Diane Jergens

Desk Set -- Two extremely strong personalities clash over the computerization of a TV network's research department.

Friendly Persuasion -- A devout Southern Indiana Quaker family attempts to resist the call to arms during the Civil War, but their pacifism is sorely tested by the events that engulf them in this classic film directed by William Wyler.

Based on the Broadway play by Robert Fryer and Lawrence Carr, Desk Set is the sixth screen teaming of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Hepburn plays Bunny Watson, the head of a TV network research department; Tracy plays Richard Sumner, an efficiency expert hired to modernize Watson's operation. When Sumner has a huge computer installed, Watson and her co-workers (including Joan Blondell and Sue Randall) fear that they're going to lose their jobs. Their suspicions are confirmed when the computer merrily begins issuing pink termination slips. Something is obviously amiss: the computer not only fires the ladies, but also the head of the network, and Sumner, who isn't even on the company payroll! Summer explains that the computer was designed to help Watson and her staff and not replace them; he also confesses that, given the pink-slip incident, this might not have been such a hot idea. Watson, who has fallen in love with Sumner, is in just the right mood to forgive him.

A devout Southern Indiana Quaker family attempts to resist the call to arms during the Civil War, but their pacifism is sorely tested by the events that engulf them in this classic film directed by William Wyler ("Ben Hur," "The Best Years of Our Lives"). Intriguing events unfold as a young Quaker woman falls in love with a soldier. Moving and often humorous story of the painful changes confronting five families and the choices they are forced to make. Starring screen legend Gary Cooper ("High Noon," "The Pride of the Yankees"), Oscar-nominee Dorothy McGuire ("Gentleman's Agreement," "The Greatest Story Ever Told") and Anthony Perkins ("Psycho," "Murder on the Orient Express"). Leonard Maltin gives this classic film his highest rating, "****" (four stars).