Ryan: The posthumous maltreatment of Mencken reached its highpoint in the otherwise great film, Inherit the Wind — a takeoff on the infamous Scopes trial. In that film, Mencken was played by Gene Kelly, and was portrayed as little more than a shallow wordsmith, capable of amusing others with clever one-liners, but nothing else. In reality, Mencken was light-years beyond the intellect and understanding of all other parties (combined) portrayed therein. But Mencken was also an anarchist, and Hollywood could not abide that, much less presenting him in the manner that his work  justified.

The Best of Butler Shaffer