A young drifter finds success as a traveling preacher until his past catches upwardly with him.

Film Details

Genre

Release Date

Jul 1960

Premiere Information

World premiere in Los Angeles: 29 Jun 1960; New York opening: 7 Jul 1960

Production Company

Elmer Gantry Productions

Distribution Company

United Artists Corp.

Country

United states of america

Location

Burbank--Columbia Ranch, California, United States; Columbia Ranch, California, The states; Santa Monica, California, United States

Screenplay Data

Based on the novel Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis (New York, 1927).

Technical Specs

Duration

2h 26m

Sound

Mono

Colour

Color (Eastmancolor)

Theatrical Aspect Ratio

1.66 : 1

Motion-picture show Length

thirteen,204ft

Synopsis

In the 1920s, Elmer Gantry entertains a grouping of fellow salesmen in a speakeasy with his ribald jokes and easy charm. When a Conservancy Army worker enters, Gantry shocks and moves the crowd with an impromptu, impassioned sermon equating God with love. Later collecting money from the patrons, Gantry takes a drunken barfly back to his hotel room. Despite his magnetism, Gantry remains penniless, and soon hops a train to avert paying his hotel bill. There, a group of tramps steal his shoes and, to escape, he jumps off. Barefoot and filthy, Gantry enters an all-black church and shortly wins over the crowd with his ardent singing. The minister, impressed with Gantry's knowledge of scripture, offers him dinner and work, and within days Gantry is back to his traveling sales job. Although he fails to sell whatever more of his defective household appliances, in one town Gantry is captivated by a poster advert Sister Sharon Falconer, a visiting evangelist. Afterward attending her prayer meeting, Gantry attempts to speak to the wildly popular preacher, and upon being politely turned away, manages to seduce i of her troupe, naïve Sister Rachel, into divulging information almost Sharon'due south by appearances. Armed with this insider knowledge, Gantry follows the troupe onto a railroad train for Lincoln, Nebraska and, subsequently diverting Sharon's protective director, William L. Morgan, Gantry sits side by side to Sharon and claims to know her. Although the exhausted Sharon is wary of Gantry, she appreciates his earthiness and charisma, and agrees to see him the side by side day at her tent. Likewise following Sharon's troupe is cynical reporter Jim Lefferts, who respects Sharon's talent but remains unconvinced of her authenticity or effectiveness in converting people for longer than the few hours during which they remain in her thrall. Jim and Gantry are both present the adjacent mean solar day to witness Sharon convince the Lincoln police that not only is the tent not a fire run a risk, but that the city leaders need to oppose the attempts by local "whiskey slingers" to ignominy her. Gantry, thoroughly impressed, tries to seduce Sharon into hiring him, merely when he realizes that he cannot dupe her, informs her with only partially false sincerity that he wants to inspire sinners with the tale of his ain moral redemption. Sharon allows him to speak, and she, Neb and Jim sentry with awe as Gantry galvanizes the audience with his theatrical preaching about love, hellfire and deliverance. That night, Gantry attempts to osculation Sharon, prompting her to warn him that she is a truthful believer who will allow to him to remain only if he gives up drinking, smoking and carousing. Jim, who has overheard them, laughingly tells Gantry he could exist "the almost successful clown in the circus." To Bill'southward dismay, Jim's words prove truthful, as Gantry brings his sensationalist style to Sharon's ministry. As she preaches kindness and faith, he causes audience members to speak in tongues and beg forgiveness. Bill urges Sharon to fire Gantry, simply she believes them a adept pair, and is further convinced when they are invited to perform in Zenith, the biggest metropolis in the Midwest. They come across with the Zenith church leaders, brought together by realtor George Babbitt. When many of the reverends express dismay at turning faith into a spectacle, Babbitt and Gantry counter that the churches must earn money to stay open, and Sharon's visits convert hundreds. Although the committee eventually agrees, many of the reverends remain concerned. The revival enters town with huge fanfare, orchestrated