Happy Birthday Chuck

Happy Birthday Chuck

This is a big year for Charles Darwin. Too bad he's not around to enjoy it.

February was the bicentennial of his birth, and November marks the sesquicentennial of the publication of his landmark Origin of Species that laid out his theory of evolution.

Of course, not everybody will be celebrating. There are those pesky Creationists for one. There's also a cabal of Darwin deniers who claim that Charlie stole a key ingredient—natural selection—from a fellow English naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace. For more on the controversy see: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122972744031122737.html

I think that change is hardwired into nature, and competition for resources seems as good a trigger as any. But, a little disagreement—okay, sometimes a lot of disagreement—helps to keep things interesting.

Right on time for the Darwin celebrations, there are two—yes, two—Darwin biopics in the works for later this year.

Each focuses on Darwin's relationship with his very religious wife, Emma. One is called "Creation" and will star Paul Bettany as the great man and Jennifer Connelly as Emma. The other is titled "Mrs. Darwin,"—clever, eh?—and stars Joseph Fiennes and Rosamund Pike as the conflicted couple.

Excuse me if I'm not overly enthused. Charles Darwin might have been a genius, but he seems to have been a rather dour man and was often ill—or a hypochondriac.

When trying to decide whether or not to marry Emma—who was his cousin—he compiled two lists: one citing reasons for the marriage and the other against. Nobody ever accused Charlie of being impulsive. Or, romantic.

In the "Yea" column, he noted that a wife meant “constant companionship and a friend in old age ... better than a dog anyhow.” The "Nays" included “less money for books” and “terrible loss of time.” This from a man who got excited about sex among pigeons and earthworms.

I'm thinking neither "Creation" nor "Mrs. Darwin" is going to be a conventional romance. (On the other hand, the two did manage to have ten children so they were either serious about their duty, enjoyed sex, or had exquisite timing.)

My favorite Darwin-inspired entertainment is the classic movie "Inherit the Wind" that stars Spencer Tracy and Fredric March. Based on Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's 1955 Broadway play of the same title, the movie is a fictionalized recreation of the famous 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial.

John Scopes was a Tennessee high school science teacher who was prosecuted for teaching evolution. Tracy is the defense attorney and March is the prosecutor. Their characters are ficitional stand-ins for the actual lawyers in the case: Clarence Darrow, the most famous defense attorney of the day, and William Jennings Bryan, a former presidential candidate and the most famous orator of the day. (Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech from the 1896 Democratic convention attacking the gold standard and touting the benefits of monetary inflation once was required reading in many schools. I know. I read it. I can still declaim the final fiery line: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.")

If you rent the DVD, pay attention to the other actors too. Gene Kelly plays a journalist covering the trial. He doesn't dance. Dick York plays the accused schoolteacher. "Bewitched" is still in his future, but he already looks henpecked. Harry Morgan plays the judge. A long-time character actor, Morgan later plays Jack Webb's partner in "Dragnet" and Col. Potter in "MASH."

Happy Birthday Chuck!