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Adam's Rib
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A playful allusion to the Book of Genesis, ADAM'S RIB is an inspired farce and perhaps the best showcase for the fantastic Spencer...
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A playful allusion to the Book of Genesis, ADAM'S RIB is an inspired farce and perhaps the best showcase for the fantastic Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn duo. George Cukor uses the chemistry between his stars to create a delightful, sophisticated comedy about the battle between the sexes, based on a sharp and sprightly Oscar-nominated script by Cukor's collaborators, Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. When two married lawyers take opposite sides of a case, they create comic fireworks both in and out of court. District Attorney Adam Bonner (Tracy) prosecutes a young woman, Doris Attinger (Judy Holliday), who has shot her philandering husband's mistress; her attorney and Bonner's wife, Amanda (Hepburn), is determined to prove that the prosecution's case is only a reflection of sexist double standards. Amanda thinks that women should have the right to do exactly what men have done for years--get revenge. ADAM'S RIB is a film that is superbly directed, written, and acted, a true romantic comedy in classic Cukor ...
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4 Reviews from Shopping.com
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Adam's Rib (1949)
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Pros: cast, script, direction
Cons: exaggerated, unsympathetic characters
"Adam's Rib" is a comedy starring Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, one of many films that they made together. The film is well cast and well directed, with a fairly good script. The script does resort to petty bickering, and some of the characters should have been made more sympathetic. The script also makes unnecessary points about gender equality.
The story has Tracy and Hepburn as a married couple. Tracy is a Prosecutor, Hepburn an attorney, and they end up on opposite sides of an attempted murder trial. Judy Holliday is the not-too-bright defendant, having shot her negligent husband Tom Ewell after catching him with floosie Jean Hagen. Hepburn's defense relies on the dubious assumption that a husband would be found innocent of such a shooting, and thus convicting Holliday would be a sexist double standard. The Tracy/Hepburn marriage is strained by Hepburn's zealous defense, and also by obnoxious composer David Wayne, who has the hots for Hepburn.
This comedy has two love triangles, Holliday-Ewell-Hagen and Tracy-Hepburn-Wayne. One problem is that all members of the first triangle are unsympathetic, and that justice would be served by locking them all indefinitely in the same jail cell. The second love triangle is more interesting, especially since Hepburn subtly encourages Wayne's behavior. Movie audiences at the time may have taken a pool as to when Spencer would finally take a punch at Wayne. Certainly no jury would convict him of assault.
The point being made by the Ruth Gordon/Garson Kanin script is that there is little difference between the sexes. During the trial, Hepburn puts three women on the stand. They have no relevance to the case, except that they have all succeeded in 'masculine' fields. Hepburn makes a circus of the trial, enraging Tracy. Tracy is clearly the more sympathetic of the protagonists.
The basic story is good, and served as a premise for an "Adam's Rib" television series in 1973. The script received an Oscar nomination, and the New York Film Critics Circle awarded Judy Holliday their Best Actress award. (66/100)
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