Adam's Rib

George Cuckor was the ideal choice to direct this witty battle of the sexes comedy which was the first to pair Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. They play a pair of married lawyers that end up against each other in court -- Hepburn is defending a woman who attempted to killer her unfaithful husband on the grounds that had she been a man, she never would have come to trial, and Tracy is the D.A. assigned to send her off to jail. Considering this was 1949, it was well ahead of its time in its portrayal of gender discrimination. What really holds the film together, however, is the script by Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon (yes, that Ruth Gordon) which finds the right flourishes for its two stars.