Review of Inherit the Wind (1960) by Kyle C — 10 May 2008

Spencer Tracy and Fredric March roar and snarl through two of the greatest performances in film history in Stanley Kramer's magnificent courtroom drama about much more than Evolution. In a world where "Intelligent Design" is touted by reactionaries as a "science" and the actual writings of the eminent naturalist Charles Darwin are so woefully unread and misunderstood, this film still possesses a considerable ethical and political bite.

It will continue to do so in any world where the forces of religious extremism and fundamentalism butt heads with the sphere of Reason and Rationality. Tracy's Henry Drummond (drawn from the courtroom titan Clarence Darrow) is an immense, blistering curmudgeon, and his battle against March's Bible-thumping Populist train wreck Matthew Harrison Brady (paralleling the historic rabble-rouser William Jennings Bryan) remains hilarious, powerful, and chilling.

Gene Kelly was marvelously cast as E.K. Hornbeck (a witticism-spewing manifestation of H.L. Mencken), and Dick York, Hope Summers, Harry Morgan (instantly recognizable as "MASH"'s Colonel Potter, as the gravelly Judge Coffey), and Philip Coolidge form a wonderfully acute supporting cast.