Scintillating performances from Lemmon and Scott

How do you improve a great film?  You don't.

A thought provoking film. George C.Scott gives a compelling performance.

Santa Clarita Studios - 25135 Anza Drive, Santa Clarita, California, USA

Gene Kelly, Spencer Tracy, Donna Anderson, Fredric March, and Dick York in Inherit the Wind (1960)

Kirk Douglas and Jason Robards in Inherit the Wind (1988)

Armin Mueller-Stahl, Jack Lemmon, Tony Danza, Ossie Davis, James Gandolfini, Edward James Olmos, George C. Scott, Hume Cronyn, Dorian Harewood, Courtney B. Vance, William Petersen, and Mykelti Williamson in 12 Angry Men (1997)

Robert Mitchum, Frédéric O'Brady, Geneviève Page, and Ingrid Thulin in Foreign Intrigue (1956)

Kelly McGillis and Jeff Daniels in The House on Carroll Street (1988)

Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in Out to Sea (1997)

Mary Astor and Grant Withers in Other Men's Women (1930)

Dan Aykroyd, Jack Lemmon, and James Garner in My Fellow Americans (1996)

Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott in Inherit the Wind (1999)

He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind and the fool shall be servant to the wise in heart.

Jack Lemmon

George C. Scott

Lane Smith

Jerome Lawrence

Robert E. Lee

Nedrick Young

Based on a real-life case in 1925, two great lawyers argue the case for and against a science teacher accused of the crime of teaching evolution.

Daniel Petrie

Inherit the Wind

The right to think, very much on trial, still

I&apos;m sure we&apos;ll see another version of Inherit The Wind with some of the players of a new generation. This story about religion being written into the civil law is sadly not out of style.

When the first version that starred Spencer Tracy and Fredric March came out it was heralded as the Broadway play it was based on. But in 1960 it was looked on as look back to another era where we presumably learned of the folly of imposing religious views on the body politic. I don&apos;t think anyone thought that the religious right would reawaken and become the force it has. Not in 1999 when this film came out or when another version that starred Kirk Douglas and Jason Robards, Jr. was made in 1988. All three versions have a chilling timeliness about them now.

Tom Everett Scott is the high school biology teacher who violates a newly passed law making the teaching of Charles Darwin&apos;s The Origin Of The Species a crime. He&apos;s the first charged under this new Tennessee statute and three times presidential candidate Matthew Harrison Brady modeled on William Jennings Bryan volunteers to be on the prosecution team. 

Of course that generates a lot of publicity and Henry Drummond based on  Clarence Darrow is brought in to defend. 

In the original film Fredric March really got the Bryan character down pat. But George C. Scott is a fascinating Matthew Harrison Brady. Certainly the most fanatical of the group. Then again few actors could get as intense as George C. Scott.

Jack Lemmon is a more relaxed and low key Henry Drummond. He was not in real life as noble a character as Spencer Tracy played him in 1960. Jason Robards, Jr. in the 1988 film was the closest to the real Clarence Darrow. But closer than Robards is Orson Welles as Jonathan Wilk from the 1959 film Compulsion based on the Leopold/Loeb murder case. 

Of course the highlight in the film and the real trial itself is the confrontation when Drummond(Darrow) calls Brady(Bryan) as an expert witness on the Bible. Then as now how willfully ignorant Lemmon shows Scott to be. Not just  ignorant but determinedly so and determined to keep all views but his own out of our educational system.

I can hardly wait for this oft told tale to be told again. Till then this and the other version are to be seen and seen again.

I'm sure we'll see another version of Inherit The Wind with some of the players of a new generation. This story about religion being written into the civil law is sadly not out of style.

When the first version that starred Spencer Tracy and Fredric March came out it was heralded as the Broadway play it was based on. But in 1960 it was looked on as look back to another era where we presumably learned of the folly of imposing religious views on the body politic. I don't think anyone thought that the religious right would reawaken and become the force it has. Not in 1999 when this film came out or when another version that starred Kirk Douglas and Jason Robards, Jr. was made in 1988. All three versions have a chilling timeliness about them now.

Tom Everett Scott is the high school biology teacher who violates a newly passed law making the teaching of Charles Darwin's The Origin Of The Species a crime. He's the first charged under this new Tennessee statute and three times presidential candidate Matthew Harrison Brady modeled on William Jennings Bryan volunteers to be on the prosecution team. 

Of course that generates a lot of publicity and Henry Drummond based on  Clarence Darrow is brought in to defend. 

In the original film Fredric March really got the Bryan character down pat. But George C. Scott is a fascinating Matthew Harrison Brady. Certainly the most fanatical of the group. Then again few actors could get as intense as George C. Scott.

Jack Lemmon is a more relaxed and low key Henry Drummond. He was not in real life as noble a character as Spencer Tracy played him in 1960. Jason Robards, Jr. in the 1988 film was the closest to the real Clarence Darrow. But closer than Robards is Orson Welles as Jonathan Wilk from the 1959 film Compulsion based on the Leopold/Loeb murder case. 

Of course the highlight in the film and the real trial itself is the confrontation when Drummond(Darrow) calls Brady(Bryan) as an expert witness on the Bible. Then as now how willfully ignorant Lemmon shows Scott to be. Not just  ignorant but determinedly so and determined to keep all views but his own out of our educational system.

I can hardly wait for this oft told tale to be told again. Till then this and the other version are to be seen and seen again.

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