Pat and Mike, 1952

Spencer Tracy stars as sports promoter Mike Conovan and Katharine Hepburn as Pat Pemberton, a diversely talented athlete..

William Ching plays Collier Weld, the man Pat is engaged to marry.

A college administrator, Collier has big plans for his future. Collier hopes to finagle a large donation for the college from a wealthy couple during a game of golf. The talented Pat is to partner with the wife assuring her of a win. The wealthy couple will then presumably be in a generous mood.

But Collier has no confidence in Pat’s talent. He dogged her around the course pressing her to “do better”. . To make things worse, the wealthy wife gave Pat non-stop pointers and free advice. As people tend to do under that kind of pressure, Pat preforms poorly and disappoints Collier’s ambitions.

Pat is at a crossroads. She fancies having a “50-50" partnership with her man. Her self respect and confidence hinges on her athletic ability. But she cant preform well when Collier is around. Pat decides to prove to herself that she has what it takes to preform (and hold up her end?)

Here comes Mike Conovan, sports promoter. Recognizing Pats ability he takes her on as a client. Both Mike and Collier intend to profit from Pat’s ability. But Mike truly believes in her. Where Collier would say: “don’t screw up”, Mike says “well done”. Not hard to see where this is going.

But what about Pat’s goal of a 50-50 partnership? In one scene Pat saves Mike from a young Charles Bronson and a couple of other tough guy types. Mike was none too happy about being protected by a woman and brooded about it.

I wonder, is 50-50 really achievable? In any partnership one will always be the smarter, stronger, kinder and so on. The balance is always shifting. If you cant shift with it you end up brooding or worse.