by Gantry, and soon the chop-chop growing ministry is running like a factory. Sharon is exhausted by the press attention and frightened of the cynicism and sophistication of the urbanites who picket her tent, but Gantry convinces her that the picketing mobs are the most in need of her salvation. Sharon'south solemn, repose prayer wins over the crowd, and later on the service, Gantry protects her from the at present adoring fans. Jim, however, remains hundred-to-one and embarks on a series of manufactures censuring the revival as a sham and revealing that neither Sharon nor Gantry has any credentials or must account for their earnings. Among the millions who read about the ministry is prostitute Lulu Bains, who as a teenager was thrown out of her house after Gantry seduced her by "ramming the fearfulness of God into her." Although the public turns with vicious fervor against Sharon and Babbitt withdraws his financial support, Gantry, armed with proof that Babbitt'south properties house illegal businesses, brings the businessman before Jim'south editor, Eddington. Sharon is already in that location, arguing with Jim, who is criticizing her for challenge to know with certainty what God wants. Gantry steps in, and later on forcing Jim to acknowledge that he is an atheist, convinces Eddington that this revelation could damage the newspaper. In response, Eddington allows Gantry circulate time on his radio station, paid for by Babbitt. Although Sharon is thrilled by Gantry's outrageous persuasiveness, when Gantry tries again to osculation her, she retorts that her only beloved is for God. Conciliating her gently, Gantry draws her into his artillery. Inside days, the city has embraced Gantry and Sharon as their spiritual leaders and Sharon, who is erecting a tabernacle nearby, is deeply in beloved with Gantry. One night, as a publicity stunt, he leads a group of reformers to raid a brothel, but when he recognizes Lulu amongst the arrested, Gantry convinces the police force captain to release the girls. Soon afterward, Lulu asks Gantry to run into her at her hotel room. There, she and her pimp have arranged for a photographer to capture photos of her and Gantry embracing. When Gantry arrives, Lulu seduces him, but when he responds gently, she turns out the light and then that no photograph can be taken. Gantry'south love for Sharon prompts him to rebuff Lulu, who turns the light back on. The resulting photographs of them kissing goodbye are sent to Sharon, who agrees, with a broken heart, to pay Lulu for the negative. At the brothel, however, Lulu, consumed with spite, refuses the money and gives the pictures to the printing. Public stance immediately turns against Gantry, and at the next service, a anarchism erupts. Jim, who turned down the opportunity to publish the photos, is there, every bit well every bit Lulu, who is horrified to see what she has wrought. She runs from the church, followed by Gantry, who afterward finds her existence browbeaten by her pimp for refusing Sharon's payment. Gantry rescues Lulu and holds her as she sobs. Afterward, Jim, who is surprised to realize that Gantry is truly religious, reveals that Lulu has announced in the press that she falsified the photographs. Although Gantry's reputation is restored, he disappears, to Sharon's dismay. Days afterwards, as she prepares for her largest service ever, Gantry appears outside the tabernacle to ask her to run away with him. When she responds that she has been chosen by God, he realizes that she is consumed by her mission, and retreats sadly to the back of the church. Sharon's sermon inspires a deaf human being to beg for her to heal him, and to the horror of both Gantry and Jim, Sharon, now believing herself a living conduit of God, lays her hands on the man and "cures" him. Just then, a human being with a lit cigarette starts a fire. Every bit the flames consume the church, a mesmerized Sharon entreats the hysterical crowd to stay and trust God. Gantry tries to rescue her just she breaks away and runs into the flames, her church collapsing around her. By the morn, Jim and Gantry sit among the wreckage. The reverential crowd asks Gantry to forgive them, but he explains that Sharon still loves them, and leads them in a psalm. Although Nib offers Gantry command of the ministry, promising to rebuild, Gantry responds by quoting the Bible: "When I became a man, I put away childish things."

