God Bless Gene Kelly

The dude pulled it off. I wouldn't have believed it without seeing it, but he did.

I just finished watching this. Seriously, when I looked at the cover of the DVD and saw Gene Kelly's name, I assumed he MUST be playing Bertram Cates. Not so. He was playing E. K. Hornbeck. And I thought, NO FRICKIN' WAY. AIN'T POSSIBLE. I associate the Gene-ster with the stuff in this post, not with Hornbeck.

The Hornbeck character, as you know, was based on H. L. Mencken, and as you probably know, not only was Mencken a brilliant essayist and critic, he was also a class-A jerk. Which is why the casting of Darren McGavin in this version of Inherit the Wind was inspired. Also inspired, in that version, were Jason Robards and Kirk Douglas (Douglas, of course, for his ability rather than resemblance to William Jennings Bryan, of which Fredric March was an obviously better choice, albeit with a rather phony looking bald cap).

But Gene pulled it off. Major kudos, Gene. Also, major kudos to the other cast members: Fredric March, Spencer Tracy, Dick York, and the amazing supporting cast of great character actors whose faces (and sometimes names) I recognized. Harry Morgan, Ray Teal, Paul Hartman, Norman Fell, Claude Akins, Hope Summers, and of course, Noah Beery, Jr., Daddy Rockford.

What a great movie. See it if you get the chance.