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Elmer Gantry (1960)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
7 July 1960 (USA)
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Tagline:
The screen has never known a man like ELMER GANTRY more
Plot:
Elmer Gantry is a fast talking, hard drinking traveling salesman who always has a risqué story and a...
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Plot Keywords:
Awards:
Won 3 Oscars.
Another 8 wins
&
10 nominations
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NewsDesk:
(6 articles)
Actor Maross Dies
(From WENN. 11 November 2009, 8:11 AM, PST)
The Golden Age Of TV Comedy Returns: Disgraced Evangelist Jim Bakker To Auction Off Episodes Of His Series
(From CinemaRetro. 8 March 2009, 4:11 AM, PDT)
(From WENN. 11 November 2009, 8:11 AM, PST)
The Golden Age Of TV Comedy Returns: Disgraced Evangelist Jim Bakker To Auction Off Episodes Of His Series
(From CinemaRetro. 8 March 2009, 4:11 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
"Love is the morning and the evening star!"
more (54 total)
Cast
(Complete credited cast) | Burt Lancaster | ... | Elmer Gantry |
 | Jean Simmons | ... | Sister Sharon Falconer, nee Katie Jones |
 | Arthur Kennedy | ... | Jim Lefferts |
| Dean Jagger | ... | William L. Morgan |
| Shirley Jones | ... | Lulu Bains |
| Patti Page | ... | Sister Rachel |
| Edward Andrews | ... | George F. Babbitt (as Ed Andrews) |
| John McIntire | ... | Rev. John Pengilly |
| Hugh Marlowe | ... | Rev. Philip Garrison |
| Joe Maross | ... | Pete |
| Philip Ober | ... | Rev. Planck |
| Barry Kelley | ... | Police Capt. Holt |
| Wendell Holmes | ... | Rev. Ulrich |
| Dayton Lummis | ... | Mr. Eddington, newspaper publisher |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
146 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Eastmancolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.66 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
A highly controversial novel in its day, no studio initially wanted to finance the film.
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Goofs:
Errors in geography: The location where Sister Sharon confronts the police captain and fire chief over erecting her tent is purported to be in Lincoln Nebraska. The opening part of the scene shows mountains in the background. There are no mountains around Lincoln.
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Quotes:
Elmer Gantry:
Sin, sin, sin! You're all sinners! You're all doomed to perdition!
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in 'White Christmas': A Look Back with Rosemary Clooney (2000) (V)
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Soundtrack:
Let Jesus Come into Your Heart
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (54 total)
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"Elmer Gantry" can be considered the quintessential exploration into the omnipresent duality existing between a person's religious faith and simultaneous character defects. Burt Lancaster is bold and provocative as the title character who is preaching to you one moment and drunk and surly the other. The acting and directing is superb to the point that it becomes difficult to remember that it is only a movie. Jean Simmons is lovely and convincing as as Sister Sharon Falconer, the charismatic female evangelist who wins Gantry's heart (and lust)as they team up to jump-start America's dwindling religious beliefs. Of course, turmoil closes in on them as their inherent instincts of love overpower their adherence to the Christian principles they attempt to profess.
This is a searing message, indeed, that should be heeded by the Jimmy Swaggarts and Oral Roberts' of the world. Evangelism can be a dangerous platform when it allows a single person to rise to power while removing him (or her) from the fact that he is still a human and, thus, still vulnerable to the instincts and flaws he vehemently opposes on stage. It is thrilling to see how the Bible-Belt public shift their view so quickly when they first support and believe in the sincerity of Gantry and Sister Falconer but then witness their humanity and become violent. The scene where the heckling crowd throws garbage at the ostracized couple while a man plays a jazzed up rendition of "Onward Christian Soldiers" on the trumpet after Gantry is caught with a prostitute (played to the hilt by Shirley Jones) is both amusing and sad. If you enjoyed the book, you will not be disappointed with the movie in the least.