The war between men and women has some very funny elements in it, and the writing team of Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon put together a deliciously funny story about what happens when careers overlap and conflict. Working together to create a script on that subject is ironic, and this ends up being one of the first comedies to show how conflict can erupt and how hypocrisies occur when the situations in court end up seeming to be in the home of the prosecuting attorney and the defense attorney.

A deliciously sly opening has put upon wife Judy Holliday following husband Tom Ewell around downtown Manhattan, eventually catching him with his girlfriend, Jean Hagen. She shoots at him indiscriminately, having earlier been looking at the instruction booklet for the gun when she began to shoot random rounds. Assistant district attorney Spencer Tracy is assigned the prosecuting job, and feeling that the wife deserves her chance in court, his wife, Katherine Kepburn, signs on as her attorney. If this isn't cause for issues to occur in a home, then there's no cause for any divorce anywhere.

The funny thing about this film is that I rooted for everybody involved, from the dizzy Holliday to the victim (Ewell) to the mistress (Hagen) and especially to Hepburn and Tracy. There's even a best friend, David Wayne, who seems to be in love with Hepburn himself although certain clues indicate that he's not really interested in anything past writing songs about her. His antics make him seem like a combination of Noel Coward, Lorenz Hart and Cole Porter, and he's quite funny.

Having a male and a female writer and a male and female protagonist, you'd think that there would be a point of view in the battle of the sexes. But what the script really indicates is that both genders are missed up and in spite of being tops in the law field, Tracy and Hepburn play characters who have a lot of baggage.

Funny cameos by veteran character actress Polly Moran and a delightful Hope Emerson (doing backflips in court and lifting Tracy up in a hysterical sequence) add to the fun. This film seems as fresh 70 years after it was released as it did when Tracy and Hepburn were at their height, and it is definitely their best film together. Director George Cukor scores another classic for his resume, one of dozens.

Sometimes in life, we experience the most embarrassing situations. But no matter how embarrassing these situations are, they can't possibly be as whacked-out as what the characters in "Adam's Rib" experience.

It all begins when Doris Attinger (Judy Holliday) shoots her husband Warren (Tom Ewell) after she finds him cheating on her. She is promptly arrested for attempted murder. High-priced lawyer Adam Bonner (Spencer Tracy) is assigned to represent Warren in court. However, Adam's wife Amanda (Katharine Hepburn) finds it despicable that a woman was arrested for punishing her unfaithful husband, and decides to represent Doris in court.

Well, as you can imagine, with husband and wife on opposite sides of the trial, things get a little crazy. It only makes sense that they can't help but maintain their spousal attitudes towards each other while in court (especially under the table). But even Amanda starts to find Adam unpleasant for defending Warren, and she plays a few tricks on him in court, namely with a very muscular woman.

One thing that you have to wonder after seeing a movie this good is: how did Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin come up with such a great story? Well, the point is that they did. It focuses not only on sexism, but also on how the whole trial is affecting their marriage.

Anyway, the point is that in my opinion, "Adam's Rib" should have won Best Picture for 1949. Perfect.

In this film, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn are both married to each other and are both lawyers--he a prosecutor and she a defense attorney. As you might expect, sooner or later they both ended up representing both parties at the same time--he the husband and she the wife who was nearly killed by the husband! Instead of resigning due to a conflict of interest (that would almost always occur in such a situation),they both continue on the case---and that would turn out to be a very, very bad idea! Over time, the squabbling between the two spouses getting divorced began to extend to their lawyers. Tracy and Hepburn, who had been very happily married, began taking swipes at each other and their marriage begins to suffer. Ultimately, they move into separate homes and are bound for divorce. Ironically, as Tracy and Hepburn drift apart, the original couple begin to patch things up! While there is much more to the movie, instead of ruining the film for you, I just recommend you see it. This is a wonderful example of a light comedy featuring a terrific cast from Hollywood's Golden Age.