(From Wikipedia)…

The film is set in West Berlin during the Cold War, but before the construction of the Berlin Wall, and politics is predominant in the setup. Diamond and Wilder’s social satire and sharp humor skewers targets on all sides of the divide —capitalists and communists, Americans, Germans, and Russians, men and women alike exhibit their own weaknesses and quirky foibles. As in Avanti! (1972), the humour of the film is partly based on the contrast between people from different cultures.

C. R. “Mac” MacNamara is a high-ranking executive in the Coca-Cola Company, assigned to West Berlin after a business fiasco a few years earlier in the Middle East (about which he is still bitter). Nevertheless, Mac is angling to become head of Western European Coca-Cola Operations, based in London. After working on an arrangement to introduce Coke into the Soviet Union, Mac receives a call from his boss, W.P. Hazeltine in Atlanta. Scarlett Hazeltine, the boss’s hot-blooded 17-year-old socialite daughter, is coming to Berlin and Mac receives the unenviable task of taking care of this young whirlwind.

An expected two-week stay develops into two months, and Mac discovers just why Scarlett is enamored of Berlin—she surprises him by announcing that she’s married to a young man, Otto Piffl, who happens to be an East German Communist with ardent “anti-Yankee” views. The socialist couple are bound for Moscow to make a new life for themselves (“They’ve assigned us a magnificent apartment, just a short walk from the bathroom!”). Since Hazeltine and his wife are coming to Berlin to collect their daughter the very next day, this is obviously a disaster of monumental proportions, and Mac deals with it as any good capitalist would — by framing the young Communist firebrand and having him picked up by the Stasi, the East German secret police, who later force Otto to sign a confession that he’s an American spy (after finally cracking from repeated exposure to the song, Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini during interrogation).

Under pressure from his stern and disapproving wife (who wants to take her family back to live in the U.S.), and with the revelation that Scarlett is pregnant, Mac sets out to bring Otto back with the help of his new Russian business associates. With the boss on the way, he finds that his only chance is to turn Otto into a son-in-law in good standing — which means, among other things, making him a capitalist with an aristocratic pedigree (albeit contrived). In the end, the Hazeltines approve of their new son-in-law (upon which Mac learns from Hazeltine that Otto will be named the new head of Western European operations—with Mac getting a promotion to VP of Procurement (back in Atlanta)) Mac reconciles with his family at the airport, and to celebrate his promotion, offers to buy his family a Coke. Ironically, after handing out the Cokes to his family, he realizes upon inspection that the final bottle he takes for himself is actually Pepsi-Cola.

