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