WOMEN OF THE YEAR
(M.G.M.)
A TITLE like that is a temptation, a temptation to talk about the Story of the Yearthe year 1903 and every year
since. For the plot of this film is at least as old as the movies (c.f. Taming of the Shrew for an even earlier
version). Worse than that (for it really can’t help its age) it is almost completely threadbare: hardly a single new idea covers its tired old bones. It .wheezes painfully along for about 10,000 feet, cuts a caper or two, and then, in apparent despair at ever finding a satisfactory resting-place, just folds up and dies. If it hadn’t been for those occasional capers (the wedding night sequence particularly), and the fact that two interesting and capable stars were doing their best with the barren possibilities of the theme, I think that when the lights went up you might have found our little man folded up in his seat fast asleep-if he hadn’t joined the exodus which began among the audience soon after the halfway mark. As it was he found enough interest in the acting and in the personality of Katharine Hepburn to keep him awake, and even upright in his seat; he even found occasion for a few good laughs, and some appreciative chuckles at the dialogue.
But that is regrettably little to be able | to say in favour of a major production with stars like Miss Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. I may add that, after a dull run of pictures, I went to Women of the Year with my defences down, almost anxious to be entertained, but I came away more than ever convinced that Hollywood is at present in a bad spell of the doldrums. The story? Career versus Marriage. She is a highbrow columnist on international affairs, he is a lowbrow sports writer. They marry, and the fact that she is acclaimed as America’s Most Outstanding Woman of the Year does not much impress her down-to-earth husband, who prefers a woman about the house. Unless they get better material than this I am afraid that Miss Hepburn may be the forgotten woman of next year, and Tracy the forgotten man. \
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19421009.2.30.1.3
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 172, 9 October 1942, Page 13
Word count
Tapeke kupu
365WOMEN OF THE YEAR New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 172, 9 October 1942, Page 13
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in