MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, Adam's Rib is a peerless comedy predicated on the double standard. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn play Adam and Amanda Bonner, a husband-and-wife attorney team, both drawn to a case of attempted murder. The defendant (Judy Holliday) had tearfully attempted to shoot her husband (Tom Ewell) and his mistress (Jean Hagen). Adam argues that the case is open and shut, but Amanda points out that, if the defendant were a man, he'd be set free on the basis of "the unwritten law." Thus it is that Adam works on behalf of the prosecution, while Amanda defends the accused woman. The trial turns into a media circus, while the Bonners' home life suffers. Adam's Rib represented the film debuts of New York-based actors Jean Hagen, Tom Ewell, and David Wayne (as Hepburn's erstwhile songwriting suitor), and the return to Hollywood of Judy Holliday after her Born Yesterday triumph. One of the best of the Tracy-Hepburn efforts, it inspired a brief 1973 TV series starring Ken Howard and Blythe Danner. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Audio: PCM Mono, 5.1
• Screen: Pan and Scan, Black and White
• Subtitle: English, French, Spanish
• Features:
  • Theatrical trailer

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Story and Screenplay - 1950 (Garson Kanin, Ruth Gordon)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Pic - 1950 (Judy Holliday)

• Library of Congress

•     Won U.S. National Film Registry - 1991

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  George Cukor

• Producer:

  Lawrence Weingarten

• Screenwriter:

  Ruth Gordon, Garson Kanin

• Cinematographer:

  George Folsey

• Composer (Music Score):

  Miklos Rozsa

• Editor:

  George Boemler

• Art Director:

  William Ferrari, Cedric Gibbons

• Set Designer:

  Henry W. Grace, Edwin B. Willis

• Costume Designer:

  Walter Plunkett

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Douglas Shearer

• Makeup:

  Jack Dawn

• Special Effects:

  Arnold A. Gillespie

REVIEW:

• Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin's witty and intelligent script (despite many improbabilities, such as the conflict of interest in having a husband and wife contest the same case, and the plausibility-defying circus-like theatrics that Amanda deploys in the courtroom) propels this funny and barbed courtroom comedy. The legal and gender-fueled debates at the center of the film may seem somewhat antiquated today, but the intelligence and wit that inform much of the film's dialogue are still surprisingly fresh. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn share an onscreen ease and familiarity usually reserved for long-married couples. Ironically -- given that the film is about the legal ramifications of a woman's shooting of her philandering husband -- they had become an extramarital item themselves by the time this film was being made. Judy Holliday gives an unexpectedly affecting performance as the woman wronged, while bug-eyed Tom Ewell is solid as her weasel-like philandering husband. However, David Wayne as the lascivious piano composer/neighbor of the feuding legal eagles gives the most impressive supporting performance. His best line? "Lawyers should never marry other lawyers. This is called inbreeding, from which comes idiot children and more lawyers." Technically, the film is very conventional. Outside of the opening sequences, in which George Cukor's camera roams the busy streets of rush hour New York, the film has a stage-like feel, with static shots of the battling spouses dominating the proceedings. Perhaps Cukor didn't want to distract us from the real star of the show, the clever and insightful Kanin/Gordon script. ~ Dan Jardine, Rovi