Adam's Rib

"Adam's Rib" (1949)

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ADAM'S RIB

Reviewed by Heather Picker

Directed by George Cukor. Screenplay by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. Starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, with Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell, Jean Hagen, and David Wayne. 1949, 101 min., Not Rated.

Battle-of-the-sexes films have long been a comedic staple, and Adam's Rib is one of the best examples of the sub-genre. It opens with a wife trailing her cheating husband, following him into his hotel room and, removing a gun from her purse, shooting him. Cut to Assistant District Attorney Adam Bonner (Spencer Tracy) and his lawyer wife, Amanda (Katharine Hepburn), reading - and arguing - about the crime in the next days paper. The gunwoman, Doris Attinger (Judy Holliday), is set to stand trial for the attempted murder of two-timing Warren (Tom Ewell), and when Adam's assigned the case Amanda does a bit of ambulance chasing to become her defender.

The Bonners prepare for the trial, unaware of how troublesome it will prove for them both personally and professionally. A by-the-book go-getter, Adam firmly believes in the legal system: Doris did the crime and she should do the time. Amanda presents something different to the jury, changing the focus of the case from law to sexual politics. The courtroom becomes a circus, and her strategy the bone of contention in their marriage.

In writing Adam's Rib, married screenwriters Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin crafted a witty screenplay that brings the funny while focusing on gender equality issues, and the result is something defter than what similar efforts produced in another Tracy/Hepburn film, Woman of the Year (1942), without the moralizing. Tracy and Hepburn, in their fifth joint venture, display their usual spirited chemistry, and are supported by one of the finest comedic casts of the 1940s. Holliday is uniformly marvelous in another of her patented ditz roles, and Ewell is as whiny and smarmy as he was eight years later in The Seven Year Itch. Jean Hagen marks the most of her scenes as Warren's mistress, Beryl, and David Wayne steals scenes as Kip Lurie, the Bonners' flamboyant singer-songwriter neighbor. Director George Cukor's touch is light as ever; the only misstep comes in an unnecessary sequence that finds Amanda questioning a series of women unrelated to the case.

Availability: Adam's Rib is available on video and DVD, both on its own and as part of the Warner Brothers Hepburn & Tracy Collection.

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