Watch full-length movie…

Trivia Tid-Bits…

• At one point MacNamara, played by James Cagney, threatens Otto with half a grapfruit so that the scene resembles the famous one in The Public Enemy, Cagney pushed into Mae Clarke’s face.
• Red Buttons, in a small role as an MP, does a Cagney imitation to James Cagney.
• After he learns Scarlett is pregnant, James Cagney moans, “Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?” This was Edward G. Robinson’s famous line from Little Caesar.
• The voice of Count von Droste Schattenburg (played on screen by Hubert von Meyerinck) is that of Sig Ruman.
• The building of the Berlin Wall had begun in the night of August 13, 1961, right through the set at the Brandenburger Tor. The team, discovering the change in the morning, had to move to Munich to shoot the missing scenes on the parking lot of the Bavaria Film Studios, where a copy of the lower half of the Brandenburger Tor had to be built.
• Billy Wilder made James Cagney do over 30 takes of a scene because Cagney kept saying “coat and striped pants” instead of “morning coat and striped pants.”
• In James Cagney’s autobiography, he says that Horst Buchholz was the only actor he really hated working with because he was uncooperative and tried all kinds of scene-stealing moves, which Cagney depended on Billy Wilder to correct. Had Wilder not firmly directed Bucholz, Cagney said that he “was going to knock Buchholz on his ass, which at several points I would have been very happy to do”.
• At the “Grand Hotel Potemkin”, the band plays the song “Yes, We Have No Bananas” (in German of course). This song is used in Billy Wilder’s previous film, Sabrina
• Pamela Tiffin was reportedly having trouble acting with such experienced performers. Legend has it that James Cagney helped her by giving her the famous advice about acting: “Walk into a room. Plant yourself. Look the other fella in the eye and tell the truth.”
• When Billy Wilder was at Paramount, he often clashed with an executive at the studio named Y. Frank Freeman. Freeman was from Georgia and would often brag about his extensive holdings of Coca-Cola stock. That relationship was part of the inspiration for this project.
• In addition to the “Yes, We Have No Bananas” song, Billy Wilder also borrowed the climactic switcheroo from Sabrina right down to the hat and umbrella. Piffl goes to London instead of MacNamara, just as Linus Larrabee goes to Paris instead of David Larrabee.
• The building of the Berlin Wall during production badly hurt the film’s marketing in Germany. It was very ill-received by German audiences and had minimal success during its initial run.
• When asked in 1974 why he made a film about Coca Cola, Billy Wilder responded, “I just think Coca-Cola to be funny. And when I drink it, it seems even funnier to me.”
• James Cagney had such a negative experience making this picture that he retired from films for 20 years until his cameo in Ragtime.
• Joan Crawford (then on the board of PepsiCo) telephoned director Billy Wilder to protest the movie’s Coca-Cola connection. Wilder then added a final scene in which James Cagney buys four bottles of Coke from a vending machine. The last bottle out of the machine isn’t Coke – but another brand… of Pepsi.
• The instruction at the front of Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond’s screenplay reads: “This piece must be played molto furioso”. Suggested speed: 110 miles an hour – on the curves – 140 miles an hour in the straightways. “
• At one point Cagney says, “I wish I were in hell with my back broken,” a line Billy Wilder used in at least two of his earlier films. Humphrey Bogart says the same line in “Sabrina”, and Akim Tamiroff says a slight variation, “I wish I were in a black pit with my back broken,” in “Five Graves to Cairo”.
• The Brandenburg Gate figures rather prominently in this film. It and the rest of the border between East and West Berlin were closed on August 13, 1961, only months before this film was released.
• To cause problems for Otto Piffl (Horst Buchholz), James Cagney gives him a cuckoo clock that plays “Yankee Doodle Dandy” causing Buchholz to get arrested by the East Germany police. Jimmy Cagney played the lead role in Yankee Doodle Dandy, the story of George M. Cohan, the composer of “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

Selected IMDB.com User Reviews…

James Cagney is at the top of his game giving a machine gun like delivery of his lines, once again, demonstrating his status as a legendary star.

Add to this, a cast of good character actors, some familiar like Leon Askin and Red Buttons and some not so familiar. All in all a cast that helps makes a film that delivers laughs in rapid fire succession!

Included in this cast is Horst Buchholz who is especially funny as the loony communist. Now, someone mentioned that Jack Lemmon thought a regular comedian should have been put in that role. I think that would have made the character less funny. It needs the “serious” touch that Buchholz gives Otto that really makes his statements even more ludicrous and therefore even funnier. A good example is the scene where Otto makes his comments on Americanism while being dragged out of the room, “America, unemployment, discrimination, gangsterism, juvenile delinquency, but under our new 20 year plan, we will catch up with you!”.

If any one has not seen this gem, my advice is look for it on TV, buy it, rent it, just watch it! You won’t stop laughing!

———-

Billy Wilder’s hilarious Cold War comedy that only gets better with each viewing. It does help some, of course, to know the politics of the region and of that time period. Irregardless, one need not be a Hoover Institute Fellow to pick these up quickly. James Cagney, proving his acting range was virtually borderless, turns in a superb performance as the soft drink exec seeking an upper echelon corporate job.

With a terrific supporting cast, Cagney’s corporate dreams are about to explode, when the boss’ wild daughter flies into Berlin. Creating havoc, and not to mention more stress on his wounded marriage, the daughter runs off cavorting about in the Eastern Sector.

Corporate ambitions, romance and strong politics collide in this volatile, hilarious, extremely fast paced comedy. This is how a real comedic farce is put together, and it goes off without a hitch, all the way to the last gag. There’s also some great homages/inside jokes to boot. A comedy classic, and another gem from Mr. Wilder.

Please allow the entire movie to load and then watch. Thank you for your patience.

