Elmer Gantry (film)

Elmer Gantry
Original movie poster
Directed by	Richard Brooks
Produced by	Bernard Smith
Written by	Sinclair Lewis (novel) Richard Brooks
Starring	Burt Lancaster Jean Simmons Arthur Kennedy
Music by	André Previn
Cinematography	John Alton
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	July 7, 1960
Running time	146 min.
Country	U.S.A.
Language	English
Budget	$3,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Elmer Gantry is a 1960 film based on the 1927 novel by Sinclair Lewis, which tells the story of a confidence man who teams with a woman evangelist in selling religion for profit to small-town America. Adapted by director Richard Brooks, the movie presents fewer than 100 pages of the novel, deleting many characters and fundamentally changing the character and actions of female evangelist Sharon Falconer. The film stars Burt Lancaster as Elmer Gantry, Jean Simmons as Sister Sharon, Arthur Kennedy, Dean Jagger, Shirley Jones as prostitute Lulu Baines, Patti Page, Edward Andrews, and John McIntire. It won Academy Awards for Best Actor (Burt Lancaster), Best Supporting Actress (Shirley Jones) and Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium. It was also nominated for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture and Best Picture.

Plot Summary

Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster) is an hard-drinking, fast-talking traveling salesman with a charismatic personality. While traveling, he's drawn to the road show of Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons) and is immediately attracted to the sincere, saintly healer and revivalist. He soon cons his way into her good graces and and joins the troupe as a fiery preacher, developing what her manager calls a "good cop/bad cop" routine, with Elmer telling the audience how they'll burn in Hell and Sharon telling them how they'll be saved in Heaven. With Elmer's push, the band makes its way to Zenith, and, eventually, Elmer succeeds in seducing Sharon, and she becomes his lover. Gantry's on-stage antics draws the attention of big city reporter Jim Lefferts (Arthur Kennedy) who is torn between his disgust for religious huksterism and his genuine admiration for the entertaining style put forth by Gantry. They begin a public feud-debate which drums up circulation for both of them. The show's success is mired by Lulu Baines (Shirley Jones), Elmer's former girlfriend who fell into disrepair and became a prostitute when their affair ruined her standing in her minister father's eye. Lulu frames Gantry for revenge, but her inability to take the money for the photos of Gantry with her earn Lulu a beating from her liaison photographer, resulting in Gantry having to save her from the beating. Leffets is the only reporter who refused to print the story and ironically, comes to his adversary's defense in a blistering repudiation of the charges. In Leffert's column, Lulu confesses to having framed Gantry, but the damage is done. Elmer returns to Sharon the night her tabernacle opens, and tells her that he wants them to live like a more normal couple, but Sharon is unable to give up her soul saving ventures, insisting that she and Elmer were brought together by God to do His work. Sharon tragically dies in a fire at her tabernacle, unable to see past her own religious zeal when the place is engulfed in a fire. Deeply saddened by Sharon's death and having reached something of a moral awakening, Elmer chooses not to go on exploiting the religion, even quoting from the Bible: "When I was a child, I understood as a child and spake as a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things." (1 Corinthians 13:11)

Cast

• Burt Lancaster — Elmer Gantry
• Jean Simmons — Sharon Falconer
• Arthur Kennedy — Jim Lefferts
• Dean Jagger — William L. Morgan
• Shirley Jones — Lulu Bains
• Patti Page — Sister Rachel
• Edward Andrews — George F. Babbitt
• John McIntire — Rev. John Pengilly
• Hugh Marlowe — Rev. Philip Garrison
• Joe Maross — Pete

References

• Wheeler Dixon. "Cinematic Adaptations of the Works of Sinclair Lewis." Sinclair Lewis at 100: Papers Presented at a Centennial Conference. Ed. Michael Connaughton. St. Cloud: St. Cloud State University, 1985. 191-200.

External links

• Elmer Gantry (1960) at the Internet Movie Database