Stream Selected Films of Spencer Tracy
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1941 Based on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Directed by Victor Fleming. You know the story. Dr. Henry Jekyll (Spencer Tracy), who specializes in mental illness, is conducting experiments which posit good and evil sides of the brain can be defined and perhaps separately treated by drugs. His endeavors are looked upon as blasphemous and/or a crackpot by both peers and his father-in-law-to-be Sir Charles Emery (Donald Crisp) who questions Jekyll’s marriage to daughter, Beatrix (Lana Turner).
The protagonist tries the formula on himself and morphs into lascivious, violent Mr. Hyde first by design, then without control. Damage and death trail in his wake.
Tracy’s naturalistic acting works as Dr. Jekyll, but his Mr. Hyde (messy hair, bushy eyebrows, eye make-up, jutted jaw) is so over the top, it keeps the character from credibility. Supporting actors are solid as is the production. This is a remake of the Academy Award winning 1931 version with Frederic March. Initial casting had Ingrid Bergman playing the virtuous fiancée of Jekyll and Turner as “bad girl” Ivy. Bergman pleaded with Victor Fleming that she and Turner switch roles. Rent on Amazon Prime.
A Guy Named Joe 1943 can be found in Stream Fantasy Films I: 1930s/40s
Without Love 1945 Based on the Philip Barry play. Directed by Harold S. Bucquet. A low key, lesser known romantic comedy with its own gentle pleasures. Jamie Rowan (Katharine Hepburn), a lonely Washington, D.C. widow, helps the war effort by housing military research scientist, Patrick Jamieson (Spencer Tracy). The latter is oblivious to everything but his work. Cohabiting is awkward until Jamie begins to assist with her boarder’s experiments. Much to his surprise, having aided her deceased husband, she’s knowledgeable and serious.
A bond forms. Eventually the two decide they should marry creating a warm, platonic partnership of benefit to both. It’s clear Jamie’s aware of other feelings before Patrick realizes what’s changed between them. The piece was written expressly for Hepburn who played Jamie on stage. With a cameo by Lucille Ball who would employ the film’s cinematographer when she launched her television show. Rent on Amazon Prime.
The Sea of Grass 1947 Based on the novel by Conrad Richter. Directed by Elia Kazan. 1880. Very much in love, Lutie Cameron (Katharine Hepburn) of St. Louis travels to North Fork, New Mexico to marry cattleman Colonel Jim Brewton (Spencer Tracy). It’s a shock to get off the train in the dusty, two-horse town. The first person Lutie meets is Brice Chamberlain (Melvyn Douglas) who advises she go home. Chamberlain is against Brewton’s bully- takeover of vast lands that should by government decree, be open to homesteaders.
Lutie finds Jim in court where first signs of his tactics are made clear. He drives her out to the rough-living ranch passionately describing his feelings about the prairie. She’s resolved to make the best of things and convinces him to allow at least the couple she met on the train west to set up on local land. At least she’ll have someone to talk to. When tragedy is nudged by cattlemen, instead of taking responsibility, Jim blames his wife. Lutie has a child. It’s increasingly difficult to accept her husband’s attitudes and methods.
On a trip to to think it over, she runs into Chamberlain who’s made no secret of his feelings/serious intentions. They have an affair. Knowing she’ll be unhappy, she returns to Jim and subsequently has another child. Things get worse for Jim, Lutie, and then their children until… The title refers to “the vast grazing empire which covered the western part of North America.” An engaging cattlemen vs. homesteader film elevated by acting and direction. Rent on Amazon Prime.
State of the Union 1948 Based on the Pulitzer-Prize winning play by Russell Crouse and Howard Lindsay. Directed by Frank Capra. Idealistic aircraft tycoon Grant Matthews (Spencer Tracy) is maneuvered into running for president by his lover, Republican newspaper magnate Kay Thorndyke (Angela Lansbury) who plans to be the power behind the throne. Assuming ambition and applause will change his mind, strategist Jim Conover (Adolph Menjou), and campaign manager Spike McManus (Van Johnson), convince him to go on a speaking tour.