Coiffure

Film Details

Genre

Release Engagement

Jul 1960

Premiere Data

Earth premiere in Los Angeles: 29 Jun 1960; New York opening: 7 Jul 1960

Product Company

Elmer Gantry Productions

Distribution Visitor

United Artists Corp.

Country

Us

Location

Burbank--Columbia Ranch, California, United states of america; Columbia Ranch, California, United States; Santa Monica, California, U.s.a.

Screenplay Information

Based on the novel Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis (New York, 1927).

Technical Specs

Elapsing

2h 26m

Sound

Mono

Color

Color (Eastmancolor)

Theatrical Aspect Ratio

1.66 : 1

Film Length

13,204ft

Honor Wins

Best Actor

1960

Burt Lancaster

Best Supporting Actress

1960

Shirley Jones

Best Writing, Screenplay

1961

Richard Brooks

Award Nominations

Best Music, Original or One-act Series

1961

Articles

Elmer Gantry

As racy and controversial as they come up, the 1960 product of Richard Brooks' Elmer Gantry drew criticism from morality groups and praise from just nigh anybody else. Accompanied in some urban center newspaper advertisements with an "adults only" characterization, Elmer Gantry drew very respectable critical notices and was a winner at the 1960 University Awards®. Based on the 1927 novel by Sinclair Lewis, Brooks himself wrote the screenplay about a adventurer preacher whom, as Brooks himself said, "wants what everyone else is supposed to desire - money, sex, and religion. He's the all-American boy." Interestingly, the film got through only the first half of the book, and that half took upwardly near two and a half hours of screen time.

Brooks had been eager to bring Elmer Gantry to the screen since 1947. However, it was not until after he bought the rights to the novel, spent several years writing a script, worked ten years as an MGM contract director, and secured the cooperation of Burt Lancaster that Brooks was able to exercise information technology. Lancaster, who starred in Brooks' 1947 screenplay of Animal Force, had the necessary star ability to get the project approved and agreed to come up aboard as long as he was guaranteed the title part and could serve as a co-producer. The actor was after quoted as maxim, "Some parts y'all fall into like a glove," he said. "Elmer really wasn't acting. It was me."

Elmer Gantry earned nominations for five University Awards®: Best Motion-picture show, Best Actor (Lancaster), Best Supporting Actress (Shirley Jones), Best Writing (Brooks), and Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Andre Previn). The flick eventually won three out of five: Best Actor, Supporting Actress, and Writing. One person'south worthy contribution to Elmer Gantry that failed to be nominated was cinematographer John Alton. As he did so strikingly in the films noir he shot for Anthony Mann, such as T-Men (1947) and He Walked By Night (1949), Alton brought a unique atmosphere to Elmer Gantry, 1 bathed in shadow that complimented the darkness of Elmer's true motives. Ironically, Alton did receive an Academy Award® for his expressive use of colour in An American in Paris (1951), merely in Elmer Gantry he used color in a much more than muted and subtle way that accented the shadows and lighting in such scenes as when Sister Sharon's temple goes up in flames. Elmer Gantry would exist Alton's concluding completed film. He and manager Charles Crichton were fired later only ii weeks work on Birdman of Alcatraz, another Lancaster motion-picture show, in 1962.

Producer: Bernard Smith
Director: Richard Brooks
Screenplay: Richard Brooks
Set Pattern: Bill Calvet
Cinematography: John Alton
Costume Design: Dorothy Jeakins
Film Editing: Marjorie Fowler
Original Music: Andre Previn
Bandage: Burt Lancaster (Elmer Gentry), Jean Simmons (Sister Sharon Falconer), Dean Jagger (William L. Morgan), Arthur Kennedy (Jim Lefferts), Shirley Jones (Lulu Bains), Patti Folio (Sister Rachel), Edward Andrew (George F. Babbitt), John McIntire (Rev. John Pengilly), Hugh Marlowe (Rev. Philip Garrison).
C-147m. Letterboxed.

