Movie Description A teacher is jailed for teaching evolution in the South bringing two legal giants, one an athiest and one a creationist, to battle for more than the teacher's fate in a sweltering southern courtroom. This first rate drama was based on the real "Scopes Trial" in which Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryant were the attorneys. Gene Kelly plays H.L. Mencken. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Actor--Spencer Tracy, Best (Adapted) Screenplay.
| Credits | | Producer: | Stanley Kramer | | Cast: | Elliot Reid, Harry Morgan |
Notes Florence Eldridge, who plays Fredric March's devoted wife in the film, was the actor's real life wife. This was the seventh movie they appeared in together.
The film and the play it was adapted from were based on the real-life 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial that took place in Dayton, Tennessee. Henry Drummond, Matthew Harrison Brady, reporter E. K. Hornbeck and teacher Bertram T. Cates were modeled after Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan, Baltimore reporter H. L. Mencken and teacher John T. Scopes, respectively. The trial was labeled the "Monkey Trial" by some of the country's newspapers because of the concept of evolution which was at issue.
Screenwriter Nathan E. Douglas also goes by the name Nedrick Young.
A Lomitas production.
The film was remade for TV in 1988, with Kirk Douglas and Jason Robards in the Fredric March and Spencer Tracy roles.
The play "Inherit the Wind" was produced and directed on stage by Herman Shumlin.
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