Adam’s Rib ***** (1949, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, David Wayne, Tom Ewell, Judy Holliday, Jean Hagen) – Classic Movie Review 3,854

George Cukor’s smart and sophisticated 1949 film Adam’s Rib is one of the great Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn comedies. They are are on top form as married lawyers who are adversaries in an attempted murder trial.

Director George Cukor’s smart and sophisticated 1949 winner of a film Adam’s Rib is one of the great Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn comedies. The superb and superlative star pair are on top form as Adam and Amanda Bonner, wedded attorneys warring on opposite sides over a trial of attempted murder.

The clever and witty writing from Tracy and Hepburn’s close friends, husband and wife team Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, is matched in a perfect dovetail by director Cukor’s smooth, polished and zestful handling.

The screenplay was written specifically as a Tracy-Hepburn vehicle and became their sixth film together.

Adam’s Rib also showcases the rising young talents of Judy Holliday (hilarious as Doris Attinger, the dim young woman on trial for shooting her husband), David Wayne (as Kip Lurie), Tom Ewell (as Warren Attinger) and Jean Hagen (as Beryl Caighn), with Clarence Kolb, Hope Emerson, Eve March, Will Wright, Emerson Treacy, Elizabeth Flournoy and Polly Moran also in the cast.

It is a classic American romantic comedy-drama film, selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

Character actor Marvin Kaplan, who died on August 25 2016, aged 89, makes his debut as the Court Stenographer.

Cole Porter contributed his song ‘Farewell Amanda’ especially for the movie.

Cole Porter originally declined to write a song, as Hepburn’s character was called Madelaine, but agreed when it was changed to Amanda. Porter quickly revised a song he had written in 1940 and discarded as mediocre: ‘So Long, Samoa.’ On the plus side, Porter and MGM donated all profits from ‘Farewell Amanda’ to the Runyon Cancer Fund.

The writers were Oscar nominated for Best Story and Screenplay and went on to write Pat and Mike (1952) for the stars.

Judy Holliday was Golden Globe nominated as Best Supporting Actress in her second credited movie role. She nearly didn’t accept the role of Doris because her character is called ‘fatso’ in the script. But Hepburn and Kanin encouraged her to play the role, and her success with it encouraged Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn to cast her in his film of Kanin’s play Born Yesterday, in which Holliday had starred on Broadway. Holliday won the Academy Award for Best Actress in Born Yesterday (1950).

The film had a budget of $1,728,000, and earned $2,971,000 in the US and Canada and $976,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $826,000.

Release date: November 18, 1949.

Running time: 101 minutes.

Set in New York, it is filmed mainly on MGM’s stages in Culver City, California, with some location shooting in New York City.

Adam’s Rib was remade in Bulgaria in 1956.

A flop one-season American sitcom TV series followed in 1973, broadcast on ABC from September 14 to December 28, 1973, starring Ken Howard as Adam Bonner and Blythe Danner as Amanda Bonner. Only 13 episodes were produced by MGM Television before it became a a victim of feeble ratings.

The cast are Spencer Tracy as Adam Bonner, Katharine Hepburn as Amanda Bonner, Judy Holliday as Doris Attinger, Tom Ewell as Warren Attinger, David Wayne as songwriter and piano player Kip Lurie, Jean Hagen as Beryl Caighn, Hope Emerson as Olympia La Pere, Eve March as Grace, Clarence Kolb as Judge Reiser, Emerson Treacy as Jules Frikke, Polly Moran as Mrs McGrath, Will Wright as Judge Marcasson, Elizabeth Flournoy as Dr Margaret Brodeigh, and Marvin Kaplan as court stenographer.

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© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,854

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