Without Love (1945) was a fun, quirky movie starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, which I stumbled on to it a few weeks ago. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I enjoyed the witty and crisp dialogue.

This was one of 9 films made by the pair between 1942 and 1967.

Most of their movies were romantic comedies like this one.

Spencer plays a scientist named Patrick Jamison who is down on his luck and looking for a place to stay.

Katharine is a widow  named Jamie who has a house she needs a caretaker for and hires Patrick to fill the position. They both learn they have a love for science and agree to marry to meet their “patriotic duty.” Both have been hurt in the past, though, and decide to keep the relationship platonic.

Lucille Ball plays Katharine’s friend, Kitty Tremble.

Jamie and Patrick are both very scientific, logical, and serious people who can’t let love get in the way. So, instead, they focus on working on experiments, including one involving velocity.

Parallel to their lack of romance is Lucille’s relationship with Keenan Wynn, where love is blooming even though Kitty isn’t sure she wants it to.

I will say the movie is a little awkward to watch if you read about Spencer and Katharine’s real life romance, which was a 27-year affair because Spencer was Catholic and wouldn’t divorce his wife. He and his wife lived separately for years but Katharine was apparently a frequent guest in his hotel bungalow or apartment. Their affair was an open secret that Kathrine spoke about after he and his wife were both dead.

So in this movie Katharine’s character asks Spencer’s character to marry him and I wonder if she did that in real life too. She seemed hopelessly devoted to a man who couldn’t commit to her and continued to break his wedding vows while saying he felt guilty but never stopping it. That’s pathetic of him to me.

Katharine and Spencer’s first movie together was Woman of the Year in 1942. The public loved it and another movie with them, Keeper of the Flame, was released the same year but flopped.

Philip Barry wrote the play version of The Philadelphia Story in 1939 and the movie was made with Katharine, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart in 1940.

Barry wrote a play version of Without Love with Katharine in mind and she agreed to do the play in 1942. She wanted Spencer to do the play with her but even then his drinking was an issue and the producers cast Elliott Nugett.

Later, when MGM wanted one more try at a movie with them together, Katharine suggested a movie version of Without You.

The movie was directed by  Harold S. Bucquet.

Donald Ogden Stewart wrote the screenplay from Barry’s play.

Critics liked the movie but some said Keenan  and Lucille stole the show.

“It is good to see Lucille Ball doing so well with a kind of role new to her,” wrote James Agee in The Nation.

Lucille  had moved to MGM from RKO and hadn’t had a lot to do since being in Stage Door with Katharine in 1937.

I was surprised to read on TCM.com that Lucy was married to Desi Arnaz at the time and suing him for divorce for infidelity. They reconciled and would, of course, go on to make the I Love Lucy Show that skyrocketed Lucy into stardom and made them both a household name.

They divorced for real in 1960 for the same reasons Lucy almost divorced him for in 1945.

I found this one on Amazon but you can also watch it for free on Tubi.

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Resources/additional sources:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038256/

https://www.tcm.com/articles/62619/without-love

If you are interested in more reviews or blog posts about old movies, you can find a link to my past reviews at the top of the page and you can also visit The Classic Movie Blog Association.