Discussion Questions for Women in Film-Cleveland Gathering
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1 Discussion Questions for Women in Film‐Cleveland Gathering, Wednesday, April 29, 2015: Focal Film: Adam’s Rib (1949; U.S.; Screenplay by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin; Cinematography by George J. Folsey; Music by Miklos Rozsa and Cole Porter; Directed by George Cukor for Metro‐Goldwyn‐ Mayer) In Adam’s Rib, the characters are: * Amanda Bonner, a lawyer (played by Katharine Hepburn) * Adam Bonner, a prosecutor married to Amanda (played by Spencer Tracy) * Doris Attinger, a woman accused of attempted murder in the shooting of her philandering husband (played by Judy Holliday in her first major movie role), who is defended by Amanda * Warren Attinger, her philandering husband (played by Tom Ewell) * Kip Lurie, the Bonners’ songwriter neighbor, who pays too much attention to Amanda (played by David Wayne) * Beryl Caighn, the object of Warren Attinger’s extra‐marital attentions (played by Jean Hagen) * Plus, three female characters called as “witnesses” in Doris Attinger’s trial—a scientist (Elizabeth Flournoy), a foreman (Polly Moran), and a strongwoman (Hope Emerson). This film is another “obvious” choice for our discussion group that we seem to have avoided. Although some contemporary film scholars tend to view the film as rather heavy‐handed in its concerted attempts at representing “strong” women (e.g., Anne Edwards), at the time of its release it was certainly ground‐ breaking and many aspects of the film have stood the test of time. I was reminded of the film and became convinced we should screen it when my Documentary class recently viewed These Amazing Shadows (2011), which traces the history of the U.S. National Film Registry, established in 1989. Adam’s Rib is the key film featured in this documentary’s section on women’s images; the film was added to the Registry in 1992, only the fourth year of the program, clearly because of its feminist focus. The film is notable for its collaboration of many high‐level professionals of the classical Hollywood Studio System, most of whom knew each other well and were aware of each other’s capabilities. Director George Cukor was known as Hollywood’s foremost “women’s director” because of his success in directing classic female performances, often in female‐focused films (e.g., Little Women, Camille, The Women, The Philadelphia Story, Born Yesterday), and in helping define an era in which box‐office popularity was fairly evenly shared between male and female movie stars. The writing team of married couple Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin was legendary for this film and their three additional spirited collaborations (A Double Life (1948); The Marrying Kind (1951); Pat and Mike (1952)) as well as other works they completed independently (e.g., Gar Kanin’s Born Yesterday (both stage and screen)); Gordon and Kanin received an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay for this film. And, this was the second of seven collaborations between Cukor and the Kanins. And of course the stars, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, were emblematic of the great screen duos that Metro‐Goldwyn‐Mayer was famous for creating and showcasing. Adam’s Rib was the sixth of the nine films they did together. Plus, the film was scored by one of the greatest film composers of all time, Hungarian immigrant Miklos Rozsa, with a song contributed by 2 none other than Cole Porter (“Farewell, Amanda,” which was actually a retread of his 1940 “So Long, Samoa”). The film’s story was inspired by the true divorce case of actor Raymond Massey and his wife Adrianne Allen, who were legally represented, respectively, by husband‐and‐wife lawyers William and Dorothy Whitney. (Subsequently, the lawyers also divorced, and then each married their client’s ex‐spouse!) (from books by Leger Grindon and Daniel Kimmel) Good friends of Tracy and Hepburn, Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin immediately began writing the script with their friends in mind. The close relationship between the Kanins and Hepburn was severely compromised in 1971 when Gar Kanin, after Tracy’s death, wrote the non‐fiction book, Tracy & Hepburn: An Intimate Memoir. The book was perceived as too intimate by Hepburn, who viewed it as an unauthorized expose of her long‐time love affair with Tracy, actually a long‐time open secret in Hollywood. The supporting players in Adam’s Rib are excellent, sometimes “stealing” scenes out from under Hepburn and Tracy, according to critics. David Wayne as Kip was never better in his long career, Jean Hagen and Tom Ewell are their usual dependable selves, and Judy Holliday’s featured performance here proved to the Hollywood power structure that she could carry a film—she was allowed to reprise her Broadway role in Born Yesterday when it was released as a film in 1950. (She won an Academy Award as Best Actress in this adaptation