State of the Union is one of the Katharine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy movies I have not seen before today. Also, I followed it up with Pat and Mike so there are almost none left for me to discover. Granted, I can’t say I am exactly in a Hepburn/Tracy mood after this one, because it ended up disappointing me a bit.
And I guess maybe I should not have had such big expectations, but come on — with this cast? Apart from the iconic duo, there is Angela Lansbury, who kind of is the main character and villain, which is very interesting (and, spoiler, she is truly the star of the show), and Van Johnson who is playing the kind of role he seems to always be playing, which is to me forever charming and amusing.
Lansbury is a newspaper tycoon who decides to promote her lover, Tracy (!!!) into becoming the next US president. Another disappointment in the film stems from the fact that the beginning is truly great, the start of the intrigue is thrilling and funny.
Who’d have thought that the quality of State of the Union would go downhill when Katharine Hepburn showed up? But somehow it happened! Because from a fun screenplay about shady politics, we go into something that is mostly… a love triangle. What is this, a 2010s Young Adult adaptation?
I feel like Hepburn’s character had real potential and the film would have been much better if they let her be more sassy and blunt, we know Katharine could do that. Still, I guess the film can be praised for talking bluntly about how dirty and insincere politicians are. It is a pretty good movie, but not a very good Katharine Hepburn movie.
Swingin' at the Seance 