TrueHello
Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
Merolliv
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
Usamah Harvey
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
sol-
On trial for attempted murder, having shot her husband who she caught being unfaithful, a young woman is prosecuted by a conservative lawyer while his pro-feminist wife defends her in this popular comedy starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy as the married lawyers in question. The film was clearly quite popular in its day, landing an Oscar nomination for its screenplay and a Golden Globe nomination for Judy Holliday's performance as the wife being defended, however, one's mileage as a contemporary viewer is likely to vary. Hepburn's rants about women never receiving equal rights in the eyes of the law grow tiresome very quickly and the way she twists the attempted murder case to be about sexism (rather than intent to kill) never quite feels right. Hepburn's personality could also only be described as abrasive at best here. While she has handful of light moments (poking faces at Tracy from under the courtroom benches), all her anger and bitterness towards the way women are supposedly discriminated against renders her a rather joyless person. Tracy fares better. His comedic fumbling about in court as his wife surprises him is never all that funny, but he has a superb moment involving some liquorice and his persona outside of court is nicely down-to-earth. In many ways, it is the quieter of the two main roles here, but the quietness allows Tracy to simply emote as opposed to grandstand for the most part. Tom Ewell and Jean Hagen also have solid supporting roles turns here, but Tracy is the one whose presence renders the film endurable.
cb2369
I admit, I am only 59 minutes in, but I can't watch another second of this. Both Hepburn and Tracy's characters are too annoyingly stupid.(Possible spoilers??, this explains only the set up and the beginning of the film)The film centers around a case that is way too clear: A woman buys a gun, follows her husband until she finds him cheating on her, and then shoots all 6 bullets in their direction, hitting the husband in the chest and wounding him. The film decides to choose this case as a backdrop for a discussion on sexism, and while that was clearly a problem in the 50s, it is of no importance to this case. The lawyers spend their time bickering over whether or not the man was having an affair, but neither seem to realize that adultery is no grounds for murder, nor is it even a crime in America. Any good writer would have realized that the details of this case weren't ambiguous enough for a discussion on sexism, and would have changed certain details, but alas, they did not and we spend our time watching Hepburn make a mountain out of a molehill and Tracy make Mount Everest out of Hepburn's mountain.I give this film a 4 because there is some good dialogue in between the badly-done plot and it is a decently tight script. I read the rest of the story on wikipedia and it doesn't seem to get much better. I don't suggest watching this unless getting back at men is such a fantasy of yours that you are willing to forgive the unbelievable aspects of this story.
SmileysWorld
The age old battle of the sexes is the setting here,and who better to play it out than cinema's all time favorite couple,Tracy and Hepburn? A woman goes on trial for shooting her husband,whom she has caught with another woman.The argument is simply this: Should men and women be treated on an equal level.A woman shoots her husband,there must have been a good reason for her to do it.He must be a total dog.Put the shoe on the other foot.A man shoots or harms his wife when she's caught cheating,he's still a dog because there must have been a good reason for her to cheat.The argument may never be settled,but you will enjoy the argument as it is played out in this very funny film.
dartleyk
often billed as a funny battle of the sexes, it really isn't; it's no contest; tracy comes off as asoft-spoken guy who treats his wife pretty well; hepburn on the other hand is frequently strident and rude; he seems devoted to her while she constantly flirts with the neighbor; he treats her respectfully, she revels in humiliating him at home and at work in court; sure, some of the disconnected skits are funny, mainly helped by judy holiday, not hepburn; and his moment of ethical and legal revenge is instantly dismissed by her; overall needed more give and take like other tracy-hepburn movies, and less of the relentless, one-sided pounding where tracy in the end has to pull a girlish trick to win back the woman who treats him as an incompetent fool
