Elmer Gantry (1960)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Richard Brooks

Writers:

Richard Brooks (screenplay)
Sinclair Lewis (novel)

Release Date:

7 July 1960 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The screen has never known a man like ELMER GANTRY

Plot:

Elmer Gantry is a fast talking, hard drinking traveling salesman who always has a risqué story and a...

Plot Keywords:

Church | Traveling Salesman | Evangelist | Revivalism | Preacher

Awards:

Won 3 Oscars. Another 8 wins & 10 nominations

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

Runtime:

146 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Norway:16 | West Germany:16 (f) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:Unrated

Company:

Elmer Gantry Productions

Trivia:

Sister Sharon is seen briefly outside a movie theater advertising a film. The title is not given but the stars names are given as Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayres, suggesting that the film is almost certainly The Sheik (1921).

Goofs:

Continuity: The straps on Lulu Bains' dress.

Quotes:

Elmer Gantry: I have here in my pocket - and thank heaven you can't see them - lewd, dirty, obscene, and I'm ashamed to say this: French postcards. They were sold to me in front of your own innocent high school by a man with a black beard... a foreigner.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in 'White Christmas': A Look Back with Rosemary Clooney (2000) (V)

Sin, sin, sin! You're all sinners! You're all doomed to perdition!

Based on the muckraker Sinclair Lewis' novel, and superbly translated to the screen by Richard Brooks (In Cold Blood , The Professionals, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), this story of huckster-ism by religion is a masterpiece.

Burt Lancaster player the greatest role of his career, getting his only Oscar for his performance. Lancaster, so good in such films as From Here to Eternity, Atlantic City, and Seven Days in May, was spellbinding as the salesman for God.

Shirley Jones (The Music Man, "The Patridge Family," was simply delicious as Gantry's first conquest, and now a "five-buck hooker," that he left behind: "Oh, he gave me special instructions back of the pulpit Christmas Eve. He got to howlin' "Repent! Repent!" and I got to moanin' "Save me! Save me!" and the first thing I know he rammed the fear of God into me so fast I never heard my old man's footsteps!" 1960 was a great year for movies, and this was certainly one of the best of that year, and one of the best of all time. If you want to see real acting, this film should be on your "must-see" list.