1973 - when I started asking questions, like, "Why are we all dressed so funny?"

Saturday, January 02, 2016

Technology as We'd Like It to Be


Desk Set 



Desk Set (1957, Dir. Walter Lang) is a delightful romantic comedy starring Tracy and Hepburn (but it gives a strong supporting role to the IBM computer above). Tracy plays an efficiency expert who is tight-lipped about the work he is doing at the research department headed by Hepburn. The film leads us to expect that the ladies in the reference section will be made obsolete by the EMMARAC computer and its matronesque technician played by Neva Patterson but that does not happen. 


Neva Patterson sporting an outfit that is the envy of concentration camp matrons world-wide



Despite the lively libations and hi-jinks at the office (above), the reference section is efficient and in the end the computer does not displace the team but exists to allow them more time to do research.

A bit utopian perhaps but still a delightful little film.



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