The Critics' Corner on ADAM'S RIB

Adam's Rib earned $2.75 million in rentals during its initial release. It ranked 15th at the box office for 1950, the year during which it received most of its engagements, and ended box office slumps for both Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.

"As we say, Mr. Tracy and Miss Hepburn are the stellar performers in this show and their perfect compatibility in eyebrow, a smile or a sharp, resounding slap on a tender part of the anatomy is as natural as breathing to them. Plainly, they took great pleasure in playing this rambunctious spoof. Miss Holliday...is simply hilarious as a dumb but stubborn dame." - Bosley Crowther, The New York Times.

"Adam's Rib belied its biblically sexist title when it surfaced in 1949 as an instant classic of feminist sass and savvy. Almost fifty years later time has not withered nor custom staled its bubbly sparkle." - Andrew Sarris, "You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet"

"Adam's Rib again presents Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy as the ideal U.S. Mr. and Mrs. of upper-middle income...Hepburn's elegantly arranged bones and Tracy's assurance as an actor make them worth looking at in any movie, but the stars are called on for some aggressive cuteness in this one." - Time magazine

"If Hepburn's feminist arguments are a little on the wild side and too easily bounced off Tracy's paternalistic chauvinism, the script by the Kanins so bristles with wit that it scarcely matters. And in a film in which everybody is acting -- a point neatly stressed by the styleised staginess of Cukor's direction -- the performances (not least from [David] Wayne and [Jean] Hagen) are matchless." - Tom Milne, The Time Out Film Guide "George Cukor directed this "uncinematic" but well-played and often witty M-G-M comedy about the battle of the sexes...The script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin is lively and ingenious (though it stoops to easy laughs now and then). Cukor's work is too arch, too consciously, commercially clever, but it's also spirited, confident...And as a composer-neighbor of the married lawyers David Wayne airily upstages the two stars..." - Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies.

"It's probably Hepburn and Tracy's best film, yet it has dated as badly as the others. Like the others, it must be seen in the light of its era to appreciate that it was ahead of its time in its treatment of sexual politics. The characters do so much grandstanding that the issues get blurred, yet the bright script by married Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon deserves praise for being a Hollywood film that not only mentioned the term "sexual equality" way back in 1949, but also attempted to be something much more significant than the typical battle of the sexes." - Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic.

"Adam's Rib is a bright comedy success, belting over a succession of sophisticated laughs...A better realization on type than Holliday's portrayal of a dumb Brooklyn femme doesn't seem possible." - Variety Movie Guide.

"A superior star vehicle which also managed to introduce four promising personalities; slangily written and smartly directed, but perhaps a shade less funny than it once seemed." - Halliwell's Film & Video Guide.

"The movie tackles issues of sexual equality versus the "biological" (or are they cultural?), gender differences we see and act upon in our daily lives, asking us where do we draw the line between legal equality and gender distinctions? Fortunately, Adam's Rib never loses its sense of humour, and the issues are lightly handled, only occasionally stooping to silliness (such as when Tracy is hoisted aloft in court by a female circus performer). Adam's Rib gives us writers, performers and a director all operating at peak levels of performance; it's a classic comedy." - Dan Jardine, Apollo Film Guide.

AWARDS & HONORS

Although Adam's Rib premiered in New York in late 1949, it did not play in Los Angeles until the following year. As a result, it had to compete against 1950's film releases for the Oscars® and Golden Globes.

Adam's Rib received only one Oscar® nomination, for Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin's original screenplay. It lost to Sunset Boulevard.

The film was also nominated for a Writer's Guild Award for Best Written American Comedy. It lost to All About Eve.

Judy Holliday's performance brought her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Although she lost in the category (to Oscar®-winner Josephine Hull in Harvey), she won their award for Best Actress -- Comedy or Musical for Born Yesterday.

In 1992, Adam's Rib won a place on the National Film Registry.

Compiled by Frank Miller & Jeff Stafford