Inherit the Wind
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50 free Inherit the Wind trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Inherit the Wind turned a small-town trial over the teaching of evolution into one of Hollywood's most gripping courtroom dramas. Two veteran stars square off as rival lawyers, a newspaperman sneers from the sidelines, and a young teacher waits to learn his fate. This quiz follows the 1960 film from the opening arrest to the final scene: the plot and its characters, the actors who played them, the stage play the script came from, and the awards and arguments that followed. It also covers the real 1925 Scopes trial, including the places where the story on screen departs from what actually happened. It suits students who have just watched the film in a history or English class, teachers looking for ready-made review questions, and classic movie fans who want to test how closely they were paying attention.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What happens to Matthew Harrison Brady when he tries to speak after the Inherit the Wind verdict?
He collapses and dies
He collapses and dies as the crowd files out, ignoring his speech. The statesman he is modeled on outlived the real 1925 trial by five days.
Q 02Which star of Boys Town and Father of the Bride plays lawyer Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind?
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy turned the part down at first; once he signed, the rest of the cast followed. It was the first of four films he made with the same director.
Q 03Which song-and-dance star of An American in Paris plays reporter E. K. Hornbeck in Inherit the Wind?
Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly was cast against type because the director liked his mix of intelligence and devilish humor. Trade papers had first announced Theodore Bikel for the part.
Q 04Inherit the Wind's Matthew Harrison Brady is modeled on which real three-time presidential candidate?
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan lost the presidency in 1896, 1900 and 1908, then served as Secretary of State. Unlike Brady, he offered to pay the defendant's fine himself.
Q 05The title Inherit the Wind comes from which Old Testament book, quoted by Brady at a prayer meeting?
Proverbs
Proverbs supplies the warning against bringing trouble on your own household, which Brady turns on Reverend Brown for cursing his own daughter in front of the town.
Q 06Dick York, the accused teacher Bertram Cates in Inherit the Wind, later played Darrin in which sitcom?
Bewitched
Bewitched made him famous as Darrin Stephens, but a back injury suffered while filming the western They Came to Cordura forced him out of the series in 1969.
Q 07The authors of Inherit the Wind used the Scopes trial as a parable for which 1950s controversy?
McCarthyism
McCarthyism was the real target: one of the authors later said evolution stood in for any kind of mind control, and that the story is about the right to think.
Q 08Which director of The Defiant Ones and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner also made Inherit the Wind?
Stanley Kramer
Stanley Kramer called it the third in a trilogy of socially provocative films, and shot the courtroom scenes in story order over 22 days before 300 spectators.
Q 09What fine does the judge hand Bertram Cates at the end of Inherit the Wind?
$100
$100 was also the real 1925 penalty, the smallest the law allowed. In the film the mayor warns the judge that the country is watching, so the sentence is kept light.
Q 10In Inherit the Wind, what is Rachel Brown, the reverend's daughter, to accused teacher Bertram Cates?
His fiancée
His fiancée is an invention of the playwrights: the real 1925 defendant had no sweetheart, and no preacher like Reverend Brown took part in the case.
Q 11Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind is modeled on which Chicago lawyer of the Leopold and Loeb case?
Clarence Darrow
Clarence Darrow, some historians say, wanted his real client convicted so the case could be appealed to a higher court. In the film a newspaper hires Drummond.
Q 12E. K. Hornbeck in Inherit the Wind is based on which caustic journalist who nicknamed the Monkey Trial?
H. L. Mencken
H. L. Mencken filed scathing columns from the 1925 trial, mocking the locals as yokels, and his newspaper helped pay the defense's expenses.
Q 13Which fictional town, overrun by vendors and zealots during the trial, is the setting of Inherit the Wind?
Hillsboro
Q 21In Inherit the Wind, which Old Testament figure's story does Drummond use to test Brady's literal faith?
Jonah
Jonah surviving inside a great fish is one of the miracles Brady insists happened exactly as written. Drummond then asks how long the first day of creation really lasted.
Q 22In Inherit the Wind, Henry Drummond tells of which childhood toy that looked splendid but was shoddily made?
