History Theatre / InheritTheWind

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Being a heavily fictionalized retelling of the Scopes trial, most of the lead characters are stand-ins for the main players of the trial: Brady for William Jennings Bryan, Drummond for Clarence Darrow, Hornbeck for H.L. Mencken, and Cates for John Scopes.

Originally a 1955 play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, then filmed in 1960 (and adapted for television three times between 1965 and 1999), ''Inherit the Wind'' is a (''very'') fictionalized account of the "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial Scopes Monkey Trial]]," a 1925 Tennessee court case which revolved around the teaching of UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin's Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection in public schools. The whole thing was actually a publicity stunt by the backwater town of Dayton, TN, leading to the trial being sensationalized beyond belief. It kind of went OffTheRails from there, bringing many (at the time) "incontrovertible" tenets of American thought, such as a literal interpretation of Literature/TheBible, into question.

->''Whoever brings ruin on their family will inherit only wind and the fool will be servant to the wise.''

->''He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind; and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.''
-->-- '''Literature/BookOfProverbs''' 11:29 (KJV)

* WhiteAndGreyMorality: Hornbeck and Brady are [[SmugSnake Smug Snakes]]s, Rev. Brown is a fanatical {{jerkass}}, but everyone is more or less doing what they think is right.

Originally a 1955 play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, then filmed in 1960 (and adapted for television three times between 1965 and 1999), ''Inherit The Wind'' is a (''very'') fictionalized account of the "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial Scopes Monkey Trial]]," a 1925 Tennessee court case which revolved around the teaching of UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin's Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection in public schools. The whole thing was actually a publicity stunt by the backwater town of Dayton, TN, leading to the trial being sensationalized beyond belief. It kind of went OffTheRails from there, bringing many (at the time) 'incontrovertible' tenets of American thought, such as a literal interpretation of Literature/TheBible, into question.

->''He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.''
-->--'''Proverbs 11:29, ''Literature/TheBible'''''

The film version was well received, directed by Creator/StanleyKramer with Creator/SpencerTracy as Drummond, Creator/FredricMarch as Brady, Creator/DickYork as Cates, Harry Morgan as the judge, and ([[PlayingAgainstType surprisingly]]) Creator/GeneKelly as the all-snarking, never-dancing Hornbeck. It takes a few more liberties with the real story than the play does, but also incorporates more of the actual trial's transcript; [[RealityIsUnrealistic today, most people thinking of the real trial instead remember details from the film]]. The film also has the distinction of being the first in-flight movie, according to the back of its DVD case and Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}.

** Brady's speeches are ''heavily'' toned down to tone down his bigotry and make him sound like a more mainstream Christian. Court records show Bryan going into full Fundamentalist rants and claiming everyone who argued against his position (even those that explicitly identity as Christians) were really Atheists. The defense, conversely, went after the law as privileging biblical literalism over other kinds of Christianity to force a false dichotomy of Evolution versus the Bible directly and repeatedly.

The play revolves primarily around Bertram Cates, a schoolteacher in the small, "simple" town of "Heavenly" Hillsboro. Bert, based on John T. Scopes (from whom the real-life trial derives its popular name), is arrested for teaching the theory of evolution in his class in violation of a state law, and the film opens with him being placed under arrest before his class by the police. The town's mayor initially wants to keep the whole affair quiet, and some of the more prominent members of the community urge him to drop the matter entirely...but others (especially in the film; see below) agitate for ''more'' publicity, hoping to raise their town's profile to the national stage. That side wins when Matthew Harrison Brady -- [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed the analogue of]] William Jennings Bryan -- announces that he's coming to Hillsboro to assist the prosecution. Cates writes to a newspaper in Baltimore for assistance, and is presented with Henry Drummond (Clarence Darrow by another name) as his defense attorney, and E.K. Hornbeck (standing in for Creator/HLMencken) [[LemonyNarrator as a chronicler]].

* TheJudge: Judge Mel Coffey.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: A TropeCodifier with the "lonelist" speech:

The film version was well received, directed by Creator/StanleyKramer with Creator/SpencerTracy as Drummond, Creator/FredricMarch as Brady, Creator/DickYork as Cates, Harry Morgan as the judge, and ([[PlayingAgainstType surprisingly]]) Creator/GeneKelly as the all-snarking, never-dancing Hornbeck. It takes a few more liberties with the real story than the play does, but also incorporates more of the actual trial's transcript; [[RealityIsUnrealistic today, most people thinking of the real trial instead remember details from the film]]. The film also has the distinction of being the first in-flight movie, according to Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}.

* HeatWave: The characters are soaked with sweat and most of the courtroom audience are fanning themselves with hand-held fans, which display in-universe ProductPlacement ("Courtesy of X's Funeral Service"), a reflection of the tradition of funeral homes giving out free fans as promotional items. Some people even collect them.