by Scott McGee

Elmer Gantry

Elmer Gantry

As racy and controversial equally they come, the 1960 production of Richard Brooks' Elmer Gantry drew criticism from morality groups and praise from simply well-nigh everyone else. Accompanied in some city newspaper advertisements with an "adults only" label, Elmer Gantry drew very respectable critical notices and was a winner at the 1960 Academy Awards®. Based on the 1927 novel past Sinclair Lewis, Brooks himself wrote the screenplay virtually a charlatan preacher whom, every bit Brooks himself said, "wants what everyone else is supposed to want - money, sex, and organized religion. He'southward the all-American male child." Interestingly, the movie got through only the first half of the book, and that half took up nearly two and a half hours of screen fourth dimension. Brooks had been eager to bring Elmer Gantry to the screen since 1947. However, it was not until later he bought the rights to the novel, spent several years writing a script, worked ten years as an MGM contract director, and secured the cooperation of Burt Lancaster that Brooks was able to do information technology. Lancaster, who starred in Brooks' 1947 screenplay of Animal Force, had the necessary star power to get the project approved and agreed to come aboard as long as he was guaranteed the championship function and could serve equally a co-producer. The thespian was afterward quoted as proverb, "Some parts y'all autumn into like a glove," he said. "Elmer really wasn't acting. It was me." Elmer Gantry earned nominations for five Academy Awards®: All-time Moving-picture show, Best Player (Lancaster), Best Supporting Actress (Shirley Jones), Best Writing (Brooks), and Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Andre Previn). The film eventually won iii out of five: Best Actor, Supporting Actress, and Writing. One person's worthy contribution to Elmer Gantry that failed to be nominated was cinematographer John Alton. As he did and so strikingly in the films noir he shot for Anthony Mann, such as T-Men (1947) and He Walked By Night (1949), Alton brought a unique temper to Elmer Gantry, one bathed in shadow that complimented the darkness of Elmer'southward truthful motives. Ironically, Alton did receive an Academy Award® for his expressive use of colour in An American in Paris (1951), merely in Elmer Gantry he used color in a much more than muted and subtle way that accented the shadows and lighting in such scenes every bit when Sister Sharon'south temple goes up in flames. Elmer Gantry would exist Alton'southward last completed film. He and director Charles Crichton were fired afterwards only 2 weeks piece of work on Birdman of Alcatraz, another Lancaster film, in 1962. Producer: Bernard Smith Director: Richard Brooks Screenplay: Richard Brooks Gear up Design: Beak Calvet Cinematography: John Alton Costume Design: Dorothy Jeakins Film Editing: Marjorie Fowler Original Music: Andre Previn Cast: Burt Lancaster (Elmer Gentry), Jean Simmons (Sister Sharon Falconer), Dean Jagger (William L. Morgan), Arthur Kennedy (Jim Lefferts), Shirley Jones (Lulu Bains), Patti Page (Sister Rachel), Edward Andrew (George F. Babbitt), John McIntire (Rev. John Pengilly), Hugh Marlowe (Rev. Philip Garrison). C-147m. Letterboxed. by Scott McGee

Elmer Gantry

Richard Brooks may take backed abroad from a challenge at some point in his career, but you lot wouldn't know it from his filmography, which is full of pictures and then culturally aggressive that an ordinary writer-director would have needed a year off just to read the books they're based on. During his virtually imposing menstruum, from The Blackboard Jungle in 1955 to In Cold Claret in 1967, he tackled Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (1958), Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin can Roof (1958) and Sweet Bird of Youth (1962), Joseph Conrad'due south Lord Jim (1965), four other films based on less renowned literary sources, and what's arguably the all-time pic of them all: Elmer Gantry, adapted by Brooks from the first few capacity of Sinclair Lewis's eponymous 1927 novel. With its baking screenplay, inspired casting, and expressive cinematography, the 1960 release still stands equally one of Hollywood's most candid and intelligent looks at American faith.

