Elmer Gantry – (1960) based on Sinclair Lewis’s novel, though I suspect the film version is more sympathetic. Burt Lancaster (Academy Award for best actor) as charlatan evangelist, formerly a huckster traveling salesman, Elmer Gantry who joins Sister Sharon Falconer’s revivalist troupe. Jean Simmons in another pious part as a “Bible broad.” (her role as Sister Falconer is based somewhat on the actual personage of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson); Shirley Jones (Academy Award for best supporting actress) as a prostitute and Gantry’s former girlfriend Lulu Bains, who has the lines:

“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!”; Arthur Kennedy as agnostic journalist Jim Lefferts, who mentions Sinclair Lewis among other authors in a clever aside; Dean Jagger as William L. Morgan, the troupe’s manager; Patti Page as Sister Rachel; Edward Andrews as George F. Babbitt. Many of these actors became characters in TV shows, especially Shirley Jones as the mother in The Partridge Family. Two other films of similar theme I can recommend: Burt Lancaster again in the part of a con-artist with Katherine Hepburn in The Rainmaker (1956), based on Richard Nash’s play, and Marjoe (1972), documentary of Marjoe (from Mary and Jospeh) Gortner, child evangelist from the age of four, whose unsuccessful film career ended in the mid-1980s.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2007 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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