuck-up heroine of THE PHILADELPHIA STORY and the story, although predictable, has some very unusual touches that make it well worth watching, especially if you're fans of Hepburn or Tracy.

Patricia Morison has a thankless supporting role and Gloria Grahame has a brief bit as a flower girl allergic to flowers in a nightclub scene.