Katharine Hepburn reportedly urged director George Cukor to focus the camera on Judy Holliday during a number of their shared scenes, not only because she was a fan of the new-to-movies Holliday but because it was hoped the studios would see how terrific Holliday was and cast her as the lead in Born Yesterday, the role she'd created on Broadway. It worked.
Marvin Kaplan's film debut.
Film debut of Madge Blake.
In her early monologue scene with Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday can be seen trembling. This was not acting, but nervousness. The inexperienced Judy Holliday was terrified of performing with Katharine Hepburn.
In the memorable Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn massage scene, a radio plays Frank Sinatra singing Cole Porter's "Farewell, Amanda," a gift to Amanda Bonner (played by Hepburn) from her songwriter-neighbor, Kip Lurie (played by David Wayne) who, earlier in the picture, had crooned the ditty, accompanying himself on the Bonners' piano. While Adam Bonner (played by Tracy) is massaging his wife, he abruptly shuts off the radio. Sinatra is again heard when a record is accidentally started in a later scene. This prerecording of "Farewell, Amanda" is lost.
In the scene in which Amanda is driving Adam to work, he tells her, "Oh, you're giving me the Bryn Mawr accent". Bryn Mawr College was Katharine Hepburn's alma mater, where she claimed to have gained her distinctive voice.
Inspired by the real-life story of husband-and-wife lawyers William Dwight Whitney and Dorothy Whitney, who represented Raymond Massey and his ex-wife Adrienne Allen in their divorce. After the Massey divorce was over, the Whitneys divorced each other and married the respective Masseys.
Ranked #7 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Romantic Comedy" in June 2008.
The movie's line "Licorice, mmmm. If there's anything I'm a sucker for, it's licorice." was voted as the #60 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
To help build up Judy Holliday's image, particularly in the eyes of Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn, Katharine Hepburn deliberately leaked stories to the gossip columns suggesting that her performance in Adam's Rib was so good that it had stolen the spotlight from Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. This got Cohn's attention and Holliday won the part in Born Yesterday.
When Tom Ewell is walking to his girlfriend's apartment at the beginning of the film, he is whistling "You Are My Lucky Star". This song is also featured in Singin' in the Rain which stars the same actress who plays Tom Ewell's girlfriend, Jean Hagen.