Dr.

Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University,

Lucknow

Session- 2015-16
English-I
Project on:
Topic:- Movie Review of Movies 'Adams Rib' and

'Witness For The Prosecution'

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Dr. (Mrs.) Alka Singh Shobhit Tiwari

Assistant Professor (English) B.A. LL.B (Hons)

RMLNLU Semester- I

Roll No- 130

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 Acknowledgement

I express my gratitude and deep regards to my teacher Dr.(Mrs.) Alka Singh, for giving
me such a challenging topic and also for her exemplary guidance, monitoring and
constant encouragement throughout the course of this project.

I also take this opportunity to express a deep sense of gratitude to my seniors in the
college for their cordial support, valuable information and guidance, which helped me
in completing this task through various stages.

I am obliged to the staff members of the Madhu Limaye Library, for the timely and
valuable information provided by them in their respective fields. I am grateful for
their cooperation during the period of my assignment.

Lastly, I thank almighty, my family, friends and internet for their constant
encouragement without which this assignment would not have been possible.

SHOBHIT TIWARI

B.A.LLB (Hons.)

Section B, Roll No. - 130

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 Table of Contents

Sr. No. Content Page No.

1 Introduction 4

2 Story 6

3 Cast 9

4 Awards & Nominations 10

5 Reviews 12

6 Conclusion 16

7 Bibliography 18

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 INTRODUCTION
ADAMs RIB

Adam's Rib (1949) is director George Cukor's most famous film of the battle of the sexes -
between two married lawyers. The Oscar-nominated screenplay (originally titled Man and Wife)
for the sparkling, MGM classic (screwball) comedy of the post-war years was way ahead of its
time. It was written by the husband-wife team of Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin (the recipients
of the film's sole Academy Award nomination). The story was inspired by the real-world legal
case of a husband-lawyer team (William and Dorothy Whitney), who after the divorce
proceedings for actors Raymond Massey and Adrianne Allen, divorced - and married their
respective clients.

The film's posters declared: "It's the hilarious answer to who wears the pants." The simple plot-
line about a happily-married, middle-aged husband and wife, whose marriage was strained while
serving as trial attorneys on opposite sides of the same headline-making, attempted murder,
marital case (he as the prosecutor, she as the defender), served as the backdrop for the daring
exposition of feminist principles, a display of archetypal male vs. female issues, and an
examination of sex-role stereotyping. [It was surely a case with conflict of interest and would
have been entirely inappropriate in the real-world.]

In the film, the case centered on the accused - a dumb blonde (Holliday), who shot (but didn't
fatally wound) her adulterous husband (Ewell) with a mistress. The lawyers argued about the
double-standard that disallowed a woman from seeking revenge with a pistol - like a man.

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION

It's Britain, 1953. Upon his return to work following a heart attack, irrepressible barrister Sir
Wilfred Roberts, known as a barrister for the hopeless, takes on a murder case, much to the
exasperation of his medical team, led by his overly regulated private nurse, Miss Plimsoll, who
tries her hardest to ensure that he not return to his hard living ways - including excessive cigar
smoking and drinking - while he takes his medication and gets his much needed rest. That case is

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defending American war veteran Leonard Vole, a poor, out of work, struggling inventor who is
accused of murdering his fifty-six year old lonely and wealthy widowed acquaintance, Emily
French. A few years after World War II, in London, Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power), is accused of
murdering a rich widow, Emily French (Norma Varden), who has bequeathed him a substantial
sum of money.

Sir Wilfred Roberts (Charles Laughton), a skilled lawyer who has recently been ill, is asked to
defend Vole. Sir Wilfred's doctor has instructed him to avoid excitement. After his hand-picked
replacement barrister expresses doubt over Vole's innocence, Sir Wilfred decides to handle the
case himself, despite protests from his nurse (Elsa Lanchester) and doctor.

After a conversation with Mrs. Christine Vole (Marlene Dietrich), Sir Wilfred decides not to call
on her to testify in defense of her husband.

In the courtroom, Christine Vole surprisingly appears as a Witness for the Prosecution. A parade
of circumstantial evidence points to murder. Christine's testimony does not provide an alibi for
her husband.

