Desk Set

1957 Directed by Walter Lang

The girls and guys who make the office such a wonderful place to love in!

A computer expert tries to prove his electronic brain can replace a television network's research staff.

Spencer Tracy Katharine Hepburn Gig Young Joan Blondell Dina Merrill Sue Randall Neva Patterson Harry Ellerbe Nicholas Joy Diane Jergens Merry Anders Ida Moore Rachel Stephens Sammy Ogg Jesslyn Fax

103 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Ethan Colburn ★★½ 3

When Alexa has a question, she says “hey Katharine?”

I love Adam’s Rib and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner so I was looking forward to this Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn comedy. This one didn’t really do it for me. It had its moments (particularly the rooftop conversation) but it was kinda bloated and prolonged.
COMPUTERS COULD NEVER REPLACE KATHARINE HEPBURN
Review by Alex Kittle ★★★★ 1

My first thought was: Wow, looking up random shit before the internet was weird and complicated.
My second thought was: I can't believe there's a story centering around computers replacing human labor in 1957. Like, computers are so old!
My third thought was: Holy shit the office fashions are TOO FAB.
My fourth thought was: I could listen to Katharine Hepburn all day and also look at Katharine Hepburn all day.
My fifth thought was: omg this movie is super cute.
Review by Sally Jane Black 1

It really is a pleasure to watch Katharine Hepburn work. Here, she's playing the living embodiment of the Internet, 35 years before the World Wide Web would bring it to the rest of us. She and Spencer Tracy work their legendary chemistry, and a lot of fun ensues.
I especially appreciate how often Hepburn's characters maintain their dignity even in the silliest of romantic-comedies, while still being funny and engaging. She's warm, smart, and human, and in this one, she manages to convincingly portray brilliance. Unlike in Adam's Rib, the resolution does not hinge upon her being proven wrong about anything consequential. The misunderstanding at the core of the film is mostly in the background, and when it finally comes to a head, it is dispatched of in moments. No one is shown for a fool except a computer, and that's oddly prescient of the film, really.
I wonder if this qualifies as science/speculative fiction.
Review by Varan_the_Man ★★★★ 4

Jamedy: Comedy Through the Ages
8 Different Decades: 50’s - Desk Set
“Remember our motto: be on time, do your work, be down at the bar at 5:30”
Wow! One movie in and already this challenge’s paid off. Desk Set is an incredibly charming romp anchored by not only our two stars, Spencer Tracy (Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner) and Katharine Hepburn (The African Queen), but also the likable supporting cast. Gig Young (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?), Joan Blondell (Footlight Parade), and Harry Ellerbe (House of Usher) do their best to steal the show from Tracy and Hepburn and provide a lot of the laughs.
Katharine Hepburn runs a reference library at the Federal Broadcasting Network and answers questions…
Review by mercedes ★★★½

this was my primary watch for film club secret cinema and it was a delight! my new dream job is working there with those ladies 💃
Review by ♡megan♡ ★★★½

i didn’t expect to but i really enjoyed this!! the office sisterhood reminded me of 9 to 5 :)) very charming and very optimistic...
Review by 🥀 Emmeline ★★★★ 3

I’ve never been fond of Hepburn & Tracy or been able to see their supposed chemistry. But this particular film came in a set of 20th Century Fox comedies, and somehow it grew on me. I think I mainly love it for depicting female friendships and camaraderie between career women in a 1950s film.
Review by lina ★★★★

imagine calling up google and katharine hepburn responds... i would be googling things all the time😎
Review by Tom Morton ★★★½ 2

As a fan of clunky old technology, the premise of this film - "Spencer Tracy attempts to computerise Katharine Hepburn's research department and everyone keeps saying 'ELECTRONIC BRAIN'" - deeply appeals to me. Curiously though, it's not until the last few minutes of the film that we get to see any deliciously massive, blinking-light-covered, room-size computer action. Luckily, the rest of the film has plenty of charm to make up for that.
Most of the plot deals with Hepburn and her research buddies (including Joan Blondell) keeping up their high work standards while Tracy skulks around the office, not telling them anything about his project (at the CEO's request) and letting them fear the worst. I really enjoyed the workplace…
Review by RetroHound ★★★★

