SCREEN TEST: DESK SET DIALOG
American Film's™ first Screen Test is designed to challenge the screenwriter in you. We'll start you off with dialog from a classic film, then offer three possible responses, only one of which was used in the movie.
The film is DESK SET (1957), starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. In our scene, written by Phoebe and Henry Ephron based on the play by William Marchant, a visiting computer expert treats the head of a network's reference department to a picnic in the dead of winter and administers an intelligence test. The questions have to do with math and logic, but the scene is pure chemistry.
Tracy's character is named Richard Sumner and Hepburn's Bunny Watson, presumably a reference to Alexander Graham Bell's assistant and, coincidentally, the name of the IBM computer which defeated three JEOPARDY! champions last year. It seems that any way you slice it in the computer vs. human contest, Watson wins. Will you?
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SUMNER A detective broke into an apartment, found Harry and Grace on the floor dead. Beside them was a small pool of water and some fragments of broken glass. Above them on a sofa looking down at them was a pet cat, his back arched. The detective concluded without further investigation that the victims had died of strangulation. How was this conclusion possible? WATSON Never assume, hmm? SUMNER Never assume. |
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CUT! What is the answer to this quiz-within-a-quiz? Identify the line Miss Watson uttered in the film and you will have passed your screen test. Fail and you might be replaced by a computer! PLEASE CHOOSE AN ANSWER: You answered correctly! The correct answer is two. Incidentally, Sumner's reply was: "No, they were rare tropical fish – like you." Thanks for playing! |
For more on DESK SET, visit the AFI Catalog of Feature Films