Reviews of Inherit the Wind (1960)

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There are many reasons to watch this movie, one of the essential films of the past 50 years. But the primary motivation is to see the greatest screen actor of all, Spencer Tracy, deliver a performance for the ages. Watch this master emote with movement, voice and nuance. He steals the picture (as he usually does), but there is another brilliant performance as well. This is delivered expertly by the underrated Fredric March, in one of the meatiest roles ever handed to an actor. March is at turns witty, cunning, over-the-top, hammy or contrite, depending upon the demands of the scene. His scenes on the witness stand with Tracy are among the best written and beautifully acted pieces in movie history. It's impossible not to be on the edge of your seat as Tracy quizzes March about various passages from the Bible.

I won't bother with the details of the plot, which is well known to most movie fans. Don't expect real or truthful history, and accept that Kramer's direction is sometimes limited and even claustrophobic. Watch this film because there has never been such an array of spellbinding performances as were delivered by Tracy and March. An astounding display of acting talent.

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Inherit the Wind is a movie about ideas, and in the hands of master actors like Spencer Tracy and Fredric March, the ideas are well delivered. March and Tracy bring the full force of their talents to their roles as opposing lawyers (and one time friends) who face off on the issue of evolution vs. Creation. The fact that this is based on a real life court case only adds to the drama. Florence Eldridge, March's real life wife, is excellent as March's movie wife who recognizes the flaws in her husband, but loves and admires him anyways. Harry Morgan also gives a solid performance as the judge caught in a very controversial case. Gene Kelly plays a very cynical reporter and has some good scenes, but overall isn't completely effective. The movie is full of dialogue, and is obviously based on a stage play, but the ideas are so strong, the actors so dynamic, and there are enough scenes away from the court case, so that the movie doesn't drag. And of course, the issues raised about freedom of speech and thought are still relevant today. This is a movie and a story to learn from.

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INHERIT THE WIND was released in 1960, yet remains as topical today as it did all those decades ago. Stanley Kramer's masterpiece depicting the volatile clash of science and religion continues to spawn discussion and debate.

Based in part on the actual 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial" in Tennessee, INHERIT THE WIND is dominated by its two co-stars, Spencer Tracy and Fredric March. Both actors give stellar performances as courtroom antagonists who once were close friends. Gene Kelly strayed from his usual role--playing the lead in musicals--to portray a cynical newspaper reporter, and he pulls it off remarkably well. The entire cast is first-rate, exceptional.

Faith and religion are at the core of human emotion; INHERIT THE WIND taps in to this emotion, spilling and dispersing it throughout the film. Gripping courtroom drama, fierce debates, ugly namecalling and bigotry, and tender human compassion are manifested again and again. The fabric of "interpretation" is woven into the story, very gently suggesting that in order to grow as a society we must challenge that which is taken for granted, be it Creationism or evolution. We must continue to ask questions, no matter how uncomfortable the answers may make us.

This is a superb film. I cannot recommend it more highly.

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With the issue of evolution versus creationism flaring up anew in current legal battles, Stanley Kramer's 1960 film has retained its timeliness. This was a period of vigorous activity for Kramer on the message film front as he directed and produced within a four year cycle "The Defiant Ones," a 1958 examination of the race issue in America starring Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis, "On The Beach," a controversial film about nuclear war starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner which was released in 1959, followed in turn by the aforementioned "Inherit The Wind" one year later and the highly acclaimed "Judgment at Nuremberg" in 1961, which focused on personal responsibility of German judges to interpret the law humanely during Hitler's Third Reich.

"Inherit The Wind" was adapted by Kramer to the screen from the hugely successful Broadway stage hit written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee about the Scopes Monkey Trial held in Dayton, Tennessee in 1922. While the names were changed, with defense lawyer Clarence Darrow becoming Henry Drummond and prosecutor William Jennings Bryan becoming Matthew Harrison Brady, the chief issue of the actual trial pitting creationism and evolution as applied to the classroom remained intact. Distinguished veteran stars Spencer Tracy and Fredric March perform with astounding brilliance as competing individuals who believed they were standard bearers for important causes governing how civilization would proceed. March stood foursquare for a Biblical foundation based on old line religious values, which he believed were threatened by free thinkers of the agnostic stripe represented by Tracy, who in turn thought his adversary's ideas antiquated and anti-intellectual. Gene Kelly emerges in a different type of role from his usual delightful free spirit as highly cynical newspaper columnist E.K. Hornbeck, in actuality H.L. Mencken, like Drummond-Darrow an agnostic free thinker whose newspaper, The Baltimore Sun, put up the money to pay Clarence Darrow's legal fee in the Scopes Trial.

Great supporting efforts are provided by Florence Eldridge, March's real life wife, who plays his supportive spouse in the film, by Dick York playing the Scopes role of town high school biology teacher, and Harry Morgan as trial judge. Donna Anderson, used by Kramer to good advantage as Anthony Perkins' wife in "On The Beach," does a convincing job as wife of York.

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Inherit the Wind is the broad fictional adaptation of the real-life Scopes Monkey Trial in which John Scopes, a football coach who taught evolution in a high school classroom, was put on trial and the city of Dayton, Tennessee was put on the map... and not in a particularly pleasing light.

Spencer Tracy and Frederic March turn out tremendously powerful performances as opposing lawyers in the trial, while Gene Kelly stands aloofly by as a flippant reporter for the Boston Globe.

What is especially striking about Inherit the Wind is the relevance of the movie (almost 50 years later) to the current political atmosphere. In the 20's the law said that evolution couldn't be taught, and now it's creationism that can't be taught. As Tracy's Henry Drummond says in the film, "Well, that's evolution for you."

The acting throughout the film is outstanding and it hardly feels like a two hour film, particularly in black and white. The entire film builds momentum until it all comes to a head at the very end with the showdown between Drummond (Tracy) and Brady (March). This is not a film to be missed if you're at all interested in history (although it's a loose adaptation) and the current intelligent design debate.

Included on the disc is the original trailer for the film, which features a few clips from the film and then director Stanley Kramer discussing the film and listing awards that it won in festivals. It's interesting to see a trailer this old and compare it to our current trailers.