by Miguel E. Rodriguez
DIRECTOR: Stanley Kramer
CAST: Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly, Dick York, Harry Morgan
MY RATING: 9/10
ROTTEN TOMATOMETER: 93% Fresh
PLOT: In 1925, two great lawyers argue the case for, and against, a Tennessee science teacher accused of the crime of teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. (Inspired by the real-life Scopes Monkey Trial.)
I have known about the movie version of Inherit the Wind for many years now, but it has taken me this long to get around to finally watching it. One of the first shows I ever did in community theater was Inherit the Wind. I played E.K. Hornbeck, probably one of the best-written characters I’ve ever performed. I hesitated this long to watch the movie, or any of the other various TV/cable versions, because I feared it could never live up to the power of the stage play. Boy, was I wrong. Stanley Kramer’s film of the award-winning play is anchored by two of the greatest performances ever to grace the silver screen, courtesy of Spencer Tracy and Fredric March, both 2-time Oscar winners.
It’s 1925, and in the Bible-belt hamlet of Hillsboro, Tennessee, a young teacher, Bertram Cates, has been imprisoned. His crime? Teaching Darwin’s theories in high school. In Hillsboro, you see, it’s against the law to teach anything but Biblical creationism in the classroom. The arrest makes national headlines, most of them negative. Example: “Heavenly Hillsboro: Does It Have a Hole in Its Head, or Its Head in a Hole?” The despairing town fathers rejoice when they discover that the great Matthew Harrison Brady, lawyer extraordinaire and 3-time Presidential nominee, will volunteer to prosecute the case. Brady is played by Fredric March with gusto, although I almost wish March had dialed it back JUST a touch every now and then. He comes VERY close to becoming a parody of a character instead of a real person.
Covering the story in Hillsboro is E.K. Hornbeck (Gene Kelly!), a reporter from Baltimore. Hornbeck is loosely based on the legendary newspaperman H.L. Mencken. The screenplay reduces Hornbeck’s presence a tad as opposed to the stage play, but Kelly delivers the goods with all the appropriate flair and panache.
Hornbeck’s Baltimore paper uses its influence and checkbook to lure another skilled, big-city attorney to Hillsboro to defend Cates. This is Henry Drummond, played by Spencer Tracy in arguably the best performance of his lengthy career. Drummond is a shambling, good-natured fellow whose twinkling eyes disguise a sharp legal mind and a passion for the truth. It’s a tribute to Tracy’s abilities that we get to see both sides of Drummond’s persona and there is never a sense of any disconnect between them.
After the first half-hour or so of exposition, the remaining bulk of the film takes place in the sweltering Hillsboro County Courthouse, as a jury is selected, witnesses are questioned, and both sides present their case to the judge (Harry Morgan). In between court sessions, we get short scenes with Bertram Cates’s fiancé, Rachel, who just happens to be the daughter of the town’s religious leader, Reverend Brown (Claude Akins); a prayer meeting where Reverend Brown essentially damns his own daughter to hell; and pleasant interludes where Drummond and Brady sit on a front porch and reminisce how they used to be great friends, fighting for the same cause once upon a time. But now Brady has combined his faith with his political ambitions, and Drummond dreams of a day when reason and science are not equated with heresy.
I won’t give you a play-by-play of the courtroom scenes here. But if I were a film director, and I found myself directing a courtroom thriller, I would sit down and watch Inherit the Wind at least ten times before shooting a foot of film. The scenes where Drummond and Brady butt heads and cross-examine and make objections are simply spellbinding. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the camerawork by the great Ernest Laszlo, moving around the courtroom and around each attorney, pushing in, tracking backwards. I know great camerawork is supposed to become invisible while watching a film, but this was different. Laszlo’s camera sometimes calls attention to itself, but it never, ever distracts from the story.
Of course, beautiful camerawork only works when it’s photographing something worthwhile, and Spencer Tracy and Fredric March do not disappoint as Drummond and Brady. For nearly 90 minutes, they bicker, trade jabs, and put on a double-act of Hollywood professionalism and technique that would not be matched until the films of Newman and Redford. Tracy is especially fascinating to watch. It’s impossible to catch him acting. There’s never a moment when he looks anything but authentic. His speech patterns give the impression of a man whose mouth is just barely keeping up with his brain. When he occasionally stumbles over a word, the odds are 50-50 whether it was a real slip up or if he just threw it in as a flourish.
If Tracy’s performance is a triumph of realism, or at least naturalism, Fredric March’s performance is one of the last great displays of old Hollywood, full of facial tics and vocal mannerisms and speechifying that would have made even Charles Foster Kane say, “Dude…dial it down.” It’s still a powerhouse performance, but it’s a good thing Tracy didn’t try to match March. Otherwise, the whole movie would have become a cartoon. Because we have two such contrasting performances, the movie achieves a nice balance that makes time pass much more quickly than it might have with two other actors.
Regarding the TOPIC of the film…well, to be honest, if I started to write about all the things I felt while watching the film, about how so many people today, not just random folks, but people I know personally, would have felt right at home in 1925 Hillsboro, asking God to rain hellfire on the non-believers, chanting about hanging the accused teacher from a “sour apple tree”…I’d still be writing this review three days from now.
Besides, I believe the film makes its point much more eloquently than I ever could (especially when it comes to the discussion of how long that first day of Creation was, exactly). One of my favorite lines from the movie comes when Brady accuses Drummond of attempting to destroy everyone’s belief in God and the Bible. Drummond replies:
“That’s not true, and you know it. The Bible is a book. It’s a good book. But it’s not the ONLY book.”
Inherit the Wind is not anti-Christian or anti-God or even anti-religion. It is a plea for tolerance. The fact that it was released over sixty years ago does not diminish the power of that message. And even if it did not have that agenda, it would still be one of the most exciting, crackling courtroom dramas I’ve ever seen.
(Fun fact: A quick internet search reveals that, while all US states currently teach evolution, there are some that voluntarily pair it with creationism.)
2 UNPAID MOVIE CRITICS!!!! 