Click here to watch movie fullscreen in different window

I came across a YouTube video which shows a demonstration of various objects levitating by way of magnetic and sound frequencies generated from acoustic speakers. The video’s author, Dr. David Deak, gave the following information on the video and experiment:

This is an acoustic levitation chamber I designed and built in 1987 as a micro-gravity experiment for NASA related subject matter. The 12 inch cubed plexiglas Helmholtz Resonant Cavity has 3 speakers attached to the cube by aluminium acoustic waveguides. By applying a continuous resonant(600Hertz) sound wave, and by adjusting the amplitude and phase relationship amongst the 3 speakers; I was able to control levitation and movement in all 3 (x,y,z) axis of the ambient space. This research was used to show the effects of micro-gravity conditions that exist in the space shuttle environment in orbit, but done here on Earth in a lab. This is not “anti-gravity.” So don’t waste time arguing something pointless.

Acoustic Levitation Chamber…

How Acoustic Levitation Works…

Wilson, Tracy V.  ”How Acoustic Levitation Works.”  February 06, 2007.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/acoustic-levitation.htm
HowStuffWorks.com

Unless you travel into the vacuum of space, sound is all around you every day. But most of the time, you probably don’t think of it as a physical presence. You hear sounds; you don’t touch them. The only exceptions may be loud nightclubs, cars with window-rattling speakers and ultrasound machines that pulverize kidney stones. But even then, you most likely don’t think of what you feel as sound itself, but as the vibrations that sound creates in other objects.

The idea that something so intangible can lift objects can seem unbelievable, but it’s a real phenomenon. Acoustic levitation takes advantage of the properties of sound to cause solids, liquids and heavy gases to float. The process can take place in normal or reduced gravity. In other words, sound can levitate objects on Earth or in gas-filled enclosures in space.

Photo courtesy Lloyd Smith Research Group
Acoustic levitation allows small objects,
like droplets of liquid, to float.

To understand how acoustic levitation works, you first need to know a little about gravity, air and sound. First, gravity is a force that causes objects to attract one another. The simplest way to understand gravity is through Isaac Newton’s law of universal gravitation. This law states that every particle in the universe attracts every other particle. The more massive an object is, the more strongly it attracts other objects. The closer objects are, the more strongly they attract each other. An enormous object, like the Earth, easily attracts objects that are close to it, like apples hanging from trees. Scientists haven’t decided exactly what causes this attraction, but they believe it exists everywhere in the universe.

Second, air is a fluid that behaves essentially the same way liquids do. Like liquids, air is made of microscopic particles that move in relation to one another. Air also moves like water does — in fact, some aerodynamic tests take place underwater instead of in the air. The particles in gasses, like the ones that make up air, are simply farther apart and move faster than the particles in liquids.

Third, sound is a vibration that travels through a medium, like a gas, a liquid or a solid object. A sound’s source is an object that moves or changes shape very rapidly. For example, if you strike a bell, the bell vibrates in the air. As one side of the bell moves out, it pushes the air molecules next to it, increasing the pressure in that region of the air. This area of higher pressure is a compression. As the side of the bell moves back in, it pulls the molecules apart, creating a lower-pressure region called a rarefaction. The bell then repeats the process, creating a repeating series of compressions and rarefactions. Each repetition is one wavelength of the sound wave.

The sound wave travels as the moving molecules push and pull the molecules around them. Each molecule moves the one next to it in turn. Without this movement of molecules, the sound could not travel, which is why there is no sound in a vacuum. You can watch the following animation to learn more about the basics of sound.

Click the arrow to move on to the next slide.

Acoustic levitation uses sound traveling through a fluid — usually a gas — to balance the force of gravity. On Earth, this can cause objects and materials to hover unsupported in the air. In space, it can hold objects steady so they don’t move or drift.

The process relies on of the properties of sound waves, especially intense sound waves. We’ll look at how sound waves become capable of lifting objects in the next section.

The Physics of Sound Levitation

A basic acoustic levitator has two main parts — a transducer, which is a vibrating surface that makes sound, and a reflector. Often, the transducer and reflector have concave surfaces to help focus the sound. A sound wave travels away from the transducer and bounces off the reflector. Three basic properties of this traveling, reflecting wave help it to suspend objects in midair.

First, the wave, like all sound, is a longitudinal pressure wave. In a longitudinal wave, movement of the points in the wave is parallel to the direction the wave travels. It’s the kind of motion you’d see if you pushed and pulled one end of a stretched Slinky. Most illustrations, though, depict sound as atransverse wave, which is what you would see if you rapidly moved one end of the Slinky up and down. This is simply because transverse waves are easier to visualize than longitudinal waves.

