Elmer Gantry (1960)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Pretty Good

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Many reviewers have already remarked on this terrific movie far better than I can, so this message is really for younger people interested in serious film. When I was a youngster fascinated by the Batman TV show and Lost in Space, I saw Elmer Gantry for the first time. It's sophisticated script, complex characters, and wonderful acting opened a whole new world for me. The film isn't just about rural religion in the 1920s, or how media is exploited, or how sometimes clever hucksters can outwit themselves. It tells of people in troubled times trying to sort out life's essential challenges. Sit down and take in everything this film is offering, you won't be disappointed.

I'm a huge fan of Burt Lancaster. He was one the best actors, for me maybe even the best one. But his Oscar performance here is just way over the top.The movie is too long, didn't age well and seems to go nowhere. The big mistake is that warning at the beginning. It confused me, and probably others too, because it's clearly pro-Christianity and against revivalists, but then it doesn't decide if Elmer is a conman or a good man. Did he believe what he was preaching or was he only acting? If acting, what for? Just for the love of the evangelist woman?! For money? The movie never decides what kind of person Elmer actually is.A crowd comes to the tend to disturb the service, but when the evangelist woman starts to pray they all instantly get on their knees and pray with her, forgetting that they went there to mock her. She even healed a man, but we don't know if the movie shows this as something good or evil.And then there is this reporter, who is an atheist, and yet he goes to every sermon and is fascinated by the evangelist woman. He also never really draws a line.I really wanted to like this movie but its woolly message makes it weak.

Elmer Gantry had nothing new for me in terms of plot. So I was looking forward to good acting to tide me over. Burt Lancaster won an Oscar for his role in this film. But frankly his performance was a bit hammy at times. Certain scenes did require a hammy performance, especially when he was preaching but he did that a lot. Jean Simmons was a delight though. I am a big fan of Audrey Hepburn and she reminds me of her. So that maybe a big reason why I liked her. Another thing that I didn't like was the character Elmer Gantry. The audience is never given a clear picture of him. Is he just a conman or good guy ? Instead he is shown as something of a conman with heart of gold. He just switches between good and bad so fast that I was sometimes left puzzled.

Richard Brooks's adaptation of Sinclair Lewis's "Elmer Gantry" looks at the revivalist movement of the 1920s, but it could just as easily be about modern-day evangelical Christianity. Burt Lancaster plays the title character, a shyster clergyman exploiting the beliefs of the faithful in middle America. With his fiery speeches, Elmer comes across as a man of the people, but he's only after their money. Jean Simmons co-stars as an evangelist based on Aimee Semple McPherson. She actually believes in what she's doing, but the self-aggrandizing Elmer simply rides her coattails. And then there's Shirley Jones as a prostitute who has her own story about Elmer.It's important to understand that the early 20th century had seen the rise of revivalist Christianity in response to the influx of Catholics from Europe. These predecessors of evangelicalism were the ones who pushed for the establishment of prohibition (which had disastrous results). The Scopes Trial set them back due to the perception that they were a bunch of ignorant yokels*, but they returned in the 1970s in response to everything that happened in the '60s. Elmer Gantry is depicted as a hypocritical preacher, but he could easily be any politician. There are few things as creepy as exploiting people's beliefs just to get them to support you.*The "Elmer Gantry" character Jim Lefferts is based on H.L. Mencken, who notably depicted the people in Dayton, Tennessee, as backwards hicks, which they basically were.