Pat and Mike

Pat and Mike, directed by George Cukor, is a classic Hollywood comedy starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, about a talented female athlete whose performance collapses whenever her overbearing fiance is around, and the fast talking manager who takes her on. The script was written by Tracy and Hepburn's close friends Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon specifically to showcase Hepburn's real athletic ability; Hepburn was genuinely a skilled golfer and tennis player and performed all the film's sports scenes herself, without a stunt double. Real golf and tennis stars including Babe Didrikson Zaharias and Gussie Moran appear as themselves. The film earned writers Kanin and Gordon an Academy Award nomination and Hepburn a Golden Globe nomination; Hepburn called it her favorite of the nine films she made with Tracy. Who it's for: anyone curious about a classic Hollywood comedy in which Katharine Hepburn, a genuinely gifted athlete, performs her own golf and tennis without a double, alongside real sports stars playing themselves. Who it's not for: those wanting a love story where sport is just a backdrop, since the film puts athletics at the very center of its plot.