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Rating:  -
I was disappointed with the colorized version of this film the processing is horrible! I bought it curious what it would look like in color! Believe me the b/w version is the winner! But to give a compliment deserved the audio quality is superb. Do yourself a favor if you want to own this Tracy/Hepburn comedy gem buy the b/w version on vhs not the colorized version on vhs you won't be disappointed that's a fact!
Rating:  -
What can one say? It's like the original film of The Producers: perfect yet better with each viewing. The complexity & depth of the two main characters,(to say nothing of the amazing spontaneity of the performers), Adam & Amanda has been rarely matched on film, perhaps more readily on stage, mostly in Shakespearean works, but it's all the extras that makes this film soar, the sublime mirrored performances of wife & mistress by Judy Holiday & Jean Hagen (the original Billie Dawn & her understudy in the Broadway version of another Garson Kanin classic, Born Yesterday), the hilarious courtroom scenes & finally (but not definitively) the unforgettable scene with the gun...ummmm, licorish.
Gawd this is a fabulous movie!
Rating: -
Seven years into their screen partnership, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn made what is arguably their best effort together, the sixth of nine movies they made together. The zingy repartee and old-shoe comfort in their relationship are in full bloom in this 1949 comedy classic directed by George Cukor. Written by the legendary husband and wife writing team of Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, the plot focuses on a headline-grabbing court case involving Doris Attinger, a dim-witted wife who shoots her philandering husband Warren just as he is caught with his blowsy mistress Beryl Caighn. Representing the wounded husband is Assistant DA Adam Bonner who is looking for a quick conviction of the wife. However, his proto-feminist attorney wife Amanda sees the alleged crime as an act of justifiable defiance and decides to defend the wife.
This potentially tense set-up leads to a trial where Amanda sets out to prove that a double standard exists for women and that Doris was merely defending her family and home. Adam, however, believes that the law is the law no matter the gender of those involved and that a murder was indeed attempted. Consequently, the story is not so much about Adam's inherent sexism as it is about Amanda's single-minded determination to prove her point even as the case degrades into a media sideshow. Over half a century later, Amanda's arguments sound rather dated, one-note and frankly ill-conceived with many of her lines simply polemics. At the same time, Hepburn plays such a convincing litigator that her case actually sounds persuasive at times. Tracy is also in top form as he brings his unique combination of sympathy and combustible bluster to a man who respects his wife deeply but becomes increasingly disillusioned with her unlawful stance.
Together, they banter terrifically throughout, but it's in the domestic scenes, for instance, the home movie of their Connecticut farm and the late night meal preparation, where you feel their natural chemistry the most. As Doris, Judy Holliday delivers in her first significant screen role, bringing a deeper pathos to the scorned wife than you would expect. Several years away from "The Seven Year Itch", Tom Ewell plays Warren for the smarmy, sexist cheater that he is, while Jean Hagen expertly plays Beryl as a media-hungry floozy. As the Bonners' next door neighbor Kip, David Wayne acts rather fey for someone who supposedly wants to run away with Amanda, but I suppose the approach was intentional to ensure nothing would really threaten the Bonner marriage except the case. However dated some of the sexual politics feel, the film is still one of the most smartly played of romantic comedies. Unfortunately the 2000 DVD has no extras.
Rating: -
One of the best Tracy-Hepburn films, though I liked Desk Set a little bit better. Still it's a marvelous film, with a great supporting cast including Judy Holliday and Tom Ewell. whose marriage sounds more like a boxing match than a marriage. David Wayne is the obnoxious next door neighbor who keeps playing a song he wrote about Hepburn which irritates Tracy, no end. Story is about two married lawyers one the defense attorney, the other the prosecutor. Hepburn is defending Judy Holliday for shooting her unfaithful husband, and Tracy is prosecuting her for shooting him. The result is that their marraige begins to take on the same issues of the people they're defending. Fun from beginning to end!
Rating: -
I am, unfortunately, not as well versed in Spenser Tracy as I am in Katherine Hepburn, but I'm guessing I can say with some conviction that these roles were perfect for the two of them. What I can say with full knowledge is that Katherine Hepburn was perfect for this role, playing the same sort of independent woman she herself tended to be from time to time.
This is a richly written movie about a married couple, Adam and Amanda, who are both lawyers and who are both working on the same case... opposing each other. A woman shot at her uncaring, unsympathetic husband. Adam claims that it's necessary to bring her to the attention of the law. Amanda claims that she won't be given fair treatment as a woman. A battle of the sexes ensues.
The best part of this movie is showing this rather adoring and loving couple as they go through the day to day stresses of their jobs and yet try to maintain a home life at the same time. However, that's just the first element, as of course the stresses of facing each other has to be taken into account. Indeed it's hard to say quite for sure where the movie's going to go, but once it's ended it seems like it couldn't have been presented in any other way.
George Cukor does a brillaint job with directing it. I particularly like how he often sets the camera in a room and lets the characters weave in and out of the area in a way that evenly presents both the disconnect and the miscommunication of the couple from both perspectives. This movie is brilliant in that it is capable of maintaining two (or more) points of view entirely at the same time.
All in all, a very good movie, one of those that makes one nostalgic for the warmth and compassion often felt in older movies. Considering Tracy and Hepburn's relationship, it's interesting to think how this movie might have affected (or reflected) the conversations they might have had.
--PolarisDiB
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