Adam's Rib Filming Locations

One of the great Tracy-Hepburn comedies, with lawyer Hepburn defending Judy Holliday against a charge of attempted murder, while husband Tracy acts for the prosecution.

Set in New York, it was filmed mainly on MGM’s stages in Culver City, LA, using a few location scenes to add authenticity.

The office, outside which Holliday waits for erring husband Tom Ewell before following him down into the subway, is on Bowling Green, Broadway at Battery Place, Lower Manhattan.

Tracy and Hepburn drive to court on Franklin D Roosevelt Drive alongside the East River – courtesy of a little back projection. The forbidding court exterior, with its ironic motto, “Equal and exact justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion”, can still be seen in Manhattan’s Chinatown. It’s the Criminal Courts Building, known as ‘The Tombs’, 100 Centre Street between Leonard and White Streets.

The accountant’s office, where Tracy and Hepburn reunite while filing their tax returns, is on Bayard Street, in the shadow of The Tombs, beneath the ‘Bridge of Sighs’, which linked the Municipal Prison to the courthouse.