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Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn made nine feature films together, released from 1942 to 1967. This ranking weighs comic writing and performance, dramatic force, the distinctiveness of their on-screen partnership, and each film’s continuing cultural or historical significance. The order is an editorial judgment, not an official consensus.
How this ranking works
The films are ranked for what they achieve on screen, not for the fame of Tracy and Hepburn’s off-screen relationship. Strong comic chemistry matters, but so do dramatic conviction, the shape of the characters’ relationship, and a film’s place in American movie history. The nine titles below are ordered from the least compelling overall to the strongest.
![The Tracy & Hepburn Signature Collection (2011) [DVD] [1942]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Kb3fjLRWL._SL160_.jpg)
AFI’s filmographies date their first jointly released feature, Woman of the Year, to 1942. Turner Classic Movies describes the partnership as lasting from 1941 to 1967; that earlier date refers to the beginning of their working relationship or production chronology, not a separate released film. AFI’s catalog entries list nine shared features through Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967).
9. The Sea of Grass (1947)
This Western drama puts Tracy and Hepburn in a story far removed from the urbane marital sparring that would become their best-known mode. Its value in the cycle is the contrast: it asks them to carry a serious relationship drama rather than trade comic volleys. That shift gives their pairing a different texture, but the film is less distinctive as a showcase for their shared screen dynamic than the sharper comedies and more forceful dramas ranked above it.
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- DVD
- Classic Collection
- Viva Multi-Disc (6-10)
- Multi Disc
- Classic Collection
8. Keeper of the Flame (1942)
In this drama, Tracy and Hepburn work in a more serious register than in Woman of the Year, their other release from 1942. The film earns a place in the ranking for showing the pair outside a romantic-comedy framework, and for the tension its dramatic premise creates. Its comparatively restrained use of their contrasting personalities makes it less memorable as a collaboration than the films higher on this list.
7. Without Love (1945)
This romantic comedy builds its appeal around the contrast between Tracy and Hepburn, with the pair’s exchanges carrying much of the pleasure. It is an important early example of the screen partnership settling into a recognizable rhythm. The limitation is that the familiar interplay is more compelling than the film’s overall dramatic shape; later comedies give their verbal and emotional push-pull a more distinctive framework.
Rank #2
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6. State of the Union (1948)
This political drama moves the pair into a public world of ambition and competing loyalties. Its strength is the seriousness of the material: Tracy and Hepburn’s relationship has consequences beyond romantic banter, and their performances bring weight to a story about private choices under public pressure. It ranks below the top five because its dramatic machinery leaves less room for the lively, finely balanced interplay that makes their best collaborations endure.
5. Desk Set (1957)
Desk Set is a workplace romantic comedy, and its appeal rests on the ease with which Tracy and Hepburn turn professional friction into flirtation. The film shows how well their mature screen personas could sustain a light, conversational comedy. It lands in the middle of the ranking because its charm is substantial, but the stakes and character dynamic feel less unusual than in the films above it.
4. Pat and Mike (1952)
This sports comedy gives Hepburn’s character a notably active role and makes the couple’s dynamic part of the film’s forward motion. Tracy’s presence is not simply a foil for her: the comedy works through their negotiation of confidence, independence, and attraction. That gives the pairing a welcome variation from domestic or professional sparring. It misses the top three because its pleasures are more character-and-performance driven than historically or dramatically expansive.
3. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)
Their final shared feature places Tracy and Hepburn in a drama shaped by changing social attitudes and family conflict. Its historical resonance gives it a weight that few of their other collaborations can match, while the two stars bring decades of accumulated screen familiarity to the story. The film ranks third because its significance is immense, though the central appeal is not the quick-fire comic partnership that defines their strongest comedies.
Rank #4
![Woman of the Year (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519BcEfUWdL._SL160_.jpg)
- Woman of the Year (The Criterion Collection)
- PHYSICAL FILM
- The Criterion Collection
2. Woman of the Year (1942)
The first jointly released feature establishes the contrast that would animate much of the partnership: two accomplished people with sharply different temperaments trying to make a relationship work. Its comic energy comes from the clash as much as the attraction, and it gives the pair an unusually clear foundation for everything that follows. It falls just short of the top position because a later film turns that same battle of equals into an even more sustained and inventive comedy.
1. Adam’s Rib (1949)
Adam’s Rib is the most complete Tracy–Hepburn collaboration: a comedy built around two formidable partners whose professional conflict intensifies rather than diminishes their intimacy. The writing gives both performers room to make arguments, land jokes, and expose the affection beneath the competition. Its central dynamic feels specific to this pair, not simply a vehicle for their celebrity. AFI identifies it as the sixth of their nine collaborations and includes it on its list of the funniest films, a distinction that supports its place among the cycle’s major comedies without dictating this ranking.
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Why the partnership works on screen
The films are more interesting when treated as a sequence of changing dramatic arrangements, rather than as nine repetitions of a famous romance. Their characters meet as adversaries, colleagues, spouses, and partners in stories with very different stakes. A recollection attributed by Turner Classic Movies to their close friend and director George Cukor captures one part of that dynamic: “He could be extremely gruff with her, that was the little roughneck boy from Milwaukee filtering through, but he had enormous respect for her and he listened to her.” TCM also describes the pair’s private relationship as kept from public view with press cooperation; that is TCM’s account, and it should not be mistaken for the subject of every film they made together.
Quick Recap
All nine films in release order
| Release year | Film | Rank here |
|---|---|---|
| 1942 | Woman of the Year | 2 |
| 1942 | Keeper of the Flame | 8 |
| 1945 | Without Love | 7 |
| 1947 | The Sea of Grass | 9 |
| 1948 | State of the Union | 6 |
| 1949 | Adam’s Rib | 1 |
| 1952 | Pat and Mike | 4 |
| 1957 | Desk Set | 5 |
| 1967 | Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner | 3 |
Sources
- American Film Institute Catalog filmographies for Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn — shared titles, roles, and release years.
- American Film Institute, “Adam’s Rib (1949) – AFI Movie Club” — sixth collaboration and AFI funniest-films context.
- Turner Classic Movies, “Spencer Tracy Profile – Starring Spencer Tracy – 1/14” — nine-film span, private-relationship account, and the Cukor recollection as attributed by TCM.
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