Inherit the Wind 1960

     B.T. Cates is arrested for teaching Darwin’s theories in his classroom.  He is taken to the local jail and famous lawyer Henry Drummond is set to defend him.  The prosecutor will be fundamentalist politician Matthew Brady.  This film is a thinly disguised rendition of the 1925 film Scopes Monkey Trial.  There are debates between Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan.  Their comments are taken largely from the original transcripts.
     This film was made almost 60 years ago and the court case was from nearly 95 years ago!!  Spencer Tracy portrays a crusty liberal and he believes an idea is more important than a monument.  Frederick March doesn’t think about what not to think about.  Director Kramer doesn’t beat up the audience with preconceptions.  There is some mild swearing and the movie does raise questions and issues about the theory of creationism versus evolution.  These themes could lead to interesting conversations about the two views and their presentations by the film.  Plus these topics are still debated today.  3* (This movie was OK)  

Note:  Imdb 8.1 out of 10 with 25,291 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 92% critic 91% audience, Roger Ebert 4*, Common Sense Media Ellen MacKay age 12+ with 5*, 1* violence 1* language, Amazon 4.6* with 516 reviews, Letterboxd 3.9*.

128 min, Bio directed by Stanley Kramer and written by Nedrick Young, Harold Jacob Smith with Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly, Dick York, Donna Anderson, Harry Morgan, Claude Akins, Paul Hartman, Philip Coolidge, Jimmy Boyd, Noah Beery Jr., Normal Fell, Gordon Polk, Hope Summers.

Special Note:  The final summation by Spencer Tracy was filmed in a single take to heighten the tension in the courtroom.  In real life, Clarence Darrow asked the jury to find John Thomas Scopes guilty so that he could appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court.  This action would put an even bigger dent on the law.  There was criticism directed at producer Stanley Kramer by the American Legion for hiring Nedrick Young.  The Legion considered him a subversive.  Moss Hart, the President of The Authors League of American sent Kramer a telegram.  This council has always opposed any form of blacklisting of writers.  They unanimously voted at a meeting to commend and applaud Kramer for his courageous stand.  Kramer had rejected publicly the effort to interfere on pseudo-patriotic grounds the right of writers to work.  This was the first in-flight movie ever shown on TWA.