I Ain't No Dog Tied to a Parked Car (Part 4)

This recurring section is devoted to the art of having a long-term relationship. The title is lifted from a Lou Reed song, in which he says,
"I don't want to give it up,
I want to stay married.
I ain't no dog tied to a parked car."

Okay,okay. He turned around and got divorced later, but that's not the point. Stick with me, we're going back to the cinema.

I recently saw Woman of the Year again. For those who don't know it, Hepburn and Tracey are the leads and considering it came out in 1942, the movie is surprisingly hip in some ways. Sam Craig (Spencer Tracey) seems legitimately turned on by Tess Harding's (Kathryn Hepburn) smarts, there is the clear indication that premarital sex is at least possible, and when the marriage gets off to a rocky start -- Sam does not insist she quit her job. And then there's the nasty business about returning the little Greek refugee boy to the orphanage...

But none of that is the real kicker. The backstage scoop was that this movie marked the beginning of Hepburn and Tracey's off-screen relationship, which would go on for some 25 years. One only need to watch a scene in which Tess asks Sam up to her pad after a date to get the hint why this turned out to be so.

The scene is shot in a shadowed room at a distance and includes only five or six lines of dialogue. The couple remains in silhouette, and yet even then the chemistry between them is obvious. They don't even know where to begin with one another.

And I think that scene shares the lesson we can shake out is this: Ain't nothin like the heat, kid. And don't you forget it.