Burt Lancaster won his merely Academy Award for his irrepressible portrayal of the title grapheme, a traveling salesman trying to eke out a living wage in the Depression-ravaged 1920s. He'southward something of a fast-talking con human being, but he has a good middle and a leaning toward faith, as we learn in an early scene when he joins the worshippers in an African-American church and stays to help the pastor after everyone else goes abode. Arriving in a new town ane ordinary day, he finds an old-fashioned revival service going on in a big tent, presided over past Sister Sharon Falconer, an evangelist with an untainted soul, a silver natural language, and a very pretty face. Elmer immediately cozies up to her, just she'due south as well busy to requite him the time of mean solar day until she hears him deliver an off-the-cuff sermon. She can tell he'southward a scamp, just he definitely has talent, and then she takes him into her entourage, and eventually they go more than than just professional partners.

Along the way we observe that Elmer was in one case a seminary student, kicked out earlier graduation for seducing the deacon'due south daughter in the chapel. And at that place'southward likewise more to Sister Sharon than meets the eye – her real proper noun is Katie Jones, and while she truly believes she'due south doing the Lord's work, her evangelical success owes more a trivial to the kind of slick showmanship that Elmer has and so brilliantly mastered. Other major characters include Jim Lefferts, an atheistic announcer who'due south traveling with Sister Sharon to gather facts for a newspaper story; Bill Morgan, the Sis's aging right-hand man; and Lulu Bains, the deacon'southward daughter, now a prostitute who starts dreaming of revenge when her sometime seducer comes to town. Also present in a few scenes is George F. Babbitt, the chronically discontented antihero of Lewis'due south novel Babbitt, a ferocious satire of centre-grade life published five years before the equally scathing Elmer Gantry.

Brooks began his directorial career under contract to MGM, and he had worked there for a full decade before embarking on Elmer Gantry, his first independent product. He made all the right choices from the commencement, starting with the conclusion to adapt only a portion of Lewis'southward novel; the finished moving-picture show runs almost two-and-a-half hours as it is, then more ingredients would have made it overstuffed. Brooks measures out the fabric with perfect dramatic timing, and while he makes contrasted changes in the novel's storyline and graphic symbol list across merely shortening them, there's no feeling that he toned things down to make the film a safer prospect at the box office. If there's any uncertainty about his stand on the hazards of unchained religious fervor, find a small detail in the terminal seconds of the movie, when a title carte reading "The End" comes in from the left and right to close off the picture show, merely freezes for one tiny moment so the photographic camera tin linger on a revivalist who's been badly injured, in body and perhaps in soul, during the riot that climaxed the story. And the scenes showing Lulu doing business in her brothel and setting Elmer up for a humiliating sexual practice scandal are notably bold by industry standards in 1960, when censorship was on the wane but hadn't entirely lost its bite. Hedging its bets, withal, United Artists appended a printed prologue that looks quaint today, declaring that "the conduct of some revivalists makes a mockery of the traditional behavior and practices of organized Christianity!" and adding that "due to the highly controversial nature of this moving picture, we strongly urge yous to prevent impressionable children from seeing it!"

Of all Brooks's smart decisions, his casting choices were the best of all. Lancaster modeled Elmer partly on Billy Sunday, a hugely pop real-life evangelist and erstwhile baseball player whose athletic "slide for God," slightly modified, becomes role of Elmer's energetic revival-tent routine. In addition to his adroit body language and physical moves, Lancaster croons, intones, and belts out Elmer's sermons as if he believed them to his bones. When he starts his trademark oration with the silkiest of words, "Love is like the morning and the evening star," yous can understand why everyone from Sis Sharon to the almost naïve worshipper comes and then hands nether his spell. Lancaster himself was no revivalist, but he certainly saw the links between Elmer's preaching and his own profession. "Some parts yous autumn into like an quondam glove," he said of this part. "Elmer wasn't acting. It was me."