Second, the wave can bounce off of surfaces. It follows the law of reflection, which states that the angle of incidence — the angle at which something strikes a surface — equals the angle of reflection — the angle at which it leaves the surface. In other words, a sound wave bounces off a surface at the same angle at which it hits the surface. A sound wave that hits a surface head-on at a 90 degree angle will reflect straight back off at the same angle. The easiest way to understand wave reflection is to imagine a Slinky that is attached to a surface at one end. If you picked up the free end of the Slinky and moved it rapidly up and then down, a wave would travel the length of the spring. Once it reached the fixed end of the spring, it would reflect off of the surface and travel back toward you. The same thing happens if you push and pull one end of the spring, creating a longitudinal wave.

Finally, when a sound wave reflects off of a surface, the interaction between its compressions and rarefactions causes interference. Compressions that meet other compressions amplify one another, and compressions that meet rarefactions balance one another out. Sometimes, the reflection and interference can combine to create a standing wave. Standing waves appear to shift back and forth or vibrate in segments rather than travel from place to place. This illusion of stillness is what gives standing waves their name.

Standing sound waves have defined nodes, or areas of minimum pressure, and antinodes, or areas of maximum pressure. A standing wave’s nodes are at the heart of acoustic levitation. Imagine a river with rocks and rapids. The water is calm in some parts of the river, and it is turbulent in others. Floating debris and foam collect in calm portions of the river. In order for a floating object to stay still in a fast-moving part of the river, it would need to be anchored or propelled against the flow of the water. This is essentially what an acoustic levitator does, using sound moving through a gas in place of water.

Acoustic levitation uses sound pressure to allow objects to float.

By placing a reflector the right distance away from a transducer, the acoustic levitator creates a standing wave. When the orientation of the wave is parallel to the pull of gravity, portions of the standing wave have a constant downward pressure and others have a constant upward pressure. The nodes have very little pressure.

In space, where there is little gravity, floating particles collect in the standing wave’s nodes, which are calm and still. On Earth, objects collect just below the nodes, where the acoustic radiation pressure, or the amount of pressure that a sound wave can exert on a surface, balances the pull of gravity.

Objects hover in a slightly different area within the sound field,
depending on the influence of gravity.

It takes more than just ordinary sound waves to supply this amount of pressure. We’ll look at what’s special about the sound waves in an acoustic levitator in the next section.

Nonlinear Sound and Acoustic Levitation

Ordinary standing waves can be relatively powerful. For example, a standing wave in an air duct can cause dust to collect in a pattern corresponding to the wave’s nodes. A standing wave reverberating through a room can cause objects in its path to vibrate. Low-frequency standing waves can also cause people to feel nervous or disoriented — in some cases, researchers find them in buildings people report to be haunted.

But these feats are small potatoes compared to acoustic levitation. It takes far less effort to influence where dust settles or to shatter a glass than it takes to lift objects from the ground. Ordinary sound waves are limited by their linear nature. Increasing the amplitude of the wave causes the sound to be louder, but it doesn’t affect the shape of the wave form or cause it to be much more physically powerful.

However, extremely intense sounds — like sounds that are physically painful to human ears — are usually nonlinear. They can cause disproportionately large responses in the substances they travel through. Some nonlinear affects include:

• Distorted wave forms
• Shock waves, like sonic booms
• Acoustic streaming, or the constant flow of the fluid the wave travels through
• Acoustic saturation, or the point at which the matter can no longer absorb any more energy from the sound wave

Nonlinear acoustics is a complex field, and the physical phenomena that cause these effects can be difficult to understand. But in general, nonlinear affects can combine to make an intense sound far more powerful than a quieter one. It is because of these affects that a wave’s acoustic radiation pressure can become strong enough to balance the pull of gravity. Intense sound is central to acoustic levitation — the transducers in many levitators produce sounds in excess of 150 decibels (dB). Ordinary conversation is about 60 dB, and a loud nightclub is closer to 110 dB.

Other Uses for Nonlinear Sound

Several medical procedures rely on nonlinear acoustics. For example, ultrasound imaging uses nonlinear effects to allow doctors to examine babies in the womb or view internal organs. High-intensity ultrasound waves can also pulverize kidney stones, cauterize internal injuries and destroy tumors.

