Inherit the Wind

Inherit the Wind (1960) is Stanley Kramer's courtroom drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. It springs from the trial the press nicknamed the "Monkey Trial" — a quiet schoolteacher hauled into court for the crime of telling his class what Darwin wrote, in a state where that was against the law.

The town splits down the middle. In rides Henry Drummond, a sharp-tongued attorney with no use for scripture, to defend the teacher. Against him stands Matthew Brady, a three-time presidential hopeful and hero to the faithful — and an old friend turned rival. Spencer Tracy and Fredric March turn the witness stand into a duel, and what's really on trial isn't one man but the right to think out loud. Gene Kelly drifts through it all as a newsman who cares more about a good headline than the verdict.

Kramer wasn't really restaging an old case. He was firing back at the McCarthy era, dressing a plea for free thought in 1920s clothing. The picture drew four Academy Award nominations, and the Tracy-March showdown still gets dissected in acting classes. Come for the argument — it grips harder than most action films. Stream Inherit the Wind (1960) online on iFILM.