Inherit the Wind (1960)

Directed by

Stanley Kramer

Genre

drama film, trial film

Country

United States

Runtime

2h 03m

Rated

NR

Rating

7.6 of 10 from 476 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A small-town teacher is arrested for teaching evolution in 1920s Tennessee. Two famous lawyers, old friends, face off in a courtroom battle over science, religion, and free thought.

tensecerebralslow-burndebate-heavyprovocativemelancholicsharpold-fashioned

What happens

Inherit the Wind is a 1960 American drama film directed by Stanley Kramer and based on the 1955 play of the same name written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. It stars Spencer Tracy as lawyer Henry Drummond and Fredric March as his friend and rival Matthew Harrison Brady. It also features Gene Kelly, Dick York, Harry Morgan, Donna Anderson, Claude Akins, Noah Beery Jr., Florence Eldridge, Jimmy Boyd and Gordon Polk. The script was adapted by Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith. Kramer was commended for bringing in Young, as he had been blacklisted and was forced to use the pseudonym Nathan E. Douglas. Inherit the Wind is a parable that fictionalizes the 1925 Scopes "Monkey" Trial as a means to discuss McCarthyism. Written in response to the chilling effect of the McCarthy era investigations on intellectual discourse, the film (like the play) is critical of creationism. A television remake of the film which starred Melvyn Douglas and Ed Begley was broadcast in 1965. Another television remake that starred Jason Robards and Kirk Douglas aired in 1988. It was remade for television again in 1999, co-starring Jack Lemmon as Drummond and George C. Scott as Brady. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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