American Rhetoric: Movie Speech

"Adam's Rib" (1949)

Doris Attinger Testifies in Court About Her Husband's Murder

Windows Media Video of Address delivered by Judy Holliday and Katherine Hepburn

Audio mp3 delivered by Judy Holliday and Katherine Hepburn

Attinger: So I says, “Listen, Warren.” I says, “You can’t have it both ways, you know, so make up your mind. And don’t try to make some kind of part-timer out of me.” So he says, “Bite your tongue, fatso!” So I says, “You coming home for supper?” So he says, “I’ll write you a letter.” So I said, “You coming home after?” So he says, “I’ll put an ad in the New York Times personal column and let you know.” So I says, “Don’t get too sassy, Mr. Attinger.” So he says, “And don’t you be looking at me so cockeyed, ‘cause I don’t want to have to shake your head up to straighten ‘em out.” So I threw it.

Bonner: Threw what?

Attinger: The pot. So he left, mad.

Bonner: And that was the last you saw him?

Attinger: ‘Til later, when I followed him up and caught him muzzling that tall job.

Prosecutor (Adam) Bonner: Objection. 

Judge: Sustained, struck. Jury bear in mind, activity not yet known. 

Bonner: When you entered Apartment D, what did you see?

Attinger: Them. Clutching.

Bonner: How close together were they?

Attinger: No close. Together.

Bonner: No space between them.                                                                

Attinger: No space.

Bonner: Where were her hands?

Attinger: On his ears.

Bonner: On his ears?

Attinger: One on each ear. Hey, maybe that’s why he didn’t hear me come in.

Bonner: And where were his hands?

Attinger: Who knows?

Bonner: You didn’t see them?

Attinger: Around her someplace.

Bonner: Did that surprise you?

Attinger: No, I figured.

Bonner: But it enraged you.

Prosecutor (Adam) Bonner: Objection: leading.

Judge: Sustained.

Bonner: When you found them, thus embraced, what happened?

Attinger: Uh, it enraged me.

Bonner: Then what?

Attinger: I pressed the gun.

Bonner: And?

Attinger: Bang?

Bonner: Did you take careful aim?

Attinger: I was too nervous.

Bonner: Did you aim at all?

Attinger:  I was too nervous.

Bonner: Did you at that time intend to kill Beryl Caighn?

Attinger: No.

Bonner: To wound her?

Attinger: No.

Bonner: To frighten her?

Attinger: Yes.

Bonner: To kill your husband, Warren Attinger?

Attinger: No.

Bonner: To wound him?

Attinger: No.

Bonner: To frighten him?

Attinger: No.

Bonner: No?

Attinger: No.

Bonner: In other words, you fired the pistol only to frighten Beryl Caighn.

Attinger: Yes.

Bonner: What was the point of that?

Attinger: I have three children! She was breaking up my home.