4. Without Love

Without Love is the third of the Tracy-Hepburn films, and the fourth film in TCM's Summer Under the Stars.

The story is that Pat Jamieson (Tracy) is a scientist without a place to go in Washington D.C. He meets Quentin Ladd (Keenan Wynn) drunk in a cab, and ends up staying at his cousin's large home. The cousin happens to be Jamie Rowan (Hepburn), who is looking for a housekeeper with her business manager, played by Lucille Ball. Pat is working for the government, doing something with oxygen for the war effort.

Pat and Jamie end up talking about their past love lives, and it turns out that Jamie is a widow and doesn't want to get married again because she's had all the best of love (or so she thinks!). Pat, on the other hand, was jilted by his fiance and has had all the worst of love. Eventually, they end up getting married -- a strictly platonic marriage, of course! -- and work together on the oxygen project.

Eventually, the platonic marriage starts not to work, and Pat thinks that Jamie wants to leave him for a Spanish man and Jamie thinks that Pat wants to go back to his ex-fiance. They eventually end up admitting their love for one another -- the best part is when Pat realizes that he loves Jamie while testing the oxygen mask that they've created right before passing out. Yay, happy ending.

Keenan Wynn and Lucille Ball are excellent as the second leads. Definitely not one of the best Hepburn-Tracy films (my personal favorite is Desk Set, but only because it's set in a library and has Gig Young in the second lead), but enjoyable.