Inherit the Wind

This 1960 movie was based on the play of the same name by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. Even though the story is based on fact, the authors claim that Inherit the Wind is not history. Only a few phrases have been taken from the actual transcript of the trial. To quote the authors, "So Inherit the Wind does not pretend to be journalism. It is theatre. It is not 1925. The stage directions set the time as 'Not too long ago'. It might have been yesterday. It could be tomorrow."

The historical facts have been put down in many writings since the famous trial. In 1925, school teacher John T. Scopes was arrested in Dayton, Tennessee for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution, which was against state law. The law forbade the teaching of any doctrine denying the divine creation of man as taught by the bible. The Scopes Trial took place from July 21st to July 25th, 1925. The trial promised a confrontation between fundamentalist literal belief of the bible and people who believed the bible was allegory or myth. The attorney for the defense was the famed trial lawyer Clarence Darrow and the prosecutor was the orator and statesman William Jennings Bryan.

During the trial, no test of the constitutionality of the law was allowed by the trial judge, nor was any statement allowed that tested the validity of Darwin's theory. The trial was limited to questions on whether or not John T. Scopes had taught evolution--a fact which he'd admitted to. He was found guilty and ordered to pay a fine of one hundred dollars. Later, on appeal, the state supreme court upheld the constitutionality of the law but acquitted Scopes on the technicality that he'd been fined excessively. The law was finally repealed in 1967. William Jennings Bryan died five days after the initial trial.

The character in the movie, E. K. Hornbeck, was based on the legendary journalist H. L. Mencken who had a sharp wit and a biting tongue. He attacked with words such things as organized religion, business, and the middle class. He worked as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun. He is quoted as saying about Americans: "the most timorous, sniveling, poltroonish, ignominious mob of serfs and goose-steppers who ever gathered under one flag in Christendom since the end of the Middle Ages." Sadly, he was right and that statement is probably more true today than it was back then.

The opening scene in the movie is of the Hillsboro (the town being portrayed instead of Dayton, Tennessee) courthouse where the mayor (Phillip Coolidge) looks at his watch and strolls across the street to the background music of Give Me That Old Time Religion, sung in the movie by Leslie Uggams. After crossing the street, he meets up with the sheriff and his deputy. The trio continues walking and Reverend Jeremiah Brown (Claude Akins) joins them. The group continues on to the school they arrest high school biology teacher Bertram Cates (Dick York) in his classroom for teaching evolution. Soon, town officials realize that their small community is being vilified in newspapers across the country. There is apprehension among the town fathers about what kind of image of their town they may be projecting to the nation until they find out that the great Matthew Harrison Brady (Fredric March) is joining the prosecution team.

To complicate matters, Bertram Cates is engaged to Reverend Brown's daughter, Rachel, played by Donna Anderson. The reverend