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Adam's Rib

1949 film by George Cukor

Adam's Rib is a 1949 American film in which domestic and professional tensions mount when a husband and wife work as opposing lawyers in a case involving a woman who shot her husband.

Directed by George Cukor. Written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin.
It Will Tickle Your Funny Bone! (taglines)

Adam Bonner

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  • First of all, I should like to say that I think the arguments advanced by the counsel for the defense were sound... MERE sound!
  • [to Amanda] No matter what you think you think, you think the same as I think.

Amanda Bonner

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  • No part of marriage is the exclusive province of any one sex.

  • And so the question here is equality before the law, regardless of religion, color, wealth, or, as in this instance, sex...Law, like man, is composed of two parts: Just as man is body and soul, so is the law, letter and spirit. The law says, 'Thou shalt not kill,' yet men have killed, and proved a reason, and been set free. Self-defense, defense of others, of wife, of children, and home. If a thief breaks into your house, and you shoot him, the law will not deal harshly with you, nor indeed should it. So here, you are asked to judge not whether or not these acts were committed, but to what extent they were justified. Now, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I request that you join me in a revealing experiment. I ask you all to direct your attention to the defendant, Mrs. Attinger. Now keep looking at her, keep watching. Listen carefully and look at her. Look at her hard. Now imagine her a man. Go on now, use your imaginations. Think of her as a man sitting there accused of a like crime -- a husband, who is only trying to protect his home. Now hold it. Hold that impression and look at Beryl Caighn. Look at her. Look at her hard, a man, a slick home wrecker, a third party, a wolf! You know the type. Alright, hold that impression and look at Mr. Attinger, and suppose him a woman. Try, try hard. Ah, yes, there she is. The guilty wife! Look at her! Does she arouse your sympathy?! Alright! Now you have it! Judge it so! An unwritten law stands back of a man who fights to defend his home. Apply this same law to this maltreated wife, and neglected woman. We ask you no more: equality. Deep in the heart of South America, there thrives today a civilization far older than ours: a people known as the Loquiňanos, descended from the Amazons. In this vast tribe, members of the female sex rule and govern, and systematically deny equal rights to the men, made weak and puny by years of subservience, too weak to revolt. And yet, how long have we lived in the shadow of a like injustice?

    Consider this unfortunate woman's act as though you yourselves had each committed it. Every living being is capable of attack, if sufficiently provoked. Assault lies dormant within us all. It requires only circumstance to set it in violent motion. I ask you for a verdict of not guilty. There was no murder attempt here, only a pathetic attempt to save a home.

Kip Lurie

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  • Lawyers should never marry other lawyers. This is called in-breeding; from this comes idiot children... and other lawyers.
  • Amanda, my love, why do you stay married to a legal beagle with ten thumbs?

Dialogue

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Amanda Bonner: What I said was true, there's no difference between the sexes. Men, women, the same.
Adam Bonner: They are?
Amanda Bonner: Well, maybe there is a difference, but it's a little difference.
Adam Bonner: Well, you know as the French say...
Amanda Bonner: What do they say?
Adam Bonner: Vive la difference!
Amanda Bonner: Which means?
Adam Bonner: Which means hurrah for that little difference.
Adam Bonner: What are ya? Sore about a little slap?
Amanda Bonner: No.
Adam Bonner: Well, what then?
Amanda Bonner: [outraged] You meant that, didn't you? You really meant that.
Adam Bonner: Why, no, I...
Amanda Bonner: Yes, you did. I can tell. I know your type. I know a slap from a slug.
Adam Bonner: Well, OK, OK.
Amanda Bonner: I'm not so sure it is. I'm not so sure I care to expose myself to typical instinctive masculine brutality.
Adam Bonner: Oh come now.
Amanda Bonner: And it felt not only as though you meant it, but as though you felt you had a right to. I can tell.
Adam Bonner: What've you got back there? Radar equipment?
Kip Lurie: Well, good luck tomorrow, Amanda. I'm on your side, I guess you know that. You've got me so convinced, I may even go out and become a woman. Goodnight.
[leaves]
Adam Bonner: And he wouldn't have far to go, either.
Amanda Bonner: Shh!
Adam Bonner: What's a matter?
Kip Lurie: [steps back into the kitchen and whispers] He can hear you.
Amanda Bonner: [addressing the court] For years, women have been ridiculed, pampered, chucked under the chin. I ask you, on behalf of us all, be fair to the fair sex.
Adam Bonner: We'll be here a year.
Amanda Bonner: Now, you look here, Kip. I'm fighting my prejudices, but it's clear that you're behaving like a, like a - well, I'd hate to put it this way - like a man.
Kip Lurie: You watch your language.

Taglines

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  • It Will Tickle Your Funny Bone!
  • You'll split your sides laughing!
  • It's The Hilarious Answer To Who Wears The Pants!

Cast

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