Grant’s ex-wife Mary (Katharine Hepburn) agrees to participate in the campaign. She’s aware of her husband’s relationship with Thorndyke but not of his mistress’s Machiavellian plotting. This is a flat-out battle between a man of the people and forces that insidiously corrupt. Well written, directed, and acted. Hepburn stepped in for Claudette Colbert at the last minute. During production, Menjou testified as a friendly witness before the HUAC. On set, Hepburn was “cordial” when they had scenes together but otherwise cut him dead. Free with TCM.com, rent on Xfinity.
Edward My Son 1949 Based on the play by Noel Langely and Robert Morely. Directed by George Cukor. Just after WWI. Arnold Boult (Spencer Tracy) and his wife Evelyn (Deborah Kerr) are devoted to one another and their son, Edward. Evelyn is wary when Arnold goes into a finance business with old friend Harry Simpkin (Mervyn Johns), just released from prison on charges of fraud. Edward grows seriously ill. Only an expensive operation can save the boy. Desperate, Boult decides to burn down the building in order to finance surgery with the insurance money. He’s undiscovered.
Years pass. The now titled Boult grows wealthy, ruthless, and obsessed with Edward who’s protected, spoiled and excused no matter how wild he gets. Evelyn is understandably concerned. Two suicides, two affairs, threats, alcoholism, and search for a grandchild ensue. Like the play, the title character never is seen, focusing the story on his father’s intense experience. Tracy initially resisted playing Boult Sr. but later told Cukor, “It’s rather disconcerting to me to find out how easily I play a heel.” Rent on Amazon Prime.
Father of the Bride 1950 Adapted from the novel by Edward Streeter. Directed by Victor Fleming. A sentimental film with solid family values, very much of its day. Told in flashback after his daughter’s wedding, suburban lawyer Stanley T. Banks (Spencer Tracy) recalls what occurred from the time he and his wife Ellie (Joan Bennett) learn of Kay’s (Elizabeth Taylor) fiancé Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor) to the ceremony. Stanley is skeptical of Dudley, in-laws have a bad initial meeting, the wedding swells exponentially, the incipient couple argue about their honeymoon…you get the idea. Stanley is jealous, proud, and devoted.
Tracy wanted Katharine Hepburn for his screen wife, but it was felt that they were too romantic a team to play a happily domesticated couple with children. Father’s Little Dividend, the sequel, arrived in 1951. Rent both on Amazon Prime.
The Old Man and the Sea 1958 Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway. Directed by John Sturges. Beautiful. An 85 year-old Cuban fisherman, a 14 year-old boy, and the marlin with which the old man has a day and night struggle. Next to no dialogue. One of the first films to use bluescreen compositing technology that combined actors on a soundstage with a pre-filmed background. Critics noted that because Tracy was never allowed to actually catch a marlin, some sequences endure too many cuts. Rent on Amazon Prime.
Inherit the Wind 1960 Adapted from the play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. Directed by Stanley Kramer. A fictionalized account of the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial resulting in John T. Scopes conviction for teaching the theory of evolution to a high school science class against Tennessee state law.
Tracy plays defending attorney Henry Drummond (Clarence Darrow), Fredric March as noted statesman and three-time presidential candidate Matthew Brady (patterned after William Jennings Bryan), Claude Atkins as Reverend Jeremiah Brown, leader of those denouncing Bertram Cates (Dick York, modeled on John Scopes) and Gene Kelly E. K. Hornbeck of the Baltimore Herald (H.L. Menken).
Acting is excellent across the board. The film engages in literary license, but its heart, guts, and large portions of testimony are accurate and unnerving, especially in light of continued creationism forced upon otherwise secular schools today. Free with Amazon Prime.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner 1967 can be found under Stream Tracy and Hepburn
And, of course, the not-to-be-missed Tracy/Hepburn romantic comedies: Adam’s Rib, Woman of the Year, Desk Set, Pat and Mike all on Amazon Prime.
Top photo: Spencer Tracy and Fredric March in Inherit the Wind. Wikimedia Commons – Public Domain
