I can’t think of too many courtroom comedies, so “Adam’s Rib” must be pretty special. It features one of the many pairings of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, both of whom are excellent here and have wonderful chemistry with one another.
And such a thing is absolutely necessary for this film to be worth much of anything today. It’s a comedy, but not a screwball or even a rom-com, and it has more amusing moments and character developments rather than big punch lines or sharp, quick dialogue. It is however the little details in George Cukor’s film that turn what could otherwise be a crime procedural into something cute, romantic and funny.
Tracy and Hepburn play two lawyers, Adam and Amanda Barron, both of whom have taken the same case, an attempted murder trial of a woman who shot her cheating husband as he was in the act.
Amanda takes up the cause on her principals of women’s rights and equality, which kind of makes the film dated today with its soapbox pandering and touting of successful women, one of whom can lift Spencer Tracy over her head and do flips.
Thankfully though, Tracy’s character is hardly prejudiced and doesn’t make the issue into more than it is. He also is on wonderful terms with his wife, which is exactly the opposite of how a contemporary rom-com would do this, with characters constantly at each others’ throats to get a laugh and having to redeem their love later.
“Adam’s Rib” also has a wonderful twist in its finale with Tracy proving just how wonderfully likeable of a trickster he can be as an actor. It’s one of those moments that could be a trainwreck if handled any other way than it is, and again something that a modern comedy would jump for in terms of shock value, but here is played safe to hilarious effect.
I’m just starting a kick of comedies after watching “The Odd Couple” a few days ago, which I haven’t written about yet. “The Odd Couple” landed at #17 on the AFI Top 100 Laughs list, and “Adam’s Rib” landed at #22. With that, I’ve now seen 1-23, amongst others, and the next highest I’ve missed is #24, “Born Yesterday.” Ironically enough, it’s also directed by George Cukor, so that should be fun I guess.