The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/21494
TRACY AND HEPBURN TEACH EACH OTHER A THING OR TWO IN . . . desk set C o-starring in nine movies together across 25 years — WOMAN OF THE YEAR in 1942 to GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER in 1967 — Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn created a unique screen chemistry of which a battle-of-the-sexes element was integral. And nowhere is that more evident than in their eighth pairing, the delightful romantic comedy DESK SET (1957). Basically a love triangle for the approaching information age between a man, woman and computer, DESK SET takes place almost exclusively in the “Federal Broadcasting Network” (FBN) skyscraper. Bunny Watson (Katharine Hepburn) and her small staff run the reference library, which researches and answers questions on myriad topics phoned in by the public. Though something of a know-it-all, Bunny is well liked and well respected at FBN, so knowledgeable that not only can she spit out any fact, she can tell you the exact location in the book, page and paragraph that contains it. Enter a mysterious, slightly gruff man named Richard Sumner (Spencer Tracy). An efficiency expert and inventor of the Electromagnetic Memory and Research Arithmetical Calculator (EMERAC for short, “Emmy” even shorter), Sumner has been contracted by FBN to oversee installation of, and 104 www.iltanet.org Peer to Peer training on, two of his “electronic brains” (as they’re called in the film) — one in accounting and one in Bunny’s domain, the library. The true purpose of the new computers is to help employees cope with the additional work that will result from a pending, though still secret merger between FBN and another company. But when the employees hear the computers are coming, they immediately assume job cuts are inevitable — and that Sumner is wielding the scythe. At first, Bunny is supremely confident that her department is safe — how could a machine possibly do what she and her team do? But after seeing Sumner demonstrate Emmy, she realizes that computers have come to stay, and, despite the developing attraction between herself and Sumner, she takes leadership of an anti-computer revolt. Though an expert in computers, Sumner quickly learns that he is a total novice when it comes to women and that he and his computer have met their match in Bunny Watson. The employees’ worst fears seem to be confirmed when everyone on the staff receives a pink slip printed out by the new payroll computer. Fortunately, this turns out to be a mistake; with crossed wires, the machine has inadvertently fired everybody in the company, including the president.