Elmer Gantry (1960)

Excellent recounting based on the controversial Sinclair Lewis novel that got three Academy Awards . A brooding look at revivalist religion in which the over-the-top acting of Burt Lancaster steals the show . Concerning about some preachers exact wealth and power from their congregration . As Elmer (Burt Lancaster) is a saleman with a powerfully persusive tongue who joins up Sister Sharon Falconer (glamorous Jean Simmons) along with her colleagues , Sister Rachel (Patti Page) , William L. Morgan (Dean Jagger) touring grass-roots evengelist circus during the depressed twenties . As the good Sister employs him as a Bible-spouting person to expand the God Will and along the way he gets considerable success . As Elmer turns an attractive and charming preacher with a large audience . As Granty flashes with his silver smile but he has a dark past . Later on , newspapers publicize ¨Preacher preys¨ and he becomes into a discredited preacher .

This top-notch movie perfectly exposes and denounce the flamboyant , small-town evangelists tours spreading throughout at the Depression time . It contains top-drawer performances , strong sense of period and place conveyed by a lush camerawork , there's still plenty to enjoy . A magnificent look at the discredited charlatans and popular religion which , with the passing of the years is still holding many eye-brows . That said , it is intelligent , witty , entertaining and provoking thanks largely to the awesome presence of Burt Lancaster. Delving into the human psyche in such extreme situations and dealing with the issue of swindlers , false preachers , and other fraudulent healers . Reviewers applauded this prize-winning story that works on many levels , being constantly reconfigured and plenty of drama and interesting frames . Brooks' script delves beneath the surface , dealing with the relationship between religion , sex , corruption , faith and money . Some great stars , as Burt Lancaster who is extraordinary as the amoral Southern preacher , Burt has rightly said : ¨This was my best part ever , I would rather play one role as exciting and vital as Elmer Granty than a dozen of those handsome , big heroes who always get the beautiful girl¨. Including a host of fine interpretation from a great support cast : Shirley Jones as his ex-girlfriend who resorts to a life of prostitution , Arthur Kennedy as a disbelieving journalist , John McIntire , Patti Page , as a disbelieving reporter , Dean Jagger , Hugh Marlowe ,Edward Andrews , Rex Ingram , among others . And brief appearances from Ed Nelson , Barbara Luna , Jean Wiles , Barry Kelley and John Qualen .

It packs a colorful and evocative cinematography by John Alton , who along with John Seitz and Nicolas Musuruka are deemed to be the best cameramen of Film Noir . As well as moving and sensitive score y Andre Previn . This classy multi-Oscar-Winning rendition was well directed and screen-played in awesome style by Richard Brooks . It won various Oscars as Best actor : Burt Lancaster as the astute salesman turned preacher , support cast actress : Richard's corrosive screenplay . Brooks was a fine writer/director so consistently mixed the good and average which it became impossible to know that to expect from him next . Firstly he worked regularly as a Hollywood screenwriter . After that , his initial experience of directing was one of his own screenplays called ¨Crisis¨. The Richard Brooks films that have the greatest impact are realized during the 50s and 60s as ¨Cat on a hot tin roof¨, ¨Something of value¨ , ¨Elm

Fmovies: The titular character starts out as a cynical small time hustler discovering a good scam joining up with a traveling revival show, and casting his eye to the charismatic and comely lady preacher leading it.

What is really good is how the character develops, and gradually becomes a good sincere Christian, which is best seen in his interaction with the Shirley Jones character.

She is a preacher's kid who was disowned by her father before the start of the movie timeline after he caught Elmer "ramming the fear of god" into her. She has since become a prostitute, and has the opportunity to repay Elmer's earlier callous treatment.

Oh, yes, I know these people, or at least watered down real life versions of them. This movie really gets at the charismatic Christianity of the heartlands, and the strong sexual tensions running just beneath the surface. Oh, I bet Jimmy Swaggart for one knew JUST what they were getting at.

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.

Elmer Gantry fmovies. For some reason Richard Brooks seemed to think of himself as the man best suited to turning great novels and plays into films, but if the results were at best entertaining ("The Brothers Karamazov", "Cat on a hot tin roof") they tended to fall far short of the originals. If "Elmer Gantry" worked better than most was largely due to Brooks ability to tell a rattling good yarn at a cracking pace and to the performances of a superb cast.

