Amanda Bonner (played by Katharine Hepburn): “You haven't tried to see my point of view. You haven't even any respect for my, my, my…”
Adam Bonner (played by Spencer Tracy): “There we go, there we go, there we go - Oh, oh, here we go again. The old juice.” (She begins to cry because he refuses to understand her strong feelings and point of view.) “Ah, guaranteed heart-melter. A few female tears...”
Amanda: (sobbing) “I can't help it.”
Adam: "...stronger than any acid. But this time they won't work...”
Amanda: “I didn't...”
Adam: “You can cry from now until the time the jury comes in and it won't make you right and it won't win you that silly case.”
Amanda: “Adam! Please...”
Adam: “Nothing doing...” (He leaves the room, upset about their argument)
Amanda: “...please try to understand.”
Adam: (He returns) “Ah, don't you want your rubdown? You want a drink?”
Amanda: “No.”
Adam: “Do you want anything? What, honey?” (She kicks him in the shin) “Ow!”
Amanda: “Let's all be manly!” (She marches offscreen)—Adam’s Rib (1949), screenplay by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, directed by George Cukor
Perhaps the greatest entry in the greatest man-woman screen team in the history of movies, Adam’s Rib premiered 60 years this past Wednesday. This tale of lawyers working opposite sides of the same case was, believe it or not, based on real-life attorneys William Dwight Whitney and wife Dorothy, who represented actor Raymond Massey and his wife, then divorced each other and married their clients in one big, happy, amicable pair of marriages, sort of like if Noel Coward had written a real-life American comedy about lawyers.
One reason why I find this movie superior to all the other Tracy-Hepburn films is that the leads receive not just solid, but brilliant support from the likes of David Wayne, Tom Ewell, Jean Hagen, and especially Judy Holliday. Hepburn and Tracy stumped for Holliday when Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn didn’t want her. Holliday’s brilliant performance gave her irresistible momentum in landing her Oscar-winning role as Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday the following year.
Maybe the reason why Tracy and Hepburn were so gracious about promoting Holliday was that they were confident enough in their own abilities to know they wouldn’t suffer by comparison. The scene I just quoted demonstrates why.
Now, my favorite scene from the film is the “licorice” one involving Adam, Amanda and flirtatious neighbor Kip. But the above quote is better at demonstrating the interplay between the two leads. The Gordon-Kanin script gives them some great dialogue, but half the fun lies in watching what Tracy and Hepburn let you infer between the lines.
Hepburn’s Amanda, though highly intelligent, is so competitive that she resorts to other means besides the mind—her emotions and her feet—to prove a point. And Adam, for all his stodginess and scorn for “the old juice,” returns abashed when he thinks he’s hurt her feelings.
Better than the script can show, Tracy and Hepburn let you see that Adam and Amanda enjoy a marriage of equally matched human beings—certainly equally foolish, but, despite their powerful feelings about their case, equally warm and loving, too.
Perhaps the greatest entry in the greatest man-woman screen team in the history of movies, Adam’s Rib premiered 60 years this past Wednesday. This tale of lawyers working opposite sides of the same case was, believe it or not, based on real-life attorneys William Dwight Whitney and wife Dorothy, who represented actor Raymond Massey and his wife, then divorced each other and married their clients in one big, happy, amicable pair of marriages, sort of like if Noel Coward had written a real-life American comedy about lawyers.
One reason why I find this movie superior to all the other Tracy-Hepburn films is that the leads receive not just solid, but brilliant support from the likes of David Wayne, Tom Ewell, Jean Hagen, and especially Judy Holliday. Hepburn and Tracy stumped for Holliday when Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn didn’t want her. Holliday’s brilliant performance gave her irresistible momentum in landing her Oscar-winning role as Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday the following year.
Maybe the reason why Tracy and Hepburn were so gracious about promoting Holliday was that they were confident enough in their own abilities to know they wouldn’t suffer by comparison. The scene I just quoted demonstrates why.
Now, my favorite scene from the film is the “licorice” one involving Adam, Amanda and flirtatious neighbor Kip. But the above quote is better at demonstrating the interplay between the two leads. The Gordon-Kanin script gives them some great dialogue, but half the fun lies in watching what Tracy and Hepburn let you infer between the lines.
Hepburn’s Amanda, though highly intelligent, is so competitive that she resorts to other means besides the mind—her emotions and her feet—to prove a point. And Adam, for all his stodginess and scorn for “the old juice,” returns abashed when he thinks he’s hurt her feelings.
Better than the script can show, Tracy and Hepburn let you see that Adam and Amanda enjoy a marriage of equally matched human beings—certainly equally foolish, but, despite their powerful feelings about their case, equally warm and loving, too.
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