Elmer Gantry isn't a one-person prove by whatever means. Jean Simmons brings a sense of inborn form and subtle passion to Sis Sharon – she and Brooks got married later completing the film – and Shirley Jones is downright smoldering as the fallen Lulu, a part that earned her the Oscar for All-time Supporting Actress. It's hard to imagine how Arthur Kennedy and Dean Jagger could exist topped as Lefferts the newsman and Neb the evangelical 2nd banana; ditto for Edward Andrews equally Babbitt, and while the pop singer Patti Page doesn't make much impression as Rachel, a member of the flock who quietly pines for Elmer throughout the picture, her recessive acting is oddly in melody with the grapheme. The cast is rounded out by a crowd of erstwhile folks from California who play the believers in Sister Sharon'due south tent, some other adept idea on Brooks's function.

Elmer Gantry was a labor of love for Brooks, who had dreamed of filming Lewis'south novel for more than a decade and spent 2 years writing the script, which won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. (The flick as well scored Oscar nominations for Best Picture and for André Previn's score.) His most important collaborator behind the camera was John Alton, who photographed the action with his usual flair for nighttime-toned expressionism, although his daytime exteriors are striking every bit well. Various critics accept commented on Brooks'southward determination to shoot the picture in the traditional ane:33 aspect ratio – since MGM and other studios were now committed to widescreen ratios, some feel the director was simply asserting his newfound independence – but Alton makes the option seem entirely natural, bringing claustrophobic intensity to interiors and dramatic focus to exteriors. Simply some shots during the chaotic climax have a disappointingly stagy look.

In a 1960 photo characteristic on the film, Life magazine said that Brooks had "written into Lewis's rogue a quality of compassion that makes him nearly homo – and, ultimately, pathetic." That'southward true, but it doesn't go deep enough. The key to Elmer's entreatment equally a character is that although he's a securely flawed person – a drinker, womanizer, and hell-raiser with a badly checky past – he isn't a hypocrite because he truly believes in God and Jesus, sincerely loves the old-fourth dimension religion that Sister Sharon preaches, and has the courage to have his comeuppance when it finally arrives. Brooks may have been speaking sarcastically when he remarked that the picture "is the story of a man who wants what everyone is supposed to want – coin, sex, and religion. He's the all-American boy." But an all-American male child is exactly what Elmer thinks he is, and while he'southward not higher up bamboozling the people he wants to persuade, he's besides not afraid to shout the convictions he does have to the rooftops. He's 1 of the great characters in American fiction and American film, and Brooks'due south fine film does him proud.

Director: Richard Brooks
Producer: Bernard Smith
Screenplay: Richard Brooks, from the novel by Sinclair Lewis
Cinematographer: John Alton
Pic Editing: Marjorie Fowler
Art Direction: Ed Carrere
Music: Andre Previn
With: Burt Lancaster (Elmer Gantry), Jean Simmons (Sister Sharon Falconer), Arthur Kennedy (Jim Lefferts), Dean Jagger (William L. Morgan), Shirley Jones (Lulu Bains), Patti Page (Sister Rachel), Ed Andrews (George F. Babbitt), John McIntire (Rev. John Pengilly), Hugh Marlowe (Rev. Philip Garrison), Joe Maross (Pete), Philip Ober (Rev. Planck), Barry Kelley (Police Helm Holt), Wendell Holmes (Rev. Ulrich), Dayton Lummis (Mr. Eddington).
Colour-147m.

