Adam's Rib (1949)

 

Adam's Rib: Summary and initial thoughts

Oh, I always enjoy this movie. A classic Hepburn/Tracy collaboration, this film is smart, sexy, and forward-thinking. But does it actually answer the battle of the sexes? Well...

The film follows married couple Adam and Amanda Bonner, respectively an assistant DA and a defense attorney. Their life together is presumably reasonably equitable and peaceful...that is until Adam is assigned to a case prosecuting a woman, Doris, who, enraged by her husband's affair, tracks down him and his paramour and begins chaotically shooting around the room in every direction, ultimately wounding her husband in the shoulder.

Amanda, who feels there is a double standard for women when it comes to adultery (true), sees her husband's involvement in the prosecution as on opportunity. She finds Doris and offers her services for the defense, hoping to both help the accused woman and prove a higher point: that men and women, despite being naturally equal, are treated unequally in society and in the eyes of the law.

As you may expect, things become, ahem, a little tense in the Bonner household as the case progresses. Amanda calls a number of witnesses and experts to establish women's equal status with men in different fields, including a strongwoman who literally picks up Adam in the courtroom and holds him over her head. This does not go over well with Adam, particularly when he finds that Amanda has used a hat that he gave her as a gift to pretty up Doris for court.

One night, it all comes to a head. Declaring that he can't be in a relationship with a woman who thinks like Amanda, he packs his bags and storms out (as well as any movie diva, I might add). This is just in time for the verdict to be returned.

Amanda's appeal has worked: the jury, asked to judge Doris as they would a man, returns a decision of not guilty. Infuriated, Adam seeks out Amanda and Kip, their neighbor who has an affection for Amanda, and points a gun at them. When Amanda declares that he has no right to shoot them, he puts the gun in his mouth...and bites down, because licorice is tasty (to some people, I guess).

Realizing she has been duped, Amanda rages at Adam, who rages right back, with the ultimate result that they decide to pursue a divorce.

But divorces are messy and require time and the help of people like accountants. Adam and Amanda find themselves at their accountant's to review the previous year's expenses. As they work through their joint spending, they reminisce about the farm they own together, how happy they were when it became theirs, the good times they've had there.

At this point, Adam begins to cry, presumably over the loss of the relationship, which gets to Amanda. They reconcile and return to the farm for a retreat, at which point Adam admits that his crying was "crocodile tears" to trick Amanda.

He also announces that he has been chosen by the Republicans to run for county court judge. Amanda replies by floating the idea of running for the Democrats.

It all ends happily enough: Adam and Amanda together again, Doris acquitted, her husband presumably nursing his shoulder with his lover. 

Ah, love.

My favorite moments in Adam's Rib

• The hat scene: The look on Spencer Tracy's face when he sees the use his gift is being put to is priceless.

• The bodybuilder scene: Again, Spencer Tracy's expression speaks a thousand words as he is hoisted into the air by the strongwoman (played beautifully by an actress named Hope Emerson, whose performances I almost always like).

• The massage scene: I'm not sure why this one affects me so much. It think it's the way it shows Adam and Amanda's home life as it is being shaped by the trial. It's not overdone or heavy-handed. It just feels real.

Why is Adam's Rib on the National Film Registry?

It's an interesting question. Adam's Rib was added to the National Film Registry in 1992 in a fairly early round of picks. Unlike a lot of other Registry titles, Adam's Rib doesn't have a full-to-bursting trophy case.

It has been honored on multiple AFI list, including as the #22 comedy and the #7 romantic comedy on the Institute's 100 Years... lists. But is that enough?

With this one, I think it comes down to the content. Though they would shoot some eyebrows through the roof today, the film's views on gender and marriage equality were decidedly liberated for 1949, and the basics of these perspectives have held up remarkably well.

The humor is on point throughout, and there is very little to criticize in Adam's Rib in terms of storytelling and filmmaking.

But does it settle the battle of the sexes? Kinda...sorta...not really.

While Amanda's view that women face double standards when it comes to adultery (and when it comes to most things, if we're being honest) is well documented, and while her line of defense succeeds in Doris being acquitted, the overall "vibe" of the film seems to lean, at least IMO, a bit more toward Adam's viewpoint.

So was Adam right? Did his licorice gun prove his point? Kinda...sorta...not really. 

Amanda admits that no one has a right to kill someone else. But Doris didn't kill anyone, and it's established fairly near the outset by her words and erratic shooting pattern that she wasn't really trying to hurt or kill anyone. And a man in that situation would have been judged very differently than Doris typically would have been had Amanda not been her attorney.

And the ending is typical of a romantic comedy of that time: shut the woman up with a kiss. Was Amanda serious about running for county court judge on the Democratic side? Maybe. Is that why Adam veered the conversation toward sex, to distract her? Maybe.

It is all these "maybes" that make it hard to say what kind of conclusion, if any, has been reached about gender equality as a result of this movie.

I think the important thing is that Adam's Rib was willing to address the issue, face up to it and admit that it's real and can have life-or-death consequences. To me, that's worthy of a spot on the National Film Registry, especially for 1949, and let the awards fall where they may.

Final thoughts on Adam's Rib 

I do love this movie. From the acting to the atmosphere to the Cole Porter music, it's just perfection. The fact that it doesn't really put paid to the battle of the sexes, to my mind, doesn't matter. Honestly, I would be surprised if any film, particularly one from the 1940s, managed to do so. But it doesn't just ask, "Who wears the pants?" It also asks, "What are the stakes of wearing (or not wearing) the pants?" 

For all these reasons, Adam's Rib is and will remain a top fave.