All seems lost as the defense concludes its case. But a late night phone call reveals new evidence
that Christine wrote letters to her lover about denying her husband an alibi. This evidence
changes the jury's opinion and Leonard is acquitted. However, Sir Wilfred suspects something is
amiss with this sudden reversal and dramatic evidence.

All is revealed in the last dramatic court scene, as Christine admits to deliberately sabotaging her
own testimony with the letters, to get her guilty husband freed. But in the penultimate twist,
Leonard shows his true stripes and reveals his intention to leave his "wife" for a younger woman.
Christine seizes a letter opener and, in full view of Sir Wilfred, his nurse (Miss Plimsoll), and the
other woman, stabs Leonard, killing him. Miss Plimsoll cancels Sir Wilfred's trip to Bermuda
and Sir Wilfred announces he will defend Christine Vole in her trial for murder.

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 STORY
ADAMS RIB
Doris Attinger (Judy Holliday) follows her husband (Tom Ewell) with a gun one day after
suspecting he is having an affair with another woman (Jean Hagen). In her rage, she fires at the
couple multiple times. One of the bullets hits her husband in the shoulder.

The following morning, married lawyers Adam and Amanda Bonner (Spencer
Tracy and Katharine Hepburn) read about the incident in the newspaper. They argue over the
case. Amanda sympathizes with the woman, particularly noting the double standard that exists
for men and women regarding adultery. Adam thinks Doris is guilty of attempted murder. When
Adam arrives at work, he learns that he has been assigned to prosecute the case. When Amanda
hears this, she seeks out Doris and becomes her defense lawyer.

Amanda bases her case on the belief that women and men are equal, and that Doris had been
forced into the situation through her husband's poor treatment of her. Adam thinks Amanda is
showing a disregard for the law, since there should never be an excuse for such behavior.
Tension increasingly builds at home as the two battle each other in court. The situation comes to
a head when Adam feels humiliated during the trial when Amanda encourages one of her
witnesses, a woman weightlifter, to lift him overhead. Adam, still angry, later storms out of their
apartment. When the verdict for the trial is returned, Amanda's plea to the jury to "judge this case
as you would if the sexes were reversed" proves successful, and Doris is acquitted.

That night, Adam sees Amanda and their neighbor Kip Lurie (David Wayne), who has shown a
clear interest in Amanda, through the window. He breaks into the apartment, pointing a gun at
the pair. Amanda is horrified, and says to Adam, "You've no right to do this -- nobody does!"
Adam feels he has proven his point about the injustice of Amanda's line of defense. He then puts
the gun in his mouth. Amanda and Kip scream in terror. Adam then bites down on the gun and
chews off a piece; it is made of licorice. Amanda is furious with this prank, and a three-way fight
ensues.

Adam and Amanda, in the midst of a divorce, reluctantly reunite for a meeting with their tax
accountant. They talk about their relationship in the past tense. They become emotional when
talking about the farm they own, and realize how much they love each other. They go to the

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farm, where Adam announces that he has been selected as the Republican nominee for County
Court Judge. Amanda jokes about running for the post as the Democratic candidate.

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION

Sir Wilfred Roberts (Charles Laughton), a master barrister in ill health, takes on Leonard Vole
(Tyrone Power) as a client, despite the objections of his private nurse, Miss Plimsoll (Elsa
Lanchester), who says the doctor warns him against taking on any criminal cases. Vole is
accused of murdering Mrs. Emily French (Norma Varden), a rich, older widow who had become
enamored of him, going so far as to make him the main beneficiary of her will.
Strong circumstantial evidence points to Vole as the killer.

When Sir Wilfred speaks with Vole's German wife Christine (Marlene Dietrich), he finds her
rather cold and self-possessed, but she does provide an alibi. Therefore, he is greatly surprised
when she is called as a witness for the prosecution. While a wife cannot testify against her
husband, Christine was in fact still married to another man when she wed Leonard. She testifies
that Leonard admitted to her that he had killed Mrs. French, and that her conscience forced her to
finally tell the truth.

During the trial in the Old Bailey, Sir Wilfred is contacted by a mysterious woman who, for a
fee, provides him with letters written by Christine herself to a mysterious lover named Max. The
affair revealed by this correspondence gives Christine such a strong motive to have lied that the
jury finds Leonard not guilty.