past David Sterritt

Elmer Gantry

Richard Brooks may take backed away from a challenge at some point in his career, only you wouldn't know it from his filmography, which is total of pictures so culturally ambitious that an ordinary writer-director would take needed a year off just to read the books they're based on. During his most imposing period, from The Blackboard Jungle in 1955 to In Cold Blood in 1967, he tackled Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (1958), Tennessee Williams'southward Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Sweet Bird of Youth (1962), Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim (1965), four other films based on less renowned literary sources, and what's arguably the best moving picture of them all: Elmer Gantry, adapted by Brooks from the first few chapters of Sinclair Lewis's eponymous 1927 novel. With its blistering screenplay, inspired casting, and expressive cinematography, the 1960 release still stands as one of Hollywood'southward near candid and intelligent looks at American religion. Burt Lancaster won his only Academy Award for his irrepressible portrayal of the championship character, a traveling salesman trying to eke out a living wage in the Depression-ravaged 1920s. He'southward something of a fast-talking con man, simply he has a good eye and a leaning toward religion, as nosotros acquire in an early on scene when he joins the worshippers in an African-American church and stays to assistance the pastor after anybody else goes home. Arriving in a new town one ordinary twenty-four hours, he finds an old-fashioned revival service going on in a big tent, presided over by Sis Sharon Falconer, an evangelist with an untainted soul, a silver natural language, and a very pretty face. Elmer immediately cozies up to her, but she's as well busy to give him the time of solar day until she hears him deliver an off-the-cuff sermon. She can tell he'south a scamp, only he definitely has talent, and so she takes him into her entourage, and eventually they become more than merely professional partners. Along the way we discover that Elmer was one time a seminary student, kicked out before graduation for seducing the deacon's daughter in the chapel. And there's also more to Sister Sharon than meets the center – her real proper noun is Katie Jones, and while she truly believes she's doing the Lord'due south piece of work, her evangelical success owes more than a lilliputian to the kind of slick showmanship that Elmer has so brilliantly mastered. Other major characters include Jim Lefferts, an atheistic announcer who's traveling with Sis Sharon to gather facts for a newspaper story; Neb Morgan, the Sis'southward crumbling right-hand homo; and Lulu Bains, the deacon'due south daughter, at present a prostitute who starts dreaming of revenge when her old seducer comes to town. Likewise present in a few scenes is George F. Babbitt, the chronically discontented antihero of Lewis's novel Babbitt, a ferocious satire of middle-course life published five years before the equally scathing Elmer Gantry. Brooks began his directorial career under contract to MGM, and he had worked there for a full decade earlier embarking on Elmer Gantry, his first contained production. He fabricated all the correct choices from the outset, starting with the decision to adapt merely a portion of Lewis's novel; the finished film runs almost two-and-a-one-half hours every bit it is, so more ingredients would accept made it overstuffed. Brooks measures out the cloth with perfect dramatic timing, and while he makes contrasted changes in the novel'south storyline and character list across but shortening them, at that place's no feeling that he toned things down to brand the film a safer prospect at the box office. If there's whatever doubt about his stand on the hazards of unchained religious fervor, notice a modest detail in the last seconds of the movie, when a title card reading "The End" comes in from the left and right to shut off the movie, but freezes for i tiny moment so the camera can linger on a revivalist who'south been badly injured, in body and perhaps in soul, during the anarchism that climaxed the story. And the scenes showing Lulu doing business in her brothel and setting Elmer up for a humiliating sexual practice scandal are notably bold past manufacture standards in 1960, when censorship was on the wane but hadn't entirely lost its bite. Hedging its bets, all the same, United Artists appended a printed prologue that looks quaint today, declaring that "the carry of some revivalists makes a mockery of the traditional behavior and practices of organized Christianity!" and adding that "due to the highly controversial nature of this flick, we strongly urge yous to forestall impressionable children from seeing it!" Of all Brooks'south smart decisions, his casting choices were the best of all. Lancaster modeled Elmer partly on Billy Sunday, a