WITHOUT LOVE

WITHOUT LOVE (1945). Director: Harold S. Bucquet.

Spencer Tracy plays a wartime inventor who meets a widow played by Katharine Hepburn. Both have decided never to marry or fall in love again for different but related reasons. Tracy was jilted by a woman, and Hepburn's true love died at an early age; presumably they can do without the pain. They therefore decide to get married "without love," being there for each other as friends -- sort of like their relationship (which has been greatly exaggerated into one of the all-time great "romances") was like in real life; their "love" was of the platonic kind. Although Hepburn is given a nice scene in which she talks about the young man who died, this lacklustre and completely unconvincing comedy-drama only has some oomph whenever Lucille Ball appears as Hepburn's real estate lady, carrying a torch for Keenan Wynn. Despite the cast, this is pretty dull.

Verdict: Watch Desk Set or Adam's Rib instead. **.