Burt Lancaster seemed born to play the role of the lustful traveling salesman whose desire for the Aimee Semple McPhearson-like Sister Sharon turns him into a charismatic preacher, (his performance here is a virtual reprise of his performance as Starbuck in "The Rainmaker" a few years earlier). As Sharon, Jean Simmons gives a luminous performance, all fragility and repressed sexuality and singer Shirley Jones is a revelation as a trampy prostitute; (both she and Lancaster were rewarded with Oscars). Not great then, but several cuts above what it might have been.

From the exceptionally talented pen of noted author Sinclair Lewis comes this entertaining story of a fast-talking, yarn-spinning vacuum salesman with the natural gift of persuasion. In his ever lustful sights is a voluptuous female preacher. In order to conquer her, he must use his extensive repertoire of biblical quips, quotes and bawdy antidotes. Within the sphere of a traveling troupe of bible beating, evangelicals on a religious crusade, the author's hero, one Elmer Gantry (supurbly played by Oscar wining Burt Lancaster) is as energetic as his tales. Although it's difficult to know if Gantry's spiritual motivation is genuine or merely a ploy, throughout the film, one is kept guessing. The target of his earthly desires is Beautiful Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons) a sincere, but fallible woman out to build a ministry. A serious obstacle to her goal is Gantry, but more so is the cautionary and caustic pen of Jim Lefferts (Arthur Kennedy), a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who questions the personal and financial motives of her entourage. Her main supporter is worldly William Morgan (Dean Jagger) who believes in Falconer, and sees Gantry and Lefferts for the opportunistic impediments they are. The film is a triumph for Lancaster and Kennedy and for all those who wish to visit a confusing period of Americanna, when the word of God was infected by preachers, pushers and spiritual leeches. ****

In "Elmer Gantry," Burt Lancaster gives one of the all-time great screen performances. Lancaster's performance is so rich, so real, that the viewer knows this man, knows what Gantry smells like (sweat and eau de cologne) and what he eats (big slabs of beef). I can't say I've ever seen anything quite like it. Gantry's entire repertoire is performed with encyclopedic thoroughness and accuracy. We see Gantry the narcissistic conman, Gantry the philanthropist, Gantry the flamboyant showman.

Just when we think we've seen it all, just when we think we can write Gantry off as a cross between a clown, a self-deceiver, and a blowhard, the movie reveals another nuance in Gantry's soul – something we'd never seen before, and yet realize is totally believable, and, in fact, essential to understanding the man. Our views of the man change. We can't help but love him.

One such scene: almost 75 % of the way through the movie, in fact, after a shorter and shallower movie would have ended, Gantry says to another man, "Don't you know that that hurts?" in a voice we haven't heard him use before. Lancaster is breathtaking in this, the film's quietest line reading. Lancaster is so magnificent in this, his Oscar-winning role, that you have to wonder if he is not calling on much of his own character, as a charming, larger-than-life Hollywood star, to play the charming, larger-than-life star of tent revivals. IMDb trivia notes claim that Lancaster received a letter from a childhood friend saying that Lancaster's performance as Elmer Gantry reminded him of the Lancaster he remembered from real life.

The rest of the cast is also superb. Jean Simmons is domineering, spiritual, spooky, and lustful, by turns. Shirley Jones is heartbreaking as a doomed woman. Arthur Kennedy is perfect as a skeptical journalist. Dean Jagger perfectly times and pitches his paternal air, his outrage, and his surprised forgiveness. Patti Page is poignant as Sister Rachel. Edward Andrews is the embodiment of a sanctimonious, ambitious, brothel owner.

This film addressing religious corruption, lynch mob mentality, and illicit sex was made under strict rules of censorship. There are no four letter words, no naked breasts, no bleeding wounds. And yet this film raised goose bumps in ways that more explicit movies only wish they could. A crowd brays for blood; a man pulls a horse whip out of a paper bag and cracks it. Refuse is thrown at a man, and what looks very like maggots. A police officer arresting a prostitute says "You wouldn't believe what I caught this one doing." A virgin is taken under a building by a man who has practically hypnotized her. Wow! "Elmer Gantry" is critical of Christian revival meetings that were popular in the rural south and Midwest in the early decades of the twentieth century. Its indirect targets were understood to be the historical figures, Aimee Semple McPherson and Billy Sunday. Some Christians might avoid the movie for this reason. That would be a mistake. The movie is ultimately very charitable to all of its characters, even Babbit, the brothel owner. Like Gantry himself, the film sees humanity in all its beauty and ugliness, understands, and forgives. This is no black/white, two-dimensional screed. It's a complex exploration of complex behaviors, longings, needs, desires, ambitions. A woman can be a virgin dedicated to God and also a lover who empties sand out of her high-heeled shoe after a night of illicit passion on a be