ADAM'S RIB

'''Adam's Rib''' is a 1949 film starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy and directed by George Cukor. The film was well received upon its release and is considered a classic romantic comedy. Judy Holliday, who went on to fame in 1950's ''Born Yesterday'', received her first substantial role in this film. The music was composed by Miklós Rózsa, except for the song "Farewell, Amanda" written by Cole Porter.

Contents

Plot

Legal Issues

Reception

Cast

Quotations from the movie

External links

Plot

Prosecutor Adam Bonner (Tracy) is assigned the case against a woman (Holliday) who tried to scare her adulterous husband (Tom Ewell) by shooting him repeatedly. Bonner's wife, Amanda (Hepburn), also a lawyer, decides to defend the woman in court. As the two use every technique they know to win the case, the courtroom tension carries over into the couple's household.

Legal Issues

The defendant, Doris Attinger, when narrating to Amanda Bonner her version of the events on the day she shot her husband, describes recognizable symptoms of a dissociative episode. These include a divorcement from the reality of her actions and even psychogenic amnesia concerning her actual wounding of her husband. Given that, one might have expected Amanda to ask the jury for a verdict of not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity, because the defendant had been seized by an irresistible impulse.
But instead, Amanda asks for a simple verdict of not guilty, because all the defendant did was to "try to defend her home," and a man acting similarly might be acquitted. In short, she asks for jury nullification--and wins it.

Reception

Ruth Gordon (later of ''Rosemary's Baby'' fame) and Garson Kanin were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Screenplay in 1950. In the decades since the film's release, it has attracted the esteem of many critics. It was selected for preservation in the United States by the National Film Registry in 1992.

Cast

★ Spencer Tracy – as Adam Bonner

★ Katharine Hepburn – as Amanda Bonner

★ Judy Holliday – as Doris Attinger

★ Tom Ewell – as Warren Francis Attinger

★ David Wayne – as Kip Lurie

★ Jean Hagen – as Beryl Caighn

★ Hope Emerson – as Olympia La Pere

★ Eve March – as Grace

★ Clarence Kolb – as Judge Reiser

★ Polly Moran – as Mrs. McGrath

Quotations from the movie

:''"Is that what they taught you at, ah, Yale Law School?"''
:''"Tell me something. What is marriage? I'll tell you what it is: Marriage is a contract. It's the law."''
:''"What blow you think you were striking for women's rights, I am sure I don't know, but you've certainly fouled us up beyond all recognition."''
:''"Lawyers should never marry other lawyers. This is called inbreeding, from which comes idiot children and more lawyers."''

External links

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★ Adams Rib quotes at MovieWavs.com