However, Sir Wilfred is troubled by the verdict. His instincts tell him that it was "...too neat, too
tidy, and altogether...too symmetrical!" His belief proves correct when Christine, left alone with
him by chance in the courtroom, takes the opportunity to take credit for the verdict. Sir Wilfred
had told her before the trial that "...no jury would believe an alibi given by a loving wife". So,
she had instead given testimony implicating her husband, had then forged the letters to the non-
existing Max and had herself in disguise played the mysterious woman handing over the letters
which then discredited her own testimony and led to the acquittal. She furthermore admits that
she saved Leonard even though she knew he was guilty because she loves him.

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Leonard has overheard Christine's admission and Sir Wilfred was infuriated for being had. Being
protected by double jeopardy, Leonard coldly tells Christine that he has met a younger woman
(Ruta Lee) and leaves her. In a jealous rage, Christine grabs a knife used as evidence (which had
been subtly highlighted by Sir Wilfred) and stabs Leonard to death. After she is taken away by
the police, Sir Wilfred, urged on by Miss Plimsoll, declares that he will take on her defense.

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 CAST
ADAMs RIB1
1. Katharine Hepburn as Amanda Bonner
2. Spencer Tracey as Adam Bonner
3. Judy Holliday as Doris Attinger
4. David Wayne as Kip Lurie
5. Jean Hagen as Beryl Caighn
6. Tom Ewell as Warren Attinger
7. Hope Emerson as Olympia La Pere
8. Clarence Kolb as Judge Reiser
9. Polly Moran as Mrs. McGrath
10. Emerson Treacy as Jules Frikke
11. Will Wright as Judge Marcasson

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION2

1. Marlene Dietrich as Christine Vole
2. Charles Laughton as Sir Wilfred Roberts
3. Tyrone Power as Leonard Vole
4. Elsa Lanchester as Miss Plimsoll
5. Una OConnor as Janet McKenzie
6. Henry Daniel as Mayhew
7. Ian Wolfe as Carter
8. Norma Varden as Emily French
9. Ruta Lee as Diana
10. John Williams as Brogan-Moore
11. Torin Thatcher as Mr. Myers
12. Philip Tonge as Inspector Hearne
1. http://www.hollywood.com/movies/adam-s-rib-59170166/credits/
2. http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/55001/Witness-For-the-Prosecution/details

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 AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS
ADAMs RIB
AWARDS WIN
The film won National Film Registry award of 1992 given by national Film Preservation
Board, USA.

NOMINATION

Best Writing, Story, and Screenplay Ruth Gordan & Garson Kanin Academy Awards,
USA, 1951
Best Supporting Actress Judy Holliday Golden Globes, USA, 1951
Best Written American Comedy - Ruth Gordan & Garson Kanin Writers Guild of
America, USA, 1951
Best Written American Comedy - Ruth Gordan & Garson Kanin Writers Guild of
America, USA, 1950

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION

AWARDS WIN

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture -Elsa Lanchester -

1957 Hollywood Foreign Press Association

NOMINATION

Best Director - Billy Wilder - 1957 Directors Guild of America

Best Director - Billy Wilder - 1957 Hollywood Foreign Press Association
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama - Charles Laughton -
1957 Hollywood Foreign Press Association
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama - Marlene Dietrich -
1957 Hollywood Foreign Press Association
Best Picture - Drama - 1957 Hollywood Foreign Press Association
Best Actor - Charles Laughton - 1957 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Director - Billy Wilder - 1957 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

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 Best Editing - Daniel Mandell - 1957 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Picture - 1957 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Sound - Gordon Sawyer - 1957 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Supporting Actress - Elsa Lanchester - 1957 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences

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 REVIEWS
ADAMs RIB

Adam's Rib is a bright comedy success, belting over a succession of sophisticated laughs.
It was written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin (Mr. and Mrs. Kanin), and directed by
George Cukor. Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin have fashioned their amusing screenplay
around the age-old battle of the sexes. Setup has Spencer Tracy as an assistant d.a., married
to femme attorney Katharine Hepburn. He believes no woman has the right to take shots at
another femme. Hepburn believes a woman has the same right to in vole the unwritten law as
a man. They do courtroom battle over their theories when Tracy is assigned to prosecute Judy
Holliday.

