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

US TV Schedule:

Sat. Nov. 21

3:30 PM

TCM

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 first time we see Lulu, she leans on the back of a chair, a newspaper in her hand, and her right shoulder strap has fallen down. In the next shot her left shoulder strap is down instead.

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 "Women of the House: Women in Film (#1.9)" (1995)

Soundtrack:

I'm on My Way

"Love is the morning and the evening star!"

"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.