Editing Desk Set (section)

==Reception==
[[Bosley Crowther]], film critic of ''[[The New York Times]]'', felt the film was "out of dramatic kilter", inasmuch as Hepburn was simply too "formidable" to convincingly play someone "scared by a machine", resulting in "not much tension in this thoroughly lighthearted film".<ref>{{cite news |title=Desk Set (1957) |author=Bosley Crowther |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 16, 1957 |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D03E3D91631E63ABC4E52DFB366838C649EDE}}</ref>

The ''[[New York Post]]'' review was mixed: "There are such sops to sentiment as Miss Hepburn's willingness to be dragged altarwards by the young head of her department, [[Gig Young]], who kindly lets her do her most impressive work, and a growing understanding between Hepburn and the rather remote and intellectually Olympian Tracy....Running true to form, the sex narrative follows a predictable pattern, rewarding honest virtue and slapping down the unworthy, and the other, scientific trail is permitted a twist that may surprise any who have found themselves emotionally involved in that timely problem of technological unemployment....'Desk Set,' let us conclude, is a shining piece of machinery brought to a high polish, and, delivered with appropriate performances, flourishes. Affection, though, it cannot inspire."<ref>[[Archer Winsten|Winsten, Archer]] (16 May 1957). {{" '}}Desk Set' Comes to Roxy Theater." ''New York Post'', 44.</ref>

[[Time (magazine)|''TIME'' magazine]] wrote: "At long last, somebody has a kind word for the girls in the research department. The word: one of those electronic brains could do the job much better and with less back chat—and what's more, it would free the girls' energies for the more important job of getting a man....Desk Set has been expanded [from the play] by a sizable pigeonhole, in which [Hepburn and Tracy] intermittently bill and coo....On the whole, the film compares favorably with the play....And though Actress Hepburn tends to wallow in the wake of Shirley Booth...she never quite sinks in the comic scenes, and in the romantic ones she is light enough to ride the champagne splashes of emotion as if she were going over Niagara in a barrel. Spencer Tracy has one wonderful slapstick scene, and Gig Young does very well with a comic style for which he is much beholden to William Holden."<ref>''TIME'', 27 May 1957.</ref>

The ''[[Philadelphia Inquirer]]'' was critical: "The middle-aged excesses of Miss Hepburn and Tracy...leave a good deal to be desired. Equipped with an insubstantial vehicle, bogged down by surprisingly flat-footed direction...the stars come close to being embarrassing as they bound through roles involving them in office nonsense about a mechanical brain, a bibulous Christmas party, an innocent, but suspecting, dinner in negligee Katie's rain-bound flat....Marchant's foolish little comedy gains nothing via the Phoebe and Henry Ephron adaptation. Long recitations from "Hiawatha" and "The Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight," plus question-and-answer games...in addition to the repetitiousness of the central idea...turn 'Desk Set's' 104 minutes into an endurance contest for cast and audience."<ref>"At the Fox: Hepburn, Tracy in 'Desk Set'." ''Philadelphia Inquirer'', 30 May 1957, 10.</ref>

Today the film is seen far more favorably, with the sharpness of the script praised in particular. It has achieved a rare 100% rating on [[Rotten Tomatoes]] based on 22 reviews, with a [[weighted arithmetic mean|weighted average]] of 6.78/10. The site's consensus reads: "''Desk Set'' reunites one of cinema's most well-loved pairings for a solidly crafted romantic comedy that charmingly encapsulates their timeless appeal".<ref>{{Cite Rotten Tomatoes | id=desk_set | type=movie | title=Desk Set | access-date=30 June 2019}}</ref> Dennis Schwartz of Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews called it an "inconsequential sex comedy," but contended "the star performers are better than the material they are given to work with" and that "the comedy was so cheerful and the banter between the two was so refreshingly smart that it was easy to forgive this bauble for not being as rich as many of the legendary duo's other films together."<ref>{{cite web|url= https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/deskset|title=Desk Set (aka: His Other Woman)|author=Dennis Schwartz |publisher=Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews |date= August 5, 2019 |access-date=December 23, 2023}}</ref>