Levitating objects with sound isn’t quite as simple as aiming a high-powered transducer at a reflector. Scientists also must use sounds of the correct frequency to create the desired standing wave. Any frequency can produce nonlinear effects at the right volume, but most systems use ultrasonic waves, which are too high-pitched for people to hear. In addition to the frequency and volume of the wave, researchers also must pay attention to a number of other factors:

• The distance between the transducer and the reflector must be a multiple of half of the wavelength of the sound the transducer produces. This produces a wave with stable nodes and antinodes. Some waves can produce several usable nodes, but the ones nearest the transducer and reflector usually not suitable for levitating objects. This is because the waves create a pressure zone close to the reflective surfaces.
• In a microgravity environment, such as outer space, the stable areas within the nodes must be large enough to support the floating object. OnEarth, the high-pressure areas just below the node must be large enough as well. For this reason, the object being levitated should measure between one third and half of the wavelength of the sound. Objects larger than two thirds of the sound’s wavelength are too large to be levitated — the field isn’t big enough to support them. The higher the frequency of the sound, the smaller the diameter of the objects it’s possible to levitate.
• Objects that are the right size to levitate must also be of the right mass. In other words, scientists must evaluate the density of the object and determine whether the sound wave can produce enough pressure to counteract the pull of gravity on it.
• Drops of liquid being levitated must have a suitable Bond number, which is a ratio that describes the liquid’s surface tension, density and size in the context of gravity and the surrounding fluid. If the Bond number is too low, the drop will burst.
• The intensity of the sound must not overwhelm the surface tension of liquid droplets being levitated. If the sound field is too intense, the drop will flatten into a donut and then burst.

This might sound like a lot of work required to suspend small objects a few centimeters off of a surface. Levitating small objects — or even small animals — a short distance might also sound like a relatively useless practice. However, acoustic levitation has several uses, both on the ground and in outer space. Here are a few:

• Manufacturing very small electronic devices and microchips often involves robots or complex machinery. Acoustic levitators can perform the same task by manipulating sound. For example, levitated molten materials will gradually cool and harden, and in a properly tuned field of sound, the resulting solid object is a perfect sphere. Similarly, a correctly shaped field can force plastics to deposit and harden only on the correct areas of a microchip.
• Some materials are corrosive or otherwise react with ordinary containers used during chemical analysis. Researchers can suspend these materials in an acoustic field to study them without the risk of contamination from or destruction of containers.
• The study of foam physics has a big obstacle – gravity. Gravity pulls the liquid downward from foam, drying and destroying it. Researchers can contain foam with in acoustic fields to study it in space, without the interference of gravity. This can lead to a better understanding of how foam performs tasks like cleaning ocean water.

Researchers continue to develop new setups for levitation systems and new applications for acoustic levitation. To learn more about their research, sound and related topics, check out the links on the next page.

Other Levitator Setups

Although a levitator with one transducer and one reflector can suspend objects, some setups can increase stability or allow movement. For example, some levitators have three pairs of transducers and reflectors, which are positioned along the X, Y and Z axes. Others have one large transmitter and one small, movable reflector; the suspended object moves when the reflector moves.

Lots More Information

Related HowStuffWorks Articles

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• How THX Works
• What is a decibel, and what is the loudest sound I can listen to before it hurts my ears?
• What is white noise?
• Why can you hear the ocean when holding a seashell to your ear?
• How does gravity work?
• What causes a sonic boom?
• Can two cans and a string really be used to talk over a distance?

More Great Links

• Introduction to Computer Music: Volume 1
• Standing Waves and Musical Instruments
• U.C. Davis: Traveling Waves
• University of Georgia HyperPhysics

Sources

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• Choi, Charles. “Scientists Levitate Small Animals.” LiveScience. 11/29/2006.

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• Danley, et al. U.S. Patent 5,036,944. “Method and Apparatus for Acoustic Levitation.” 8/4/2001.
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Monsieur Verdoux movie is one of my favorites of all time. I have watched it probably over 200 times in the past. This great Charlie Chaplin movie can now be seen in full, including two featurettes:  (1) Introduction of Chaplin and Monsieur Verdoux, discussing the historical and cinematic context of the film;  and  (2) Documentary on Charlie Chaplin and his film based on a true story “Monsieur Verdoux” which was inspired by Orson Welles who originally gave the idea to Chaplin to make the movie.

