Spencer Tracy, a New York City prosecutor, pairs off in court against his attorney wife, Katharine Hepburn, in a high profile case in which she represents the woman who shot - but didn't kill - her unloving, unfaithful husband. Tracy, of course, is in charge of sending the accused off to ol' Sparky if he has his way.

The subplot is borrowed from the true story of the 1920s Cook County murderesses, a spate of crimes of passion concerning good looking Chicago area women gunning down their abusive husbands. (The theme surrounding these events will later be revisited in the broadway musical, Chicago). Hepburn even goes so far as dress her client up in personal gifts in the same way the lawyers for the Death Row molls did in the media spectacle that surrounded the original Chicago based trials.

The courtroom drama is ratcheted up to make you feel like it's The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes as the history of women's rights vs. men are put on trial.

In dealing with such a heavy subject, the true message is thinly veiled beneath vaudevillian vices and slapstick moments so to be passed off as some wacky romantic comedy. Watching the film today is unnerving and uncomfortable in the way that domestic violence issues haven't changed much since 1949 as they brilliantly walk the thin line between love and hate.

Gordon and Kanin were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Screenplay in 1950 for their work on Adam's Rib. The film was also selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," in 1992.