A rocking horse
A rocking horse named Golden Dancer broke the moment he rode it. Drummond uses the memory as a warning against things that dazzle on the outside.
Q 23Why did Bertram Cates quit Reverend Brown's church, as Rachel testifies in Inherit the Wind?
A sermon on a drowned boy
Hillsboro welcomes the trial as a boon for business, a theme the screenwriters added. The stage play never even says which state the town is in.
Q 14Which actor, later Sherman Potter on M*A*S*H, presides as the judge in Inherit the Wind?
Harry Morgan
Harry Morgan plays Judge Coffey, patterned on the real trial's John T. Raulston. He went on to play Officer Bill Gannon in Dragnet before joining M*A*S*H in 1975.
Q 15Which star of The Best Years of Our Lives plays prosecutor Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit the Wind?
Fredric March
Fredric March won Best Actor at the film's world premiere festival for the role, yet was passed over at the Oscars, where only his co-star was nominated.
Q 16Bertram Cates, the Inherit the Wind defendant, teaches which subject at the town high school?
Biology
Biology was hardly his real model's field: the 1925 defendant had only filled in for the regular biology teacher, and later said he was unsure he had ever taught evolution.
Q 17After accusing the judge of bias, Henry Drummond is cited for which offense in Inherit the Wind?
Contempt of court
Contempt of court carries $4,000 bail in the film, and a local farmer posts the bond. The real defense lawyer was cited too, and apologized to have the charge dropped.
Q 18Which honorary rank does the mayor give Brady in Inherit the Wind, forcing the court to grant Drummond one too?
Colonel
Colonel is the title Drummond objects to hearing in court, so the judge hastily makes him a temporary honorary one for the length of the trial.
Q 19Henry Drummond, hired to defend Cates in Inherit the Wind, is notorious across America as what kind of thinker?
An agnostic
An agnostic by reputation, Drummond still quotes the title verse from memory in the last scene, and Hornbeck brands him a hypocrite and a secret believer.
Q 20In Inherit the Wind, the judge bars Henry Drummond from calling which kind of expert witnesses for Cates?
Scientists
Scientists are ruled irrelevant because the law, not evolution, is said to be on trial, so Drummond calls the prosecutor himself as an expert on the Bible instead.
A sermon on a drowned boy drove him out: the reverend preached that the unbaptized child was damned. The boy's father later comes to Drummond's aid.
Q 24In Inherit the Wind, Brady dates creation to 4004 BC using the calculations of which churchman?
Bishop Ussher
Bishop Ussher, Brady adds, even fixed the hour at nine in the morning. Drummond then asks how long that first day lasted, since the sun had not yet been made.
Q 25Which gospel standard does an unseen singer perform over the opening arrest scene of Inherit the Wind?
Old-Time Religion
Old-Time Religion is sung unaccompanied, and the same voice closes the film with the Battle Hymn of the Republic as Drummond walks out.
Q 26Which actress, the real-life wife of the actor playing Brady, plays Sarah Brady in Inherit the Wind?
Florence Eldridge
Florence Eldridge was sharing the screen with her husband for the seventh and last time. They had met as leading lady and leading man in a 1926 summer stock troupe.
Q 27E. K. Hornbeck's newspaper in Inherit the Wind, like his real-life model's, is based in which city?
Baltimore
Baltimore is home to the fictional Herald, which pays for the defense. The columnist who inspired Hornbeck began his career at a real paper of that name before joining the Sun.
Q 28Which playwriting team, who later wrote Auntie Mame, created the stage play Inherit the Wind?
Lawrence and Lee
Lawrence and Lee finished the script in 1950, but eight Broadway producers turned it down and it waited five years for a first staging.
Q 29At which European film festival did Inherit the Wind have its world premiere and win a Best Actor prize?
Berlin
Berlin hosted the first screening in June 1960, where the film was the official American entry and also took a prize as the best feature for young people.
Q 30Which Tennessee law, named for the farmer who wrote it, lay behind the trial dramatized in Inherit the Wind?
Butler Act
The Butler Act barred public school teachers from denying the Genesis account of human origins, and it stayed on the books until 1967, seven years after the film.