The Someday Cinema Series will screen the classic comedy Adam’s Rib (1949), starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, at 2 and 7 pm on Thursday, September 6, at Edmond Town Hall Theater, 45 Main Street.

Tickets are $3, and the matinee will be captioned for the benefit of the hearing impaired.

The story, penned by Ruth Gordon and her husband Garson Kanin, centers around Adam and Amanda Bonner, two rival New York attorneys who are happily married. Adam works for the DA’s office, and Amanda is a defense attorney in private practice.

The morning paper tells the scandal of how Doris Attinger (Judy Holliday) shot her husband Warren (Tom Ewell) upon finding him in the arms of another woman (Jean Hagen).

Adam states the obvious, that the wife should go to prison for assault and attempted murder, but Amanda argues that, were the roles reversed, society would find a man justified and set him free. Predictably, this battle of principle between them ends up extending to the courtroom, much to Adam’s dismay, as Adam prosecutes the wife and Amanda dynamically defends her.

A woman’s right for revenge on her philandering husband as an argument for equality of the sexes is no longer relevant in today’s society, but the on-screen trials of marriage between Hepburn and Tracy still ring true. Theirs is a marriage of equality against which other relationships are judged. The Attingers’s marriage, in contrast, is one-sided, where Warren does whatever he wants with whomever he wants, leaving his wife at home with three kids wondering where he is.

George Cukor directed Hepburn and Tracy in one of their best “battle of the sexes” films, surrounded by excellent supporting roles played by Judy Holliday (who later starred opposite Dean Martin in Bells Are Ringing), Jean Hagen (who later played the silent screen starlet in Singin’ in the Rain), and Tom Ewell (who later starred in Seven Year Itch opposite Marilyn Monroe).

Interestingly, footage from “the farm” that Adam and Amanda buy for their country home were filmed at the Sandy Hook home of film and opera star Grace Moore. Artist David Merrill depicted this house in his elaborate mural of Newtown’s notable places in the right stairwell at Edmond Town Hall.

Someday Cinema Series is presented by Newtown Cultural Arts Commission. Visit tiny.cc/somedaycinema2018 and the Someday Cinema Series page on Facebook for complete season details.

The next offering in the ongoing series will be September 30 screenings of The Blues Brothers (1980).

Those interested in sponsoring other films this series benefitting the theater should contact the coordinator, Jen Rogers, at somedaycinemaseries@gmail.com.