Elmer Gantry (1960)
Grade: 61
"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.
kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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