However, first thanks should go to the authors of the script, for they are the chief ones
responsible for the pleasures of "Adam's Rib." It is their delightful improvising on a nimble
and fragile little tale of a violent courtroom rivalry between a lawyer-husband and his
lawyer-wife that makes this current picture bounce and spin with thorough glee.

Taking a happy couple who are well settled in their careers and presumably wholly
acquainted with each other's eccentricities, Miss Gordon and Mr. Kanin, who also are
husband and wife, mix up their charming people by a far-fetched but clever device. They
make the husband the prosecutor of a woman who has shot her spouse and they make the
wife defense counsel for this miserably unhappy dame. And then they introduce a question of
female equality between the two and let them fight it out roundly in the courtroom and in
their home.

To be sure, the plot is a frail one and the argument is not profound. As a matter of fact, it gets
quite fuzzy and vagrant as the picture goes along. And that is the one plain weakness of the
whole thing: it is but a spoof, and the authors are forced to wild devices and shallow
nonsense to wind it up. But en route they contrive some grand theatrics, which are all in the
motion-picture's range, to make for lively entertainment and passing comment on the home's
felicities.

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 As we say, Mr. Tracy and Miss Hepburn are the stellar performers in this show and their
perfect compatibility in comic capers is delightful to see. A line thrown away, a lifted
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.

And Miss Holliday as the woman who slightly punctures her spouse for a bit of deliberate
"cheating" and thus has to stand court trial is a simply hilarious representation of a dumb but
stubborn dame. Her perfect New Yorkisms, her blank looks, her pitiful woes are as killingly
funnyand as touchingas anything we've had in farce this year. Mr. Ewell as her husband
is likewise deliciously droll, making of this loutish fellow a full-bodied character. David
Wayne as a neighborly lounge-lizard is a glib but slightly too pat type, and Clarence Kolb
makes some wonderful faces as a bewildered judge.

To make a point about the superior competence of women, she calls three women witnesses
and gets one of them to recite her endless number of degrees, one of them to say that she has
been a foreman for seventeen months without any complaints from the men working under
her, and onea vaudeville starto do a spectacular flip-flop and then to lift Spencer Tracy
bodily over her head in front of the judge. The point of female equality has thus been made,
but male pride has also been much wounded. So Spencer Tracy leaves home in a huff, to
come back to prove his own superman point by pretending to terrorize his lovelorn wife and
the neighbor who is trying to woo her with booze (David Wayne). The Tracy character holds
a pistol on them that turns out to be made of licorice. He first makes his wife eat her own
words to the judgea speech about double standards that won the caseand then eats the
pistol, which is piling Pelion on Ossa for women's lib, but still.

Of "Adam's Rib" we might say, in short, that it isn't solid food but it certainly is meaty and
juicy and comically nourishing.

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION

For a courtroom melodrama pegged to a single plot device--a device that, of course, everybody
promises not to reveal--the Arthur Hornblow Jr. film production of the Agatha Christie play

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"Witness for the Prosecution" comes off extraordinarily well. This results mainly from Billy
Wilder's splendid staging of some splintering courtroom scenes and a first-rate theatrical
performance by Charles Laughton in the defense-attorney role.

As a usual thing, these trial dialogues about where somebody was and what took place on the
night of something or other become increasingly hard to take as witness follows witness and the
examiners probe for key details. The viewer is likely to grow restive waiting for something to
happen on the screen.

And it is true that the screenplay of this one, which Mr. Wilder and Harry Kurnitz have prepared,
puts forth most its helpful information in back-and-forth dialogue. Except for two hurried
flashbacks--the first of which amiably shows how an English chap on trial for murder met the
widow he is accused of bumping off and the second of which shows in modest detail how he met
his German wife--virtually everything happens in the Old Bailey or in the chambers Mr.
Laughton occupies.

Never mind. Mr. Wider sees to it, as the murder trial drags along and the wife, in defiance of
tradition, appears as witness against her own husband, that there's never a dull or worthless
moment. It's all parry and punch from the word "Go!", which is plainly announced when the
accused man is brought to Mr. Laughton at the beginning of the film. And the air in the
courtroom fairly crackles with emotional electricity, until that staggering surprise in the last reel.
Then the whole drama explodes.