According to Wikipedia: The film is about an unemployed banker, Henri Verdoux, and his sociopathic methods of attaining income. While being both loyal and competent in his work, Verdoux has been laid-off. To make money for his wife and child, he marries wealthy widows and then murders them. His crime spree eventually works against him when two particular widows break his normal routine. The film ends as Verdoux is being led to the guillotine in the prison courtyard after dismissing his killing of a few as no worse than the highly-praised killing of large numbers in war. The script for this film, the idea for it given by Orson Welles, was inspired by the case of serial killer Henri Désiré Landru. Welles sought to direct the film with Chaplin as star, but Chaplin backed out at the last minute, on the grounds that he’d never been directed in a full length film before and wasn’t willing to start. Instead, Chaplin bought the script from Welles and rewrote parts of it, crediting Welles only with the idea. The lead character kills to make money, hence he is not (in his eyes) a murderer.

Watch full-length movie…

This movie is a work of art.  Hands down!

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) by Richard Condon, is a political thriller novel about the son of a prominent US political family who has been brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for the Communist Party.

Captain Bennett Marco, Sergeant Raymond Shaw, and the rest of their infantry platoon are kidnapped during the Korean War in 1952. They are taken to Manchuria, and are brainwashed to believe that Sgt. Shaw saved their lives in combat — for which the Army awards him the Medal of Honor. ————— Years after the war, Marco, now back in the United States working as an intelligence officer, begins suffering the recurring nightmare of Raymond Shaw murdering two of his comrades, all clinically observed by Chinese and Russian intelligence officials. When Marco learns that another soldier from the platoon also has been suffering the same nightmare, he sets to uncovering the mystery and its meaning. ————— It is revealed that the Communists have been using Raymond Shaw as a sleeper agent, a guiltless assassin subconsciously activated by seeing the “Queen of Diamonds” playing card while playing solitaire. As such, he obeys orders, which he then forgets. Raymond Shaw’s Soviet secret service controller is his domineering mother, Eleanor, a ruthless power broker working with the Communists to execute a “palace coup d’état” and quietly overthrow the U.S. Government with the “Manchurian Candidate”: her husband, McCarthy-esque Senator Johnny Iselin. – Wikipedia

