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Inherit The Wind Has Evolved

itw_blu-ray_cover_1299x1657A new Blu-ray edition of the movie Inherit The Wind is set for release in the 18th of January 2022 by the Kino Lorber Classics label.

The film has been available as a DVD for a while, but I believe this is the first time it has been produced in HD.  According to the specifications this new release has a new commentary track by a pair of entertainment journalists and some trailers.

Be aware that there are at least two other film versions of what was originally a stage play  The most prominent version, which has even has a 4K Blu-ray option available, was filmed in 1960 and starred Spencer Tracey and Gene Kelly.  Another from the late 1980s featured Kirk Douglas.

The Inherit The Wind that we are interested in is the 1999 production starring Jack Lemmon, George C. Scott, and of course a certain Kathryn Morris.

No point in me repeating a lot of stuff about the film in this post when you can read all about it in a post 8 years ago HERE on KM UK.

A link to the Blu-ray on the Amazon UK website is HERE.  What is not clear from the page is if there are any issues with region coding.  I would hope they have left it as a universal disc.

For those on the other side of the pond, the Amazon US link is HERE.

 

Inherit The Wind: God(dess) In The Dock

itw_313Was it evolution or was it “intelligent design”?  Schools and teachers being pilloried for explaining the science?  America in 2013 or 1923?  Some things don’t change over time.

Inherit The Wind is a play written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee.  It is based on the actual 1923 trial of a school teacher charged with teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution to his class in contravention of state law.  He did so at the request of one of the students.  However, in the play the story is actually being used as a vehicle to discuss McCarthyism of the early 1950s. The play was first performed in 1955.

itw_006There have been many revivals of the play since that then and it’s been made into a film four times.  The most famous celluloid version was the first.  Made in 1960 it starred Spencer Tracey (It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World), Gene Kelly (Singin’ In The Rain) and Harry Morgan (M*A*S*H).  Our interest though, is in the most recent version committed to 35mm with an equally all-star cast.

Jack Lemmon (Some Like It Hot), George C. Scott (Dr Strangelove), Beau Bridges (The Fabulous Baker Boys), Tom Everett Scott (That Thing You Do!), Lane Smith (Louis & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman) and Piper Laurie (Twin Peaks) all bring their thespian talents to bear in a 1999 TV movie remake.  And who is that playing Rachel Brown, the young woman caught in the middle as the daughter of the local preacher and girlfriend of the educator on trial?  Why, can it be true?  Mercy me, as I live and breath, if isn’t Ms. Kathryn Morris.

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