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| Iconic shot of Ruth Gordon in Rosemary's Baby |
Apparently, Ruth Gordon was an accomplished screenwriter before becoming an actress, and she was also close friends with Katharine Hepburn.
Adam's Rib is a delight from beginning to end and is a surprisingly feminist movie--surprising when one considers the fact it was released in 1949. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, who were together in real life, play married attorneys Adam and Amanda Bonner. Adam is a district attorney, Amanda a defense lawyer. Here's the trailer:
The film begins with Doris Attinger (played to perfection by another accomplished actress, Judy Holliday) tracking her philandering husband and shooting him in the shoulder while he is with his lover. She is arrested and charged with attempted murder.
The next morning, the case makes the front page of the newspaper, which Adam and Amanda read together and which sparks a fierce debate between them: Amanda lectures Adam on double standards women face, especially before the law. When Adam arrives at work, he is appointed prosecutor to the case. When Amanda learns of this, she decides to become Doris Attinger's lawyer, and the gender debate begins full throttle!
Honestly, this movie would be controversial for today, so I can only speculate about how audiences reacted to this film in 1949. During each courtroom scene Adam and Amanda question witnesses, and Amanda bases her entire case on women's inequality, showing the prosecution's witnesses no mercy when it comes to their own misogyny. In fact, during jury selection, her standard for each potential juror is whether they believe in women's equality. She tells the press and stresses in her opening statement that this case is about more than the defendant; it is about women being treated equally before the law. One of the most humorous and interesting scenes is when Amanda brings in high powered women as witnesses for the defense to prove women are equal to men. We see jaws drop and Amanda glowing with satisfaction as each of these witnesses describes how many degrees and positions she has.
Although Spencer Tracy had top billing for this film, it is Katharine Hepburn with whom the audience identifies and for whom we cheer. The film portrays Amanda's case as more sophisticated and more important than Adam's, which is hammered home by his feckless closing argument in which he jumbles his words and makes little sense. Judy Holliday gives a smart, although supporting, performance as a woman who has suffered much physical abuse from her husband. In a rather touching scene in which she meets with her counsel (Hepburn) for the first time, she reluctantly recounts the times her husband beat her--all of which Amanda uses in her cross examination of the husband.
The film ends on a comical note that does, to an extent, descend into the politics of its era (something that I expected and feel would have been impossible to avoid), but it rallies in the last scene, again stressing and celebrating women's right to equality. And it is hilarious: After Adam announces to Amanda that he will run as a Republican candidate for a judgeship, Amanda asks slyly if the Democrats have selected a candidate yet. I burst out laughing during this scene as I did many times throughout the film.
In addition, the film makes some interesting choices in its portrayal of marriage--choices that would be completely taboo in the fifties, if they were not already by 1949. For one, we see Adam and Amanda sharing one bed. From almost all movies of that era, husbands and wives had to have separate beds to avoid any possible reference to sex. Also, there is a rather hilarious (and, for its time, risque) scene in which Adam and Amanda, wearing only towels, give each other massages as they debate the case and women's rights. Something that is absent from the movie, interestingly, is children: not once do Amanda or Adam mention kids, and at the time this came out Hepburn and Tracy were in their 40s and 50s, respectively. We, in other words, are not exactly expecting Amanda to quit her job to have babies any time soon. By making Amanda a powerful attorney, one who works not just alongside her husband but who challenges him, and avoiding any reference to her as some sort of domestic goddess, the film confirms its arguments about equality (unlike The Thrill of it All (1963) that is relentlessly anti-feminist).
All in all, Adam's Rib is a smart, funny, and progressive film that fully embraces feminism in a way that we don't even see now. You will find yourself cheering for Katharine Hepburn throughout. This is a classic for a reason.
Grade: A
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