SteveHoweTG I know, I know: The Kramer & Tracy original has become a true classic, but...I prefer THIS little masterpiece. There is a lot of little great points that makes this TV release much more than that: a) The characters performance. Not only Kirk Douglas (he really fit his character), not only Robards (so often a secondary actor), but also Jean Simmons, Darren McGavin and the Judge, even the little Rachel Brown or Kyle Secor. We can guess a master hand behind all these. b) The characters are very very well developed: Mathew Brady has much more power than Fredric March in 60s version (even we can intimate a little with him in moments as his speech at church), Robards owes nothing to the great Tracy. The journalist is here more interesting (more heavy, more cynical, more aged-atheist) than Gene Kelly. It's a good point the youthfulness and artlessness of both the teacher and fiancée c) The director, thought obviously more limited by budget, is capable to offer an equilibrated narration and some great moments (such as the confronted reception of Brady and Drummond)Sometimes we were more impressed by the version the first saw, if this is good. Maybe this is also the case (I saw first the Green film).

rgraber-1 I consider this the most entertaining of the three versions. Though I am a bigger fan of George C. Scott than of Kirk Douglas, I think that Douglas, supported consummately by Jason Robards, makes a far better Matthew Brady. I do like the original play, but I find that fidelity to an old original in many cases does not work well in making an entertaining movie. Now I hope someone will make a movie of the Intelligent-Design case in Pennsylvania recently. Inherit the Wind is based only very loosely on the actual Scopes Trial, which was "set up" as a test case by the ACLU (to which I gladly belong, nonetheless); the Pennsylvania case appears to have been a genuine spontaneous phenomenon, complete with elements of deceit, comedy, and sex!

Ed I thought Jason Robards was good as Darrow even if he didn't erase the memory of Spencer Tracy from my mind but I thought the usually fine Kirk Douglas was miscast as William Jennings Bryan (who was a glutton, not a movie star!) and didn't come close to Frederic March who even looked like Bryan. (Admittedly, Spencer always looked like Spencer.) He was reduced to playing the part as if it was Elmer Gantry and when Jason said that "a giant once lived in that body!" I didn't believe him for one second.And where the old black and white version suggested the oppressive heat and humidity of Dayton, Tennessee, this one didn't even come close. Darren McGavin who played H. L. Mencken was quite good though and I've always adored Jean Simmons in most of what she did. Kyle Secor was the Scopes character (I mistook him for Matthew Broderick) and was very adequate. I'd be interested to see (again?) the 1965 TV version with Melvyn Douglas and Ed Begley but I don't remember it at all if I did see it.

Coxer99 Robards steals the picture and won an Emmy as a wonderful Henry Drummond, while Kirk Douglas feels too uncomfortable as Matthew Harrison Brady. The version runs at an okay pace, but doesn't have the luster of Stanley Kramer's 1960 version. With the exception of Robards, many of the other performances are either passable or mediocre.