"Elmer Gantry" was a controversial film when it was released. So controversial, that no studio would finance it. Based on a Sinclair Lewis novel, preachers are often depicted as cynical, fundraising businessmen who consider themselves to be in the entertainment industry.
Burt Lancaster is the title character, a small-time salesman, con artist, and would-be preacher. He latches onto popular evangelist Jean Simmons, elbowing into her traveling tent show. While Simmons takes the kindler and gentler route to saving souls, Lancaster preaches fire and brimstone. Lancaster tries to change his sinful ways to win Simmons' heart, but has a lapse upon meeting a woman from his past, now a prostitute (Shirley Jones).
Considered a classic, "Elmer Gantry" has received
much critical acclaim. Lancaster won his only
Best Actor Oscar for the film, which also won for
Screenplay and was nominated for Best Picture.
Despite her small role, Jones won Best Supporting
Actress. Jones had been typecast as The Girl Next
Door, so her cynical hooker role must have
shocked some.
"Elmer Gantry" has problems that prevent it from
being a very good film. Lancaster's character
shifts like the wind. Early, he appears to be a
grasping if charming con artist. Upon befriending
Simmons, he drops his bad habits (drinking,
smoking, gambling) just like that. He mixes
heroic actions with manipulative ones. Does he
love or lust for Simmons, or is he simply using
her as a platform for a preaching career? Jones'
character is also too flexible. At first she is
fun-loving but cynical, but suddenly she seems to
be in seriously in love with Lancaster.
There are some spoilers in the following.
The last third of the film is increasingly
bewildering. Arthur Kennedy, playing a newspaper
man with the utmost integrity who hangs around
the revivalists, betrays them with a devastating
column, but later gets into a fistfight for them. Lancaster finally seduces the
spiritual Simmons, and neither has any regret,
anger or guilt afterwards. Lancaster's character
is completely destroyed, then completely
redeemed, in a few days. Jones blackmails
Lancaster, then won't take the money, then tells
the press that Lancaster was setup. Why the
sudden turn-around? Is Lancaster that hunky?
Lancaster, who is enraged at Jones, ends up
beating up a man who is attacking her. His suit
is pelted with fruit, but is spotless in the next
scene. A deaf man is healed by Simmons. How? Why?
Then she is killed in a fire, an artificial
contrivance to bring the story to a close.
(61/100)
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Handsome, opportunistic, immoral. Travelling salesman Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster) is all this and more. So when he stumbles into a revival meeting a...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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