I love many of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy's films, especially ones they did together like "Adam's Rib" and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner". I was eager to see another pairing of their's and happened to stumble upon this one. And I don't think I have been quite as disappointed in watching a movie in quite some time. The movie is definitely watchable, and a lot of that goes to Hepburn's performance alone, as well as some occasionally witty dialog, but overall it tries too hard to be a convincing story about romance, office politics, and things of the sort, and what you have in the end is very little laughs and more frustration than amusement. The movie seems more focused on the cutes between Hepburn and Tracy, but doesn't offer anything genuine, or genuinely funny in doing so. The story for a 1950's comedy could have been terrific if more humor and natural chemistry were evident between the stars. In their other outings Hepburn and Tracy seemed a lot more natural, here it seems like their chemistry is forced in hopes of making a good movie which turns out rather bland and mediocre. I have seen many worse films, but I expected a lot more amusement out of this. Rather than being entertained I kept scratching my head thinking "How could this have gone wrong?" Well somehow it did. I think the film would have been funnier if more was focused on the office politics, supporting characters and less on the forced romance. But since more was focused on the latter, the film was uneven and all opportunities for a bulls-eye in the end were missed for me. Watch the aforementioned Hepburn-Tracy flicks. They have more to offer in the way of entertainment.

. . . the Fox Company blows the lid off the coming crock-pot terrorist bombing of virtually every American job site by Venal Corporate Fat Cats laughing all the way to their banks. The handwriting's on the wall in this whistle-blowing 1957 cautionary tale, and it amounts to a Death Sentence for at least HALF of the U.S. Work Force. When Demonic Pre-Schoolers such as Scott Walker, Steve Bannon, Grover Norquist, Karl Rove, and Paul Ryan were shown this flick by their Devil Nannies, they all rubbed their throbbing "666" birthmarks in nefarious unison at the DESK SET's single mention of Union Protection, and these precocious Toddler Imps vowed to eradicate the one single hope of We Normal Honest Average Patriotic Working Blue Collar Loyal Americans once they grew up. Of course, there's NO mention of Mexico in DESK SET, because ALL of our stolen jobs ACTUALLY were swiped by the Job-Killing Corporate Suits' robots and automation. Red State schools "teach" nothing but Fake "Facts" and Lies, but Fox sets the record straight BEFORE THE FACT with DESK SET. Now that the Oligarchical Red Commie KGB has allowed U.S. Billionaires to steal what little power they previously lacked, DESK SET shows that all of us non-Billionaires are totally doomed!

Some very naturalistic acting by the leads enlivens this offering. Gig Young once again plays the romantic runner-up, this time to Spencer Tracy vying for Katharine Hepburn. The story seems to be ahead of its time, reminding the audience that machines are not supposed to be a substitute for the human touch. Instead, machines make it possible for the human being to be more efficient -- in business, if not always in love.This was the penultimate film pairing of Tracy and Hepburn. Their last film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, would not occur until a decade later.

My ladyfriend wanted very much to see this showing at the Lawrence (KS) public library. On reading the IMDb reviews, although it was not of much interest to me, since it was to her, we went. (She didn't want to hear anything said in the reviews since they might be "spoilers" to her; I think Hepburn & Tracy were the big draw for her.)I thought the narrative was formulaic and predictable but it did provide the opportunity for Hepburn & Tracy to do "their thing." My ladyfriend loved it; I found it a bit interesting.I very much commend the User Review made by "secondtake," posted 28July2010.I agree with everything that reviewer said but rate this film just a smidge higher than that reviewer did.(Please, adjust your search of these User Reviews to "Chronological" and then scan them for that review on that date. Feel free, of course, to read any others.)