The play revolves primarily around Bertram Cates, a schoolteacher in the small, "simple" town of "Heavenly" Hillsboro. Bert is arrested for teaching the theory of evolution in his class in violation of a state law, and the film opens with him being placed under arrest before his class by the police. The town's mayor initially wants to keep the whole affair quiet, and some of the more prominent members of the community urge him to drop the matter entirely...but others (especially in the film; see below) agitate for ''more'' publicity, hoping to raise their town's profile to the national stage. That side wins when Matthew Harrison Brady -- [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed the analogue of]] William Jennings Bryan -- announces that he's coming to Hillsboro to assist the prosecution. Cates writes to a newspaper in Baltimore for assistance, and is presented with Henry Drummond (Clarence Darrow by another name) as his defense attorney, and E.K. Hornbeck (standing in for Creator/HLMencken) [[LemonyNarrator as a chronicler]].

The film version was well received, directed by Creator/StanleyKramer with Creator/SpencerTracy as Drummond, Creator/FredricMarch as Brady, Creator/DickYork as Cates, Creator/HarryMorgan as the judge, and ([[PlayingAgainstType surprisingly]]) Creator/GeneKelly as the all-snarking, never-dancing Hornbeck. It takes a few more liberties with the real story than the play does, but also incorporates more of the trial transcript; [[RealityIsUnrealistic today, most people thinking of the real trial instead remember details from the film]]. The film also has the distinction of being the first in-flight movie, according to Wiki/TheOtherWiki.

* WantingIsBetterThanHaving: Attorney Henry Drummond tells a story about a rocking horse he wanted when he was a child. It was far too expensive for his family to get for him, but his father scrimped and saved and managed to purchase the rocking horse for Drummond as a Christmas present. And the first time Drummond got on it to ride, it fell apart from dry rot. The Horse looked shiny, new and wonderful on the outside, but was really rotten to the core. This is a metaphor for his view on the fundamentalist literal interpretation of the Bible: the outward displays of piety and righteousness do nothing more than hide the moral decay of the community.

** Brady's speeches are ''heavily'' toned down to tone down his bigotry and make him sound like a more mainstream Christian. Court records show Bryan going into full Fundamentalist rants and claiming everyone who argued against his position (even those that explicitly identity as Christians) were really Atheists.

* HollywoodAtheist: Hornbeck. His views aren't all that different from his real life counterpart.

** Drummond himself dances around this at times, as when he publicly denounces the people of Hillsboro for their narrow-mindedness. Ultimately averted in that he's clearly more frustrated with the circus atmosphere surrounding than trial than genuinely scornful of religion or religious people, and he willingly apologizes to the court once he realizes he's given offensive.

* LawProcedural: Though a bit lighter on the law aspect than normal.

** A comedic subplot has Brady receive an honorary rank of Colonel from the Governor, which results in his being addressed Colonel Brady during the trial, to Drummond's dismay. William Jennings Bryan was in fact a Colonel, having commanded a militia regiment during the UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWar, though his unit never reached the combat zone.

** A comedic subplot has Brady receive an honorary rank of Colonel from the Governor, which results in his being addressed Colonel Brady during the trial, to Drummond's dismay. William Jennings Bryan was in fact a Colonel, having commanded a militia regiment during the UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWar, though his unit never reached the combat zone. That said, unlike his film counterpart, he rarely used his military honorific IN PUBLIC, as he was a staunch anti-imperialist and borderline pacifist who had both opposed the Spanish-American War and resigned as UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson's Secretary of State due to Wilson's support for intervention in UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne.

---> '''The Mob''': We'll hang Henry Drummond to a sour apple tree...

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Play is based on the actual Scopes Monkey Trial in the 1920s, but is supposed to be an allegory for the then-current [[UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy McCarthy]] witch-hunts that dominated the headlines.

** In the play, Cates is a HollywoodAtheist and a full time science teacher/part time amateur scientist. Scopes was a football coach who occasionally substituted when other teachers were off work.[[note]]His only training in science was some minor coursework in geology. He actually had a law degree.[[/note]] He was also a lapsed Episcopalian who didn't care one bit about the Fundamentalism vs. Evolution controversy, and had in fact skipped the evolution part of his biology class so he didn't have to deal with it.

** Drummond is portrayed as an old friend of Brady and his wife. In real life, Darrow nursed a serious grudge against Bryan due to a political rivalry early in their careers and his hatred of fundamentalism on principle. Bryan himself didn't think much of Darrow and for her part, Mary Bryan absolutely despised Darrow. When Bryan died, Darrow mocked him remorselessly, as opposed to Drummond's reverence at Brady's death.