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Inherit the Wind
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Synopsis
The Evolution vs. Creationism argument is at the center of the Jerome Lawrence-Robert E. Lee Broadway play Inherit the Wind. Lawrence and Lee's inspiration was the 1925 "Monkey Trial," in which Tennessee schoolteacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in violation of state law. Scopes deliberately courted arrest to challenge what he and his supporters saw as an unjust law, and the trial became a national cause when The Baltimore Sun, represented by the famed (and atheistic) journalist H. L. Mencken, hired attorney Clarence Darrow to defend Scopes. The prosecuting attorney was crusading politician William Jennings Bryan, once a serious contender for the Presidency, now a relic of a past era. While Bryan won the case as expected, he and his fundamentalist backers were held up to public ridicule by the cagey Darrow. In both the play and film versions of Inherit the Wind, the names and places are changed, but the basic chronology was retained, along with most of the original court transcripts. John Scopes becomes Bertram Cates (Dick York); Clarence Darrow is Henry Drummond (Spencer Tracy); William Jennings Bryan is Matthew Harrison Brady (Fredric March); and H. L. Mencken is E. K. Hornbeck (Gene Kelly). Dayton, Tennessee is transformed into Hillsboro -- or, as the relentlessly cynical Hornbeck characterizes it, "Heavenly Hillsboro." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast

Claude Akins Rev. Jeremiah Brown
Donna Anderson Rachel Brown
Noah Beery, Jr. Stebbins
Jimmy Boyd Howard
Philip Coolidge Mayor
Florence Eldridge Sarah Brady
Norman Fell Radio Announcer
Renee Godfrey Mrs. Stebbins
Paul Hartman Meeker
Fredric March Matthew Harrison Brady
Gordon Polk Sillers
Elliott Reid Davenport
Hope Summers Mrs. Krebs
Ray Teal Dunlap
Spencer Tracy Henry Drummond
Dick York Bertram T. Cates
Gene Kelly E.K. Hornbeck
Harry Morgan Judge
Henry "Harry" Morgan Judge

Production Crew

Ernest Laszlo Cinematographer
Ernest Gold Composer (Music Score)
Joe King Costume Designer
Stanley Kramer Director
Frederic Knudtson Editor
Jerome Lawrence Play Author
Robert E. Lee Play Author
Stanley Kramer Producer
Rudolph Sternad Production Designer
Clem Beauchamp Production Manager
Harold Jacob Smith Screenwriter
Ned Young Screenwriter
Year: 1960
Runtime: 128
Country: USA
MPAA Rating:
Category: Feature

Genre
Drama

Produced by
Stanley Kramer Productions
United Artists

Release
by United Artists

Awards
1960 - Best British Film - British Academy Awards
1960 - Best Film - New York Film Critics Circle
1960 - Best Picture - National Board of Review
1960 - Best Picture - Drama - Golden Globe
1960 - Best British Film - British Academy Awards
1960 - Best British Film - British Academy of Film and Television
1960 - Best Picture - Drama - Hollywood Foreign Press Association