Watch full-length movie…

Trivia Tid-Bits…

• Iselin’s plane in real life was owned by Frank Sinatra.
• One scene was filmed at the Bar and Grill that Frank Sinatra’s friend Jilly Rizzo owned in New York City.
• Frank Sinatra broke one of his fingers when he hit the table, which was real and not a break-away prop, in the fight sequence with Henry Silva. Due to ongoing filming commitments, he could not rest or bandage his hand properly, causing the injury to heal incorrectly. It caused him chronic discomfort for the rest of his life.
• Angela Lansbury was thirty-six at the time of filming, only three years older than Laurence Harvey, who played her son.
• All the members of the platoon in Korea are named after cast and crew of “The Phil Silvers Show” (1955).
• It took a full week to film the opening dream sequence. Director John Frankenheimer rushed a rough edit of the sequence to Frank Sinatra, then decided to keep the cut in the final movie unchanged.
• In the scene where Frank Sinatra gives the all-queens deck of cards to Laurence Harvey, Sinatra is out of focus. He had trouble recreating his performance, so director John Frankenheimer left the footage as is. Audiences weren’t bothered; they interpreted it as Harvey’s blurred perspective.
• Frank Sinatra wanted Lucille Ball for the role of Mrs. Iselin which was played by Angela Lansbury.
• When Captain Marco is shown a photo of the Communist official Gomel (Reggie Nalder) at a child’s birthday party, the two children in the photo are actually the children of screenwriter George Axelrod.
• The topic of the movie was considered politically so highly sensitive it was censored and prohibited just before its theatrical release in many of the former ‘Iron Curtain’ countries, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria – and even in neutral countries such as Finland and Sweden. The theatrical premiere for most of those countries was held after the collapse of Soviet Union in 1993.
• The scenes of the convention were filmed at the Old Madison Square Garden on 8th ave at 49th street. The last event ever held there was in Febuary 1968. It was torn down shortly after closing and today an office tower stands on the site.
• Contrary to popular belief, the film was not pulled from circulation following the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It made its American television debut on The CBS Thursday Night Movies in September 1965 (source: Broadcasting magazine), and was repeated on that network later that season. Only when the rights reverted to Frank Sinatra in 1972 did the film disappear from view, although even then turning up for third and fourth network showings on NBC in spring 1974 (source: TV Guide) and summer 1975 (source: Variety). Sinatra’s neglect in keeping the film in distribution gave rise to the legend that it was suppressed because of its alleged role in Lee Harvey Oswald’s assassination of the 35th president. The legend was further perpetuated when Sinatra, in alliance with MGM/UA, re-released the film to theaters in 1988. When the rumor was debunked in an article in Films in Review, another myth, one claiming that Sinatra and UA had a dispute about the profits, took its place. The myth survives to this day, but it is pure fiction.
• George Axelrod copied the lecture about hydrangeas verbatim from a seed catalogue.
• A scene where Laurence Harvey jumps in Central Park lake was shot on the coldest day in 30 years. They had to break the foot-thick ice on the lake with a bulldozer before the scene could be shot.
• One of the early uses of martial arts in a key fight sequence (between Frank Sinatra and Henry Silva, over a decade before the Kung Fu craze of the 1970s. Still earlier, however, is Blood on the Sun (1945), with its climactic judo bout involving James Cagney in Blood on the Sun (1945) And though Peter Lorre was using jujitsu in Mr. Moto movies as early as 1937, Harry Parke (as Parkyakarkus) mentions jujitsu in the Eddie Cantor movie Strike Me Pink (1936).
• Prior to the commissioning of the book as a movie, Arthur Krim, then President of United Artists and Finance Chairman of the Democratic Party, is known to have felt uneasy about its subject matter. President John F. Kennedy, as a favor to his friend Frank Sinatra, called Krim to let him know that he had no objection to a film version being made.
• Famous for his use of innovative camera angles, director John Frankenheimer was widely acclaimed for a shot that is slightly out of focus. John Frankenheimer said that rather than the shot being evidence of inspiration, it was an accident and merely the best take for actor Frank Sinatra.
• The army psychiatrist in this movie was the first black actor cast in a part that wasn’t specified as a black character.
• Rosie’s number, ELdorado 5-xxxx was once a telephone company test number that would always give anyone who calls it a busy signal. However, as of 2009, the number is active in at least one area code.
• John Frankenheimer opted to direct this movie after plans to film author Richard Yates’s 1961 novel “Revolutionary Road” failed to materialize.
• By his own admission Frank Sinatra’s best work always came in the first take. John Frankenheimer always liked the idea of using the freshness of a first take – so nearly all of the key scenes featuring Sinatra are first takes, unless a technical problem prevented them being used.
• SPOILER: Frank Sinatra refers to Orestes and Clytemnestra when he is talking to Laurence Harvey. Clytemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon (King of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Mycenae) who, with her lover Aegisthus, murdered him and took over the throne. Orestes, the son of Clytemnestra, later killed them both.
• SPOILER: On the copy of the New York Post announcing the slaying of Senator Jordan and his daughter, a small headline at the top reads: “VIOLENT HURRICANE SWEEPS MIDWEST; 20 DEAD, HUNDREDS HOMELESS”
• SPOILER: In Richard Condon’s novel, the relationship between Mrs. Iselin and her son Raymond is more explicitly incestuous, complete with a bed scene. Director John Frankenheimer and screenwriter George Axelrod wanted to include that element, but reduced it to the less-than-motherly kiss that Mrs. Iselin plants on Raymond’s lips. To appease the censors, Frankenheimer instructed Angela Lansbury to put her hand between their mouths and the camera during the kiss to obscure what she was doing a bit. By time of the second remake on Condon’s book (the 2004 Jonathan Demme film), the incestuous content between the mother and son shown on screen had been reduced even more, so that the camera cuts away before she kisses her son on the lips, only leaving the implication of that relationship between them.