It's the staging of the scenes that is important in this rapidly moving film, which opened
yesterday at both the Astor and the Plaza Theatres. It's the balancing of well-marked characters,
the shifts of mood, the changes of pace and the interesting bursts of histrionics that the various
actors display.

Tyrone Power has his ups as the accused man, Marlene Dietrich hits her high points as his wife
and Torin Thatcher is awesomely forensic as the bewigged and be gowned prosecutor. Philip
Tonge makes a shrewd police inspector, Francis Compton is a finely learned judge and Una
O'Connor is in for one great bit as a Scottish maid in the witness box. Henry Daniell as Mr.

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Laughton's solicitor and John Williams as his fellow-barrister are great in the wry, crisp tradition
of the English inns-of-court.

But it's Mr. Laughton who runs away with the show--he and his wife, Elsa Lanchester, in an
added role. Allowed by Mr. Wilder and Mr. Kurnitz to be afflicted with a heart that's not too
strong and with a nurse who is shrill and tireless in trying to keep him away from brandy and
cigars, Mr. Laughton adds a wealth of comical by-play to his bag of courtroom tricks. A certain
famous British Prime Minister has plainly inspired his artful airs and gravelly voice. And Miss
Lanchester is delicious as that maidenly henpecking nurse. The added dimensions of Mr.
Laughton bulge this black-and-white drama into a hit.

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 CONCLUSION

ADAMs RIB
Wonderful film, excellent acting and yeah ultimate comedy. The movie represents a climax
in the evolution of the classic Hollywood screwball comedy. In this movie, the comic crises
hinged on the heroine's decisions regarding her professional careers and domestic roles. The
film reunited Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, whose successful on-screen romances,
seemed to radiate some of the genuine love and affection of their off-screen relationship. The
film also features a brilliant screenplay by the husband-wife team Garson Kanin and Ruth
Gordon. In front of her district attorney husband, Amanda Bonner turns the courtroom and
the trial into a hilarious forum for a public debate on the "double standard" and the
narrowness of sexual stereotypes. In the meantime, the courtroom competition begins to
threaten the Bonner's marriage. Much of the film's humor arises from the many sex-role
reversals. Through such reversals, the movie simultaneously comments on how traditional
social roles are defined by stereotypes of masculinity and femininity. Like many screwball
comedies that preceded it, Adam's Rib ends with a marital reconciliation that establishes the
couple's unity without resolving the individuals' ongoing differences.

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION

The recognized actors with their brilliant acting always constitute a wonderful movie. An
ultimate thriller and a murder mystery that binds us to the film till end. And as all say, that a
climax of a film is as important as its story and if it is excellent then the whole movie seems
to be epic. Same is the case with this movie, its climax in which Leonard Vole was acquitted
from murdering of Emily French but at the same time it came into picture that Mr. Wilfred
Roberts had won the case for that client who was none other than her murderer and he very
cleverly makes mockery of not only Mr. Wilfred Roberts, a well known criminal lawyer but
also of English legal system. Another turn in the climax that when Mrs. Christine Vole in
front of Wilfred Roberts, his nurse, Carter, few policemen murder his husband whom she
helped in being released from the murder case by herself falling a prey under the case of

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 Perjury because of his selfish and atrocious behavior of leaving her and going for a trip with
a new girl from the he got from the will of Mrs. Emily French - $80 million. The last few
scenes of the movie were in themselves remarkable. When Wilfred Roberts nurse said that
she killed her but Mr. Roberts corrected her by saying that she executed him.
Both the movies lived up to their standard of being the legal-theme based movies. The
courtroom scenes, lawyers giving evidences, defenses, asking questions from witnesses and
then the other one clutching witnesses paws by their excellent reasoning. Both movies are
must watch for people who want to see a real court and want to feel the particular pleasure
and experience.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041090/awards
http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/55001/Witness-For-the-Prosecution/awards
http://www.hollywood.com/movies/adam-s-rib-59170166/credits/
. http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/55001/Witness-For-the-Prosecution/details
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam%27s_Rib
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witness_for_the_Prosecution_(1957_film)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041090/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051201/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/witness_for_the_prosecution/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1000253-adams_rib/
http://www.filmsite.org/adam.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051201/plotsummary
http://www.filmreference.com/Films-A-An/Adam-s-Rib.html

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