Swing Shift

Swing Shift is a 1984 comedy-drama starring Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Ed Harris and Christine Lahti.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Kay Walsh’s husband, Jack, enlists in the Navy, leaving her home alone and unsure what to do with herself. After seeing a newsreel calling for female factory workers, she goes in and is hired for the swing shift along with her neighbor, Hazel, who at first doesn’t particularly like her thanks to Jack’s casual prejudice against her and her profession as a lounge singer.

She also meets Lucky, one of the factory leadmen, who was turned down by the Army due to a heart defect. He hits on Kay constantly for weeks until she finally agrees to go to dinner with him, only to freak out and leave when she sees her landlords at the restaurant. Lucky backs off for a while, while Kay develops more competence at work and confidence in herself, going from a naïve housewife to a Wrench Wench who can fix her own kitchen appliances. Eventually she does agree to go out with Lucky, and begins an affair with him, which predictably does not end well.


 * Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder - Kay.
 * Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other - Hazel and Biscuit.
 * Character Development - Both Kay and Hazel, but Kay in particular.
 * Deadpan Snarker - Hazel.
 * Defrosting Ice Queen - Hazel.
 * Everybody Smokes - It IS set in World War II, after all.
 * First Guy Wins - Kay and Jack ultimately get back together.
 * Glamorous Wartime Singer - Hazel, until she loses her job and goes to work in the factory with Kay.
 * Hair of Gold - Kay.
 * The Ingenue - Kay.
 * Jerkass - Jack is a very mild variant, when it comes to Hazel. He pokes fun at her when he sees her go by, but he doesn’t seem to realize how mean it actually is. Prior to the war, he comes across as almost as naïve as Kay.
 * Newsreel - How Kay finds out about the factory job.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname - Lucky and Biscuit, until the end of the movie.
 * Romance on the Set - Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell first met while making this movie, and later married entered into a long-term relationship.
 * Stay in the Kitchen - Kind of. It’s not that Jack wants to keep Kay isolated, he just doesn’t think she should have to work, that it’s a poor reflection on him if she does need to.
 * Took a Level in Badass - Kay, in a sense. She goes from a naïve, uncertain engenue to a confident Wrench Wench who winds up Leadman of her crew.
 * Wardrobe Malfunction - Of the Real Life, unintentional variety. The theatrical release and even the first VHS run are notorious for failing to catch the fact that during a scene after Jack has taken a shower, the camera got a shot straight up his towel. They (eventually) caught it and added a Digital Bikini.
 * Wide-Eyed Idealist - Kay again, to start with.
 * World War II - The setting.
 * Wrench Wench - Kay and Hazel.
 * Your Cheating Heart - Kay and Lucky. It ends about as badly as the trope usually does.