Old maid librarian lands old bachelor computer geek. That wasn’t the tag line for Desk Set (1957), but perhaps it should have been. Many critics at the time thought that Spencer Tracy at 57 and Katherine Hepburn at 50 were too old for these rolls. But really, are you ever too old for love?
Shot in CinemaScope, so be sure to see this in wide-screen format, as the pan-and-scan is really annoying. Plus you miss out on some great acting outside the frame.
The story begins as a television station reference/research/library department is studied by “efficiency expert” Richard Sumner (Spencer Tracy). The department is run by Bunny Wilson (Katherine Hepburn). Wilson has been strung along romantically for seven years by…
Review by Nigel ★★★½

I loved Katharine Hepburn's role as Google in this movie. Seriously, is there anything she CAN'T play?
Review by Rich ★★★½

7/10
This is a rice rom-com with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.
Tracy is the inventor of a computer system that can research things. Hepburn is the head of the research department. Of course Hepburn and her team think the computer will replace them, and hilarity ensues. Of course there is the “I hate you to I love you!” storyline as well.
It’s a simple film, with a premise that is possibly just as relevant today. We sure have come a long way with technology but we still fear their continued ability to replace humans.
The film is fun and lighthearted and Hepburn is very much on her game. She is always a delight in her lighter films.

Recent reviews

Review by mercedes ★★★½

this was my primary watch for film club secret cinema and it was a delight! my new dream job is working there with those ladies 💃
Review by Patrick Delmore ★★★★★ 1

I didn’t have high expectations for ‘Desk Set’, the penultimate Tracy/Hepburn pairing. Thankfully my expectations were shattered by a very fun 1950’s futurist romance.
Spencer Tracy is a selling a computer to the research department of a broadcast company, located, nominally, in Rockefeller Center. Amidst one of the coolest Cinemascope library/office sets ever designed works Katherine Hepburn and her three assistants answering telephone questions about any subject imaginable. And so the bridge between the twentieth and twenty first century begins to be constructed. Unlike something like ‘Madmen’ which takes place in the same world of New York offices, secretaries, and desk phones, ‘Desk Set’ isn’t a condemnation of the past. The movie is Hollywood looking at the 1950’s with rose tinted…
Review by tanyaferrell ★★★★

I loved this movie on the first watch, but now I think it's just a really good film. Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy are of course lovely. It has humor and an interesting plot, but I felt the ending of the romance was a bit rushed.
Review by ♡megan♡ ★★★½

i didn’t expect to but i really enjoyed this!! the office sisterhood reminded me of 9 to 5 :)) very charming and very optimistic...
Review by Liam Sullivan ★★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Katherine Hepburn plays a smart and sassy reference librarian for a television network. Spencer Tracy is the computer engineer installing the computer that may replace her. I’ve seen gaggles of Hepburn films before but this is the first time I’ve managed to see one with Tracy. The things I learned from this movie: 1. People have been trying to replace librarians with computers for at least 50 years. 2. Librarians always win. 3. Office Christmas parties were MUCH more fun in the 1950’s. 4. Spencer Tracy is really funny. Not in the movie, but worth knowing is that Hepburn’s sister Peg was a librarian for decades at a Connecticut library.
Review by syndetic

The best movie about librarians that never uses the word “librarian.”
Review by JoeyKoskela ★★★★½

this movie is wonderful
Review by Joel Mandelkorn ★★★★ 3

Hepburn vs Machine
After an odd and slow stsrt, it hits its stride and rips off a fun slice 1950s zeitgeist. Hepburn is having too much fun. The drunken holiday party is delirious and great comedy. An early entry in the let everyone be stylish, have great dialogue and just hang out kind of movie. Also, this is a low key quality holiday movie.
Review by Heather ★★★★★

HOW DID THEY PREDICT THE 2000S SO WELL IN 1957
Review by Scott Molling ★★★★

Very charming, glad that the romance is mostly pretty subtle and it's much more a workplace comedy. The theatrical dialogue transfers pretty well to the screen, and the sets are terrific.
Technically, this is a science fiction movie AND a Christmas movie.
Review by aobh

Commentary review:
This commentary was with Dina Merrill (played Sylvia Blair) and random facts about the movie from John Lee, whomever he is.
There wasn't really much about Desk Set other than the factoids and a few anecdotes about Hepburn, Tracy, and Blondell, and Merrill's experience on the set. Most of the commentary was Merrill recalling a good portion of her career, so I'd say it would really only be for fans of Dina Merrill and/or the movies she was in. Considering I've only seen her in Desk Set so far, most of the comments were lost on me.
Review by yawna ★★★★

I could hear those ladies talk all day 😳