Adam’s Rib

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Screen legends Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy star in this quick-fire battle-of-the-sexes courtroom comedy in which the verdict is: hilarity!  Director George Cukor (The Philadelphia Story) brings his instinctively light touch to this sophisticated and witty romantic comedy following Adam Bonner (Tracy) and Amanda Bonner (Hepburn), a husband and wife who work as opposing lawyers on a high-profile case involving a woman who shot her adulterous husband. When she learns that Adam has been assigned as the prosecutor in the case, Amanda seeks out the accused woman (played by comedy great Judy Holliday, star of Born Yesterday) and becomes her defense attorney, setting the stage for a crackling comedic showdown in which gender politics take the spotlight, causing domestic and professional tensions to mount between the happily (?) married pair of legal eagles. The exquisite verbal jousting of real-life couple Hepburn and Tracy throws comedic sparks thanks to a highly entertaining script by real-life Hollywood screenwriting couple Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon (who later went on to a successful acting career in such films as Harold and Maude and Rosemary’s Baby). One of the most successful of the nine films that turned Hepburn and Tracy into one of Hollywood’s most legendary on/off screen duos, Adam’s Rib also defined their timeless screen personas – she the intelligent, savvy, rebellious woman ahead of her time, he the easygoing but obstinate modern man who can’t help but love her.   Screen teams don’t get any better than this! (Dir. by George Cukor, 1949, USA, 101 mins., Not Rated)