Source of trivia information: IMDB.com

This film is a masterpiece. I love old classic movies, and this one is in my top-10 list of all-time favorites. The title of this film comes from the Book of Proverbs, 11:29: “He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind.” Based on the true events of the Scopes Monkey Trial which took place in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925. The story is very thought-provoking from both points of view — the evolutionist and the fundamental Christian. It’s a rare 1960 American classic that takes the grand clash of ideas. The presentation does justice by conveying effectively the sweaty claustrophobia of small town in Bible-belt America. Whether or not the hesitation in bringing out such a potentially controversial, expanded package is a matter of intelligent design or just random selection, the public will have to judge for itself. From here, a lot can still be seen happening today, all over the world, and in every kind of religion vs. other religion and/or ideologies.

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Trivia Tid-Bits…

• Was the first in-flight movie ever shown on Trans World Airlines.
• When Stanley Kramer offered the role of E.K. Hornbeck to Gene Kelly, Kelly initially turned it down. Kramer told him that his co-stars would be Fredric March and Spencer Tracy, and Kelly changed his mind. This was a risky move on Kramer’s part, as he had not yet asked March or Tracy to participate.
• Robert Vaughn was offered the role of E.K. Hornbeck, in case Gene Kelly turned it down. But he instead opted to make The Magnificent Seven.
• To heighten the tension of Spencer Tracy’s final summation to the jury, the scene was filmed in a single take.
• Writers Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee named the overzealous prosecutor “Matthew Brady”. When Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle was tried for manslaughter three times in 1921/22, the real overzealous prosecuting San Francisco District Attorney was named Matthew Brady. Matthew Brady was also the name of the famous portrait and landscape photographer of the American Civil War.
• When Drummond’s attempt to call scientific experts to the stand to testify in behalf of the defense is thwarted, Stanley Kramer adds a couple of elements from the actual Scopes Trial, combining the fiery closing of Clarence Darrow’s speech on the motion to quash the indictment with the change in which Judge Raulston cited Darrow for contempt.
• The character Henry Drummond is based on real-life attorney Clarence Darrow. Matthew Harrison Brady is based on William Jennings Bryan. Schoolteacher Bertram T. Cates is based on schoolteacher John Thomas Scopes (hence “Scopes Monkey Trial”).
• A young Burt Reynolds got to visit the set and watch some of the courtroom scenes being filmed because he was doing some TV work nearby and Spencer Tracy was one of his idols.
• The character of E.K. Hornbeck was based on American journalist H.L. Mencken, who had notably covered the Scopes trial.
• Fredric March and Spencer Tracy both played the dual roles of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1931 (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) and 1941 (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) respectively. March received an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal.
• The theatrical trailer, hosted by Stanley Kramer, shows Kramer, along with Gregory Peck and his wife Veronique Passani (aka Celia Peck), Jeff Chandler, Otto Preminger, Walter Wanger, and West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt attending the Berlin Film Festival premiere, where Kramer receives an award presented by Harold Lloyd, who was on the festival committee.
• In the scene where Drummond (Spencer Tracy) tells the story of his rocking horse “Golden Dancer” to Brady (Fredric March), they are sitting in rocking chairs on the porch of the boarding house. The actors are both rocking their chairs but are never in sync with each other to emphasize their differences of opinion.
• The original Broadway production of “Inherit the Wind” by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee opened at the National Theater on 21 April 1955, ran for 806 performances and won two acting Tony Awards in 1956. The opening night cast included Paul Muni as Drummond (Melvyn Douglas later took over the role when Muni developed a cataract), Ed Begley as Brady and Tony Randall as Hornbeck. There has been 2 Broadway revivals; in 1996 with Charles Durning and George C. Scott and in 2007 with Brian Dennehy and Christopher Plummer.
• The subplot concerning Cates’s engagement to the Rev. Brown’s daughter Rachel, and Brady’s manipulation of the girl to give damaging testimony at the trial, is entirely fictional. The real-life John Scopes had no known fiancee or girlfriend at the time of the trial.
• Because of the criticism directed at producer Stanley Kramer by the American Legion for hiring Nedrick Young, who they considered subversive, Moss Hart as president of The Authors League of America sent Kramer a telegram: “The Authors League of America council, which has always unalterably opposed any form of blacklisting of writers, unanimously voted at a meeting today to commend and applaud you for your courageous stand in rejecting publicly the effort to interfere, on pseudo-patriotic grounds, with the right of writers to work.”
• Dick York’s final feature film.

Source of trivia information: IBDM.com

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