Adam's Rib (1949) Synopsis

"I want a wife. Not a competitor!" Adam's Rib (1949) by Ruth Gordon (screenplay) and Garson Kanin (screenplay) is a Romantic Comedy about a trial of a scorned housewife who shoots her cheating husband and the happily married attorneys who contentiously represent both of them. Themes of sexism, male-female equality, marital fidelity, protecting the home, and justifiable assault are woven throughout the comical and dramatic repartee of the pseudo-disintegrating legal coupling. At the heart of this story, aside from finding a balance between men and women, is the primary theme of what it takes to sustain a happy marriage. From the beginning, throughout the trial, and to the very end, Adam Bonner (Spencer Tracy) and Amanda Bonner (Kathryn Hepburn) reveal small and big evidence of a marriage that is not only loving and strong, but has the grit and steel of two equally determined partners that like being happily married, see themselves as more equal than not, and are willing to keep working at it in positive and loving ways-despite the battles-and without compromising their self-respect. The circus-like trial was a clever and fun way to not only promote the equality of the sexes, but to show how a loving couple could be put through their own trial and win.—T.B. Hayes

"I want a wife. Not a competitor!" Adam's Rib (1949) by Ruth Gordon (screenplay) and Garson Kanin (screenplay) is a Romantic Comedy about a trial of a scorned housewife who shoots her cheating husband and the happily married attorneys who contentiously represent both of them. Themes of sexism, male-female equality, marital fidelity, protecting the home, and justifiable assault are woven throughout the comical and dramatic repartee of the pseudo-disintegrating legal coupling. At the heart of this story, aside from finding a balance between men and women, is the primary theme of what it takes to sustain a happy marriage. From the beginning, throughout the trial, and to the very end, Adam Bonner (Spencer Tracy) and Amanda Bonner (Kathryn Hepburn) reveal small and big evidence of a marriage that is not only loving and strong, but has the grit and steel of two equally determined partners that like being happily married, see themselves as more equal than not, and are willing to keep working at it in positive and loving ways-despite the battles-and without compromising their self-respect. The circus-like trial was a clever and fun way to not only promote the equality of the sexes, but to show how a loving couple could be put through their own trial and win.—T.B. Hayes

Published Time: 2020-02-19 09:11:30