Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1945)

"Without Love" Screen play by Donald Ogden Stewart, based on the play by Philip Barry, directed by Harold S. Bucquet, produced by LaAvrence A. Weingarten, photography by Karl Freund, presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures. MEW YORK WORLD-TELEGRAM March 22, 1945 "Without Love" Funnier And Faster on Screen By ALTON COOK MUCH more than the play was. the movie, "Without Love." is preposterous, shallow and completely amusing. Also, the movie, new at the Music Hall this morning, is a great improvement on its original. Spencer Tracy is just one of the things that makes a difference. The other principal difference is a shrewd adaptation by Donald Ogden Stewart, full of fresh wit, fresh enthusiasm and a new liveliness in the same old situation. When Philip Barry's play was here a couple of years ago I was one of the out of step people who did not like it. The bandwagon is very comfortable now, full of us people having a very pleasant time at the movie. It is funnier and faster. Whether you saw the play or not, you are sure to be familiar with the story of the gentleman scientist and the lady scientist (using gentleman and lady in the stuffiest sense) who marry because the arrangement made things more convenient far their work. Love and all such primal matters were not to intrude. Of course, they did intrude, as they always do in movies. The unusual in this case is that the intrusion came about in an amusing way, full of laughter and good performances. Katharine Hepburn contributes one of them. No matter how high your admiration for her may be, it is sure to be tempered by a notion that she is a lady who might throw a hot water bottle into the bed before she climbs in. She does that in this picture and it is a wonderful matching of actress and role. The whole thing is very dependent on its players and it is a good idea to have Spencer Tracy around. So full of manhood, he make? a warm-blooded situation out of the lifelessly pat routine. Keenan Wynn dawdles through lines that get a lot of extra laughter because he speaks them. And every time Lucille Ball strolls in to drench the place with acid wit, it's a pleasure. Get around to the Music Hall, folks. The chances are pretty good, you'll like the picture. NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE March 23, 1945 "Without Love" By HOWARD BARNES HOLLYWOOD has taken considerable liberties with Philip Barry's stage comedy "Without Love." They are all to the good. For the new picture at the Music Hall has fortified a witty farce, while jettisoning the author's original maladroit excursions into the international situation. With Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy playing house in a deliberately loveless marriage and Donald Ogden Stewart's glib underlining of the situation in his adaptation, the show is great good fun, no matter how far-f etched . The plot itself, if you remember the stage production, is a piece of counterfeit. Whether the hero is embroiled in an attempt to bring Eire into the war, as Barry patterned him, or is inventing a high-a.ltitude oxygen mask for dive-bombers, as M. G. M. conceives the character, his relations with a charming woman who is a wife in name only are specious. What matters is that farce thrives on specious notions. "Without Love" stimulates a lot of laughter on the screen without ever having to pretend that it is vaguely profound. Mr. Stewart has done a brilliant job in cutting clean to the comic nonsense in the original theme and supplementing the nonsense with a quip or two of his own. As it now stands the work presents a somnambulist scientist who weds a lovely widow to make her his partner in his researches and finally finds himself head over heels in love with her. Somnambulism, a couple of antic hangers-on, a piano and fragments from T. S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land" give plenty of opportunities for farcical elaboration. They are well taken at the Music Hall. The performances are, of course, the chief attractions of the film. Miss Hepburn, play Pasre 430 Running time: 1 hour, 51 minutes. THE CAST Pat Jamieson Spencer Tracy Jamie Rowan Katharine Hepburn Kitty Trimble Lucille Ball Quentin Ladd Keenan Wynn Paul Carrell Carl Esmond Edwina Collins....". Patricia Morison Professor Grinza Felix Bressart Anna Emily Massey Flower Girl Gloria. Grahame Caretaker George Davis Elevator Boy George Chandler Sergeant Clancy Cooper ing her original stage role in the production, is superb, in addition to being a star. She runs right through the scale of make-believe with brilliant authority and humor. Tracy is right behind her in making it a matter of consequence that the "without" is dropped from the title of the picture. Then there are Keenan Wynn and Lucille Ball integrating a slapstick sub-plot with wonderful effect. Harold S. Bucquet's direction is as smart as the production itself. "Without Love" is far better as a photoplay than as a stage play. It should prove a resounding hit. NEW YORK TIMES March 23, 1945 "Without Love," Starring Tracy And Hepburn, at Music Half By BOSLEY CROWTHER YOU'D never have known it by the weather, but spring came to the Music Hall yesterday. It came in all the calla-Iily splendor of an Easter stage spectacle and in the vernal atmosphere engendered by a new picture, called "Without Love." And, in case anyone has misgivings about that title's propriety in the spring, let us hasten to reassure you that you can just overlook the "without." For this is a highclass discussion of the season's most popular yen, and Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn do the talking in a most winning and witty style. The talking, did we say? We said the talking— for the fact of the matter is that "Without Love" is pretty largely a Iinguacious exercise. Written by Donald Ogden Stewart from a stage play that Philip Barry wrote (and in which Miss Hepburn had previously appeared with conspicuous success), it is one of those conversational dramas in which the action chiefly flows on nimble words, spoken With smooth and saucy savour, and in which feats of little patter abound. It is also one of those pictures in which the hand of the carpenter shows more conspicuously than is agreeable to the sharp and critical eye. There are several spots where the plot threkens only by virtue of some quickly borrowed glue. Mr. Stewart made some largescale departures from Mr. Barry's play, but each time his only accomplishment seemed to be to get the picture out on a limb. From there the nervous transitions back to the original scene are abrupt and rather obvious. Charity begins — and stays — at home. The story, with a nod to Mr. Barry, is that of a widowed girl who marries a love-weary scientist for the sake of convenience and nothing more. She has no desire to be unfaithful to the memory of her late lamented spouse, and he doesn't wish to be diverted from his experiments with an oxygen mask. But both are (comparatively) young and healthy, he is oddly inclined to walk in his sleep and she has the greatest difficulty keeping her feet warm on cold and lonesome nights. So one thing leads to another. There are rivals and confusions, of course. And — well, if you can't guess the ending, you can go to the theatre and be surprised. Indeed, you should all go to the theatre, for, despite its gab and weaknesses in spots. "Without Love" is really most amusing. And that goes for its bright particular stars. Miss Hepburn gives a mischievous performance as the girl who really wants to be chased, and Mr. Tracy is charmingly acerbic when confronted with her cool or coy wiles. Keenan Wynn is delightfully diverting as a typical Barry souse and Lucille Ball throws the wise-cracks like baseballs as a good old wise-guy friend. The best to be said for the direction of Harold S. Bucquet is that he let the two stars go. You can bet that this spring a lot of fancies are going to turn lightly to "Without Love." NEW YORK POST March 23, 1945 Tracy and Hepburn Make "Without Love" En/oyable POST MOVIE MET SB POOR • FAIR • GOOD • EXCELLENT By ARCHER WINSTEN IT ET us sit down calmly and gnaw on this I , proposition for a few minutes. A young widow who has known a. love so great that she cannot imagine another meets a man who has been brutally disillusioned by a dame. Question: How long will it take them to get together? Answer: Long enough to make "Without Love," a feature-length attraction at the Radio City Music Hall. This is also a vehicle for the varied, contrasting and popular talents of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Despite a dearth of deep-laid surprises, the picture is distinctly enjoyable. This is largely due to the fact that Philip Barry, author of the stage play, can produce a certain kind of fresh veneer. When this, in turn, has been put fresh veneer. When this, i nturn, has been put through the needling mind of screenplay author Donald Ogden Stewart, there is ample guarantee of word surfaces that satisfy. Emphasis on Wit Not to take the edge off any of these, it should be safe to note that Keenan Wynn, careening about as an amiable drunk, maintains the innate wit with a minimum shrinkage due to personal manner. Miss Hepburn, on the other hand, occasionally sounds like one of those flat-voiced caricatures of herself. It's all right, because she can turn it off in due season, and she does. Mvss Hepburn is the girl who has to start life anew. Needless to say, no gentler starter could be found than Spencer Tracy. In addition to disillusion, he's also wrapped up in science as applied to an oxygen mask for high altitude combat flying. Others on view are Lucille Ball as a girl who can throw herself wholeheartedly into a kiss, Carl Esmond as a wolf with a foreign aceent, and Patricia Morison as another girl trying to dominate Mr. Wynn. The picture's general conclusion does not materially differ from the widespread dogma that love conquers all. In the movies the background is bigger, the people more impressive. When you see love embroidering the edges of Miss Hepburn's shining armor and penetrating the defenses in depth of Spencer Tracy, ycu realize that resistance is useless. The process is accompanied by laughter. The results harm no one. The young will And nothing worse than somnambulism to corrupt; their elders may be able to draw some comfort from the Bow Boy's ability to hit the hearts of such mature citizens as Tracy and Hepburn. NEW YORK PM March 23, 1945 Love Takes a Holiday By JOHN T. McMANUS WITHOUT LOVE is not really without love at all, of course. Rather, it is endowed from almost the very outset with a deepgrowing, fraternal sort of affection which lifts the film out of the moonglow class and up to a rather mature and infectious level of modern marital comedy. Throughout its pleasant episodes. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn and especially Keenan Wynn enjoy a filmplayers' romp with a particularly well-turned MOTION PICTURE CRITICS' REVIEWS Motion Picture Herald, April 7, 1945 Advertisement