Adam's Rib

Adam's Rib (1949) — watch online this George Cukor screwball comedy that puts Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn on opposite sides of a courtroom. Adam is the prosecutor, Amanda is the defence attorney, and the defendant is a woman who shot her cheating husband. The case that sounded straightforward is not.

Amanda argues the double standard plainly: if a man had done the same thing, nobody would be pressing charges. Adam finds this infuriating, which only sharpens her point. The debate runs from the courtroom to the dinner table to the bedroom, and the film is sharp enough to let both of them be right about different things at different times. Hepburn and Tracy were a real-life couple for years, and every exchange crackles with the ease of two people who know exactly how to get under each other's skin.

The screenplay by Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon earned an Oscar nomination — and Judy Holliday, in a breakout supporting role, nearly steals the film outright. Stream Adam's Rib (1949) online on iFILM.