hugely popular real-life evangelist and sometime baseball player whose athletic "slide for God," slightly modified, becomes part of Elmer's energetic revival-tent routine. In add-on to his adroit trunk language and physical moves, Lancaster croons, intones, and belts out Elmer'south sermons every bit if he believed them to his bones. When he starts his trademark oration with the silkiest of words, "Love is like the morning and the evening star," yous can understand why everyone from Sister Sharon to the most naïve worshipper comes so easily under his spell. Lancaster himself was no revivalist, but he certainly saw the links between Elmer's preaching and his own profession. "Some parts you fall into like an old glove," he said of this part. "Elmer wasn't acting. Information technology was me." Elmer Gantry isn't a one-person prove by any means. Jean Simmons brings a sense of inborn class and subtle passion to Sister Sharon – she and Brooks got married subsequently completing the movie – and Shirley Jones is downright smoldering as the fallen Lulu, a part that earned her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. It'southward hard to imagine how Arthur Kennedy and Dean Jagger could be topped as Lefferts the newsman and Bill the evangelical second banana; ditto for Edward Andrews as Babbitt, and while the pop vocalist Patti Page doesn't make much impression as Rachel, a fellow member of the flock who quietly pines for Elmer throughout the movie, her recessive interim is oddly in tune with the character. The cast is rounded out by a crowd of old folks from California who play the believers in Sister Sharon's tent, another good thought on Brooks's part. Elmer Gantry was a labor of beloved for Brooks, who had dreamed of filming Lewis'southward novel for more than a decade and spent two years writing the script, which won the Oscar for Best Adjusted Screenplay. (The motion-picture show too scored Oscar nominations for All-time Picture and for André Previn'southward score.) His most important collaborator behind the camera was John Alton, who photographed the action with his usual flair for nighttime-toned expressionism, although his daytime exteriors are striking as well. Diverse critics take commented on Brooks'south conclusion to shoot the motion-picture show in the traditional 1:33 aspect ratio – since MGM and other studios were now committed to widescreen ratios, some feel the director was but asserting his newfound independence – only Alton makes the choice seem entirely natural, bringing claustrophobic intensity to interiors and dramatic focus to exteriors. Only some shots during the cluttered climax take a disappointingly stagy await. In a 1960 photo feature on the picture, Life magazine said that Brooks had "written into Lewis's rogue a quality of pity that makes him almost homo – and, ultimately, pathetic." That'south true, but it doesn't get deep plenty. The central to Elmer'due south entreatment as a grapheme is that although he's a deeply flawed person – a drinker, womanizer, and hell-raiser with a badly checkered by – he isn't a hypocrite because he truly believes in God and Jesus, sincerely loves the one-time-time religion that Sister Sharon preaches, and has the courage to take his comeuppance when it finally arrives. Brooks may take been speaking sarcastically when he remarked that the movie "is the story of a man who wants what everyone is supposed to want – money, sex, and organized religion. He'due south the all-American boy." But an all-American male child is exactly what Elmer thinks he is, and while he's not in a higher place bamboozling the people he wants to persuade, he's also non afraid to shout the convictions he does accept to the rooftops. He'south one of the smashing characters in American fiction and American film, and Brooks's fine pic does him proud. Manager: Richard Brooks Producer: Bernard Smith Screenplay: Richard Brooks, from the novel past Sinclair Lewis Cinematographer: John Alton Film Editing: Marjorie Fowler Art Direction: Ed Carrere Music: Andre Previn With: Burt Lancaster (Elmer Gantry), Jean Simmons (Sister Sharon Falconer), Arthur Kennedy (Jim Lefferts), Dean Jagger (William Fifty. Morgan), Shirley Jones (Lulu Bains), Patti Page (Sister Rachel), Ed Andrews (George F. Babbitt), John McIntire (Rev. John Pengilly), Hugh Marlowe (Rev. Philip Garrison), Joe Maross (Pete), Philip Ober (Rev. Planck), Barry Kelley (Police force Captain Holt), Wendell Holmes (Rev. Ulrich), Dayton Lummis (Mr. Eddington). Color-147m. by David Sterritt

Quotes

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! Salve me!" and the first affair I know he rammed the fear of God into me so fast I never heard my old man'south footsteps!

- Lulu Bains

But this night is a m years away.

- Sister Sharon Falconer

Love is the morning and the evening star.

- Elmer Gantry

Besides, I'm for a free printing, for free enterprise..and for whatever the hell the