of the Garson Kanin play.) In preparation for filming Adam’s Rib, Cukor and Hepburn attended actual trials to bring some measure of verisimilitude to the courtroom scenes. The film was shot largely on location in New York City in the summer of 1949. Adam’s Rib has been viewed and analyzed as: ‐A screwball comedy (which it is not, really) ‐A women’s film (which it also is not, really) ‐A romantic comedy (which it is) ‐A divorce/remarriage romantic comedy, specifically ‐An important popular culture representation of law and courtroom conduct, notably with regard to female attorneys 1. Top film scholar Molly Haskell has called the film a “rare bird,” a “commercial ‘feminist’ film that was many years ahead of its time when it appeared in 1949, and, alas, still is.” Do you agree? 2. Molly Haskell summarizes the key points of the film in terms of male and female roles: “The film brilliantly counterpoints and reconciles two basic assumptions: (1) that there are certain ‘male’ qualities— stability, stoicism, fairness, dullness—possessed by Tracy, and that there are certain ‘female’ qualities— volatility, brilliance, intuition, duplicity—possessed by Hepburn; and (2) that each can, and must, exchange these qualities like trading cards.” How does this trading play out in the film? What does this imply about the possible intransigence of gender roles? 3 3. As a number of scholars have pointed out, Hepburn’s character of Amanda Bonner, attorney, is one of a set of notable female portrayals of professional women emergent in the 1940s. Others include Rosalind Russell’s crack reporter in His Girl Friday (1940), Joan Crawford’s restauranteur in Mildred Pierce (1945), and Myrna Loy’s judge in The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer (1947). What do these portrayals indicate about the public perception of women’s capabilities in the workplace post‐WWII? 4. In Framed: Women in Law and Film, law professor Orit Kamir acknowledged this film as “a radical challenge to traditional, patriarchal hegemony.” The “groundbreaking” film shows a female attorney who successfully juggles both her winning defense of a woman defendant on feminist grounds, and her egalitarian marriage with an opposing attorney. But ultimately, Kamir says, the film “upholds conventional, patriarchal social order and its stereotyping of women,” denying the possibility of “a community of women.” What do you think is the ultimate take‐away? 5. Similarly, film scholar Stanley Cavell argues that Amanda “takes her own marriage to court and seeks public recognition of the equality, respect, and independence she enjoys within her private relationship to Adam.” On the other hand, Adam views Amanda’s decision to defend Doris Attinger as a violation of their implicit pact to support one another. This public/private parallel is a key aspect of the film, according to Leger Grindon in his book on romantic comedy films. What parallels do you see between the Bonners’ marriage and the Attinger court case? 6. Notice that both of the Bonners use the term of endearment “Pinky/Pinkie” for the other. Legal Affairs magazine says these “roughly equal” nicknames indicate a balanced, progressive relationship. Note when the terms are used throughout the film. What do you think the use of “Pinky/Pinkie” signifies? 7. David Wayne’s portrayal of Kip Lurie, viewed by scholars as either homosexual or sexually neutral, introduces a unique gender middle ground for the contrast between Amanda and Adam. Based partly on two gay men‐‐director George Cukor and songwriter Cole Porter‐‐this gender‐ambiguous role is particularly unusual for its time, and is one of the few potentially gay characters in any of Cukor’s films (Daniel Kimmel). How does the Kip character negotiate the space between masculine and feminine, and therefore the space between Adam and Amanda? 8. As pointed out by Molly Haskell in her seminal work on women’s images in film, From Reverence to Rape, a critical source of comedy in the film is the “lack of rapport” between Hepburn’s militant feminist attorney and Holliday’s weak housewife, willing to acquiesce to her husband and accept blame for the whole series of events. Do you agree? 9. Holliday’s character Doris exhibits an evolution in her looks throughout the film, from frumpy and rough to discreet and feminine. This was done partly as a plot by Cukor, Hepburn, and the Kanins to establish Holliday’s persona on film, and help persuade Columbia’s Harry Cohn to cast her in the upcoming film version of Born Yesterday (Emanuel Levy). What is your own reaction to the Doris Attinger character, and her evolution? 4 10. In a text by law professor Kelly Lynn Anders that uses movies as stimuli for teaching “lawyering skills,” the focus for this film is on the skill of zealousness. She asks—“How does loyalty impact the Bonners’ advocacy in the courtroom? What sorts of conflicts of interest might arise in real life that could impact the couple’s eligibility to serve as opposing counsel?” 11.