Adam's Rib (1949)

Why it's here:
I was drawn to the Hepburn/Tracy pairing, knowing of their famous on- and off-screen chemistry and thought this one, with it's law drama and courtroom humor, might make a good choice.

Specs:
Over an hour and a half; black and white. We watched on a dvd from the library

Our family's average rating:
6.67

More about the film and our reaction to it:
Although both Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy are great actors and this was probably a very relevant and witty film in its own time, it felt more than a bit dated to us.

Curious that Adam's Rib was our lowest rated film since The Lady Eve and I'm wondering if Adam and Eve just aren't where its at for us. . . . I'll be interested to see how All About Eve plays for us next week. . . .

I spent a fair amount of time wondering if I'd made a mistake introducing this material to my kid. The film starts with an attempted murder where a jilted wife follows her husband to another woman's apartment. The themes of adultery and spousal abuse are heavy and, by modern standards, pretty unsettling, though clearly meant to be light-hearted and played for comedy at the time. The film explores the ideas of how spouses mistreat one another and drive each other away. The plot twist comes from Tracy playing the prosecutor who is attempting to convict the murderous jilted wife while the prosecutor's wife, Hepburn, plays the private practice defense attorney who takes on the job of defending said murderous jilted wife.

The underlying marital problems of our defendant/victim couple are mirrored (or maybe prism-ed)  through the lawyers' own marriage as the case gets further along.

These are fairly adult and unpleasant themes dealing with the worst sides of a marriage; though, very loving and caring sides to marriage are shown as well. The film is very sexist by today's standards (though it plays as if meant to be a feminist message). All in all, though an interesting film and clearly well-acted, it is probably not best suited to family viewing.

Iconic shot:

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Why it's included:
Directed by George Cukor and starring not just Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, but Jimmy Stewart as well. What's not to love.

Specs:
About 2 hours, black and white. Available on dvd. Our library had a copy

Our family's average rating on a scale of 1-10:
8.33

More about the film and our reaction to it:
I do get star-struck, I can't lie. Halfway through the movie I was sitting there watching Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart sharing the screen and felt giddy and goose pimply. Here were three enormous talents with enough star power to light up the sky for a week, together in a smart, sophisticated, beautifully filmed production. It is really almost more than words can get around.

This is a brilliant picture -- in the bright sparkly wonderful sense of the word. I've seen it several times and wanted to share it with my kids, but after having done so, I do have to say that on the whole this might not have been the best movie choice for families.  The film really is over the head of most kids with its adult themes (divorce, philandering husbands, heavy social drinking and its after-effects, the intrusiveness of the press, blackmail, etc. etc.) not to mention its witty, ironic tone. But the performances are wonderful throughout and one of our favorites was the 13 year old actress, Virginia Weidler, who played Hepburn's little sister in a charming and very funny way. The humor in the film is more grown up and glittering, than some of the screwball comedies we've been watching of the era, so we appreciated a slightly different style of movie.

While both of my kids liked the movie, their 11 year old friend who was over only gave it a "3"! My kids are a bit more used to classics and already knew the three leads from other film appearances, which always adds to the experience, but overall, it is probably less accessible for family viewing than some others we've watched.

That said, it is cool that shortly after watching this, we caught a reference to the film in an episode of the TV show Phineas and Ferb! "My she was yar!" is a line exchanged a couple of times as the characters reminisce over their happier days on a yacht designed by Grant's character CK Dexter Haven. ("Yar" meaning particularly well-built, seaworthy and fine.) We spent a fair amount of time discussing the idea of "yar". So we nearly swallowed our gum when Phineas said the same about about an ocean liner he'd just built for his friend: "My she's yar!" An homage to The Philadelphia Story for sure. One of the neatest things about watching classics has been noticing that references to classic film is all around us in pop culture.  We are pretty sure that most other viewers of Phineas and Ferb did not pick up on this one.

Iconic shot: