Fri 11 Aug 2017
WITHOUT LOVE. MGM, 1945. Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Keenan Wynn, Carl Esmond, Patricia Morison. Director: Harold S. Bucquet.
When a wartime inventor comes to Washington, he finally finds a room with a young widow who is also a great admirer of science. He has had experiences with love; she has had enough love to fill a lifetime. Result: a platonic marriage. You can take it from there.
While Tracy tries to be as hard as nails, and can’t, Katharine Hepburn combines a certain kind of buoyancy with girlish primness. In 1945 she was also extremely beautiful, and it’s worth wading through all the stagey dialogue and moth-eaten plot just to see her.
— Reprinted from Mystery*File #24,, August 1990.
August 12th, 2017 at 11:22 pm
Not one of their better efforts, but interesting to see Lucy.
August 12th, 2017 at 11:57 pm
Yours was the first comment, David. I was beginning to wonder if I’m the only one who’s ever seen it. That can’t be, but I was wondering.
August 13th, 2017 at 11:20 am
I have this title as part of a Hepburn package of pictures, none of which I care for, but Sylvia Scarlett is something else due to Cary Grant’s true to life but unusual performance as Jimmy Monkley, which makes the package a keeper.
August 15th, 2017 at 10:55 pm
Barry,
I was so impressed by SYLVIA SCARLETT and Grant I read the novel. It’s not standard Cary Grant, and yet that is there along with a kind of toughness and vulnerability only a few movies let him explore.
August 15th, 2017 at 11:53 pm
Exactly the same here, David. I have Compton Mackenzie’s novel, and even though of reading the other book in his series, but so far, no go.As for Grant, his energy, musicality, which shows up quietly but almost as often as his athleticism, really worked here. Notice that his name came under the title, and this is the first of four films with Hepburn. By The Philadelphia Story his name was in first position. Also Monkley is perfect for him. Dangerous, funny, smart and something else. Kind, perhaps. Obviously, I am enthusiastic. Too bad the picture bombed.