Trailer
Plot summary
Sam Craig covers sports for the New York Chronicle, and Tess Harding writes its political affairs column. When Tess says on the radio that baseball should be scrapped while the war lasts, Sam defends it, and their editor orders an end to the feud. Sam takes her to Yankee Stadium, where she does not know the rules, and she invites him to her apartment, where he walks into a cocktail party of guests speaking foreign languages. Champagne arrives as an apology, and she asks him to drive her to the airport. On the way back he talks with her aunt, the feminist Ellen Whitcomb, who tells him to marry her. Tess's secretary Gerald arranges a wedding far grander than the one Sam had in mind.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Woman of the Year (1942)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- According to Ring Lardner Jr., the ending of Woman of the Year was changed against Katharine Hepburn's wishes while both screenwriters were on vacation in New York; the change was instigated by Louis B. Mayer, producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz and director George Stevens, and the new ending was written uncredited by John Lee Mahin.
- Woman of the Year was first shot with a different ending that proved unpopular at test screenings, so the final fifteen minutes of the film were rewritten and shot again.
- Woman of the Year was the first of the nine films Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy made together; they met for the first time on the shoot, where Hepburn, in high heels, told the shorter Tracy 'I'm afraid I'm a bit tall for you, Mr. Tracy.' Producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz replied, 'Don't worry, Kate, he'll cut you down to size.'
- Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy became romantically involved during the filming of Woman of the Year, a relationship that lasted until Tracy's death in 1967.
- The character of Tess Harding in Woman of the Year was based on Dorothy Thompson, an American journalist and radio broadcaster who was highly influential.
