Inherit the Wind (1960)

Based on a real-life case in 1925, two great lawyers argue the case for and against a science teacher accused of the crime of teaching evolution.

Director:

Stanley Kramer

Writers:

Nedrick Young (screenplay), Harold Jacob Smith (screenplay)

Stars:

Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Spencer Tracy	...	Henry Drummond
Fredric March	...	Matthew Harrison Brady
Gene Kelly	...	E. K. Hornbeck
Dick York	...	Bertram T. Cates
Donna Anderson	...	Rachel Brown
Harry Morgan	...	Judge Mel Coffey
Claude Akins	...	Rev. Jeremiah Brown
Elliott Reid	...	Prosecutor Tom Davenport
Paul Hartman	...	Bailiff Mort Meeker
Philip Coolidge	...	Mayor Jason Carter
Jimmy Boyd	...	Howard
Noah Beery Jr.	...	John Stebbins
Norman Fell	...	WGN Radio Technician
Gordon Polk	...	George Sillers
Hope Summers	...	Mrs. Krebs - Righteous Townswoman

Storyline

Teacher B.T. Cates is arrested for teaching Darwin's theories. Famous lawyer Henry Drummond defends him; fundamentalist politician Matthew Brady prosecutes. This is a very thinly disguised rendition of the 1925 "Scopes monkey trial" with debates between Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan taken largely from the transcripts.

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Plot Keywords:

lawyer | science | jury | teacher | politician | 

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Taglines:

It's all about the monkey trial that rocked America.

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Genres:

Drama | History

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

November 1960 (USA)

Also Known As:

Procès de singe

Filming Locations:

Courthouse Square, Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Stanley Kramer Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

128 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Fredric March and Florence Eldridge, the actors who play Matthew and Sarah Brady, were married in real life from 1927 until his death in 1975.

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Goofs

Matthew Harrison Brady, actually William Jennings Bryan, is depicted at collapsing and dying immediately after the trial. In fact, Bryan traveled and gave speeches for five days after the trial ended and died in his sleep, not in a courtroom.

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Quotes

Rachel Brown: [to Bertram T Cates] What are you trying to prove anyway?
Bertram T. Cates: Rach, I'm not trying to prove anything. All I want to do is teach my students that man just wasn't planted here like a geranium in a flowerpot. That life comes from a long miracle; it didn't just take seven days.
Rachel Brown: But it's against the law. A school teacher's a public servant. He should do what the law and the school board want him to.
E. K. Hornbeck: [Pounding his hand on the chair like a gavel] Has the accused have anything to say in his own defense? If ...
[...]

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Connections

Spoofed in Planet of the Apes (1968)

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Soundtracks

We'll Hang Bert Cates to a Sour Apple Tree
(uncredited)
Music by William Steffe
Sung to the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" by marching Townfolks

User Reviews

The right to think................very much on trial.

Like Elmer Gantry I first saw Inherit the Wind in the theater in Brooklyn when I was 13 years old. Both of those films dealt with issues arising from the Roaring Twenties out of religion. At the time I thought both were great dramatic pieces dealing with issues of the past. I thought how much we'd grown up as a country from 1925 to 1960.

If you had told me that 46 years later we'd be fighting these same battles and that preachers had as much political power as they do I and many others would have said you were nuts. Yet here we are today in an age when Pat Robertson is taken as a serious political figure.

Inherit the Wind is a dramatization of the famous Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 when a biology teacher was arrested and challenged a law passed by the Tennessee State legislature making it a crime to teach anything other than the account of creation as set down in the Book of Genesis. Dick York is the biology teacher here, renamed Bertram Cates for the play and the film version of that play.

In fact all the names of the dramatis personae of the Scopes Trial have been changed to allow some creativity by the authors Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee. Spencer Tracy and Fredric March play fictionalizations of Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan named Henry Drummond and Matthew Harrison Brady respectively.

Of course that is what Inherit the Wind is primarily known for, a duel of double Academy Award winners. In fact Spencer Tracy received another Academy Award nomination for this film, but lost to Burt Lancaster for Elmer Gantry. That's ironic to me because I thought March captured the essence of William Jennings Bryan better. Bryan is a man whose time has passed him by. But he's still a hero to the folks of small town rural America in the south and middle west. One thing to remember is that while Bryan was a great orator and advocate, he had not practiced law in over 30 years when he stepped into the courtroom for the trial. If he had been a better lawyer, he might not have fallen into the one big trap Tracy set for him and the trial and the attending publicity might have been better for his side.

As good as Tracy is, the year before in Compulsion I think that Orson Welles captured the real Clarence Darrow in his character of Jonathan Wilk. No one in Hollywood could do long take speeches quite like Spencer Tracy though. I'm sure that's why Director Stanley Kramer hired him and they developed quite the screen partnership with Tracy doing four of his last five screen roles for Kramer.

Stanley Kramer made some impeccable casting choices filling out the minor roles of the various townspeople of Hillsboro, Tennessee. There are two that I would single out. Claude Akins who usually played tough guys in various action films was astounding as the town preacher, the Reverend Jeremiah Brown. Sad to say there are still many like him out there. Akins's offbeat casting worked wonders, it turned out to be the high point of his screen career.

On the opposite end of the spectrum was Noah Beery, Jr. who is a farmer and who's son was drowned some time before the events of the film. Beery is the town non-conformist, he refused to allow his son to be baptized and Akins has said the adolescent is in hell because of it.

In a key scene when Tracy draws the ire of Judge Harry Morgan who sentences him to jail for contempt of court, Beery offers to put up his farm for collateral for Tracy's bail. Tracy's about to quit the case, but that simple gesture gives him hope, in the ultimate decency and clearheadedness of ordinary people. It's my favorite scene in Inherit the Wind.

Stanley Kramer lived long enough to see this film become so relevant for today's times. I wonder what he must have thought.