The point isn't what happens, but how it happens, and under the direction of George Cukor--working from the script by Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon--Tracy and Hepburn turn in unforgettable performances.
100
The New YorkerPauline Kael
The New YorkerPauline Kael
George Cukor directed--beautifully. It's as close to perfect as you'd want it to be.
90
The Observer (UK)
The Observer (UK)
This undervalued comic masterpiece, scripted by the husband-and-wife team of Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, would be a fine film even if it didn't try to be funny, which it so successfully does. [06 May 2007, p.64]
Pat and Mike is notable for featuring such actual female sports stars as Babe Didrickson Zaharias and Betty Hicks, and for displaying Hepburn’s own athletic prowess.
One of the better Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn comedies—not so much for the screenplay by Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, which lacks the bite and sophistication of Adam's Rib, as for the relaxed and graceful interplay of the stars.
It is smoothly directed by George Cukor and slyly, amusingly played by the whole cast, especially by its due of easy, adroit, experienced stars.
60
Time Out
Time Out
This is a lazy, episodic, conventional but strangely charming variation on the old comedy formula of initially hostile misfits falling in love (here platonic).