Pat and Mike is a 1952 comedy starring Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...

 and Spencer Tracy

Spencer Tracy

Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...

. The movie was directed by George Cukor

George Cukor

George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...

, who also directed The Philadelphia Story and Adam's Rib

Adam's Rib

Adam's Rib is a 1949 American film written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin and directed by George Cukor. It stars Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn as married lawyers who come to oppose each other in court. Judy Holliday co-stars in her first substantial film role...

.

Plot

Pat Pemberton (Hepburn) is a brilliant athlete, except when her domineering fiancé is around. The ladies golf championship is in her reach until she gets flustered by his presence at the final holes. He wants them to get married and forget the whole thing, but she cannot give up on herself that easily. She enlists the help of Mike Conovan (Tracy), a slightly shady sports promoter. Together they face mobsters, a jealous boxer (Aldo Ray

Aldo Ray

Aldo Ray was an American actor.-Life and career:Ray was born in Pen Argyl, PA, to an Italian family of five brothers and one sister. His brother Mario lettered in football at USC in the years 1952-54...

), and a growing mutual attraction.

Production and Filming

Garson Kanin

Garson Kanin

Garson Kanin was a prolific American writer and director of plays and films.-Film and stage career:...

 and Ruth Gordon

Ruth Gordon

Ruth Gordon Jones , better known as Ruth Gordon, was an American actress and writer. She was perhaps best known for her film roles such as Minnie Castevet, Rosemary's overly solicitous neighbor in Rosemary's Baby, as the eccentric Maude in Harold and Maude and as the mother of Orville Boggs in the...

 were close friends of Hepburn and Tracy, and had the idea of writing a film to showcase Hepburn's athletic abilities. She was an avid golfer and tennis player, and indeed performed all the sports footage in the film herself.

Pat and Mike was filmed on location around Los Angeles with many golfing scenes taking place at the Riviera Country Club

Riviera Country Club

The Riviera Country Club is a country club with a championship golf course. It is located in Pacific Palisades, California, a community within the city limits of Los Angeles. The country club opened in 1926, with George C. Thomas, Jr. as the course architect. The course has been the primary host...

. Additional scenes were filmed at Occidental College. Many notable athletes played cameo

Cameo appearance

A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

 roles or play themselves in the film, including golfers Babe Zaharias

Babe Zaharias

Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias was an American athlete who achieved outstanding success in golf, basketball, and track and field...

, Betty Hicks, and Helen Dettweiler

Helen Dettweiler

Helen Dettweiler was an American professional golfer. She won the Women's Western Open in 1939.She was one of the 13 founders of the Ladies Professional Golf Association in 1950.-Wins :-References:...

, and tennis champions Don Budge

Don Budge

John Donald Budge was an American tennis champion who was a World No. 1 player for five years, first as an amateur and then as a professional...

, Gussie Moran

Gussie Moran

Gertrude "Gussie" Agusta Moran is a retired American female tennis player who was active in the 1950s...

 and Alice Marble

Alice Marble

Alice Marble was a World No. 1 American tennis player who won 18 Grand Slam championships : 5 in Singles, 6 in Women's Doubles, and 7 in Mixed Doubles.-Early life:Born in the small town of Beckwourth, Plumas County, California, Marble moved with her family at the age of...

. Other notables in the cast include Charles Bronson

Charles Bronson

Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...

(credited as Charles Buchinsky), Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Jim Backus

Jim Backus

James Gilmore "Jim" Backus was a radio, television, film, and voice actor. Among his most famous roles are the voice of Mr...

, and, in his film debut, Chuck Connors

Chuck Connors

Chuck Connors was an American actor, writer, and professional basketball and baseball player. His best known role from his forty-year film career was Lucas McCain in the 1960s ABC hit Western series The Rifleman....

 of "The Rifleman."

Music

The score for the film was composed and conducted by David Raksin

David Raksin

David Raksin was an American composer born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With over 100 film scores and 300 television scores to his credit, he became known as the "Grandfather of Film Music." One of his earliest film assignments was as assistant to Charlie Chaplin in the composition of the score...

, with orchestrations by Robert Franklyn and Ruby Raksin. Of his music, Raksin said "My music was sly and a mite jazzy, and despite the fact that everyone seemed to like it, so did I."

The complete score was issued on cd in 2009, on Film Score Monthly

Film Score Monthly

Film Score Monthly is an online magazine founded by editor-in-chief and executive producer Lukas Kendall in June 1990 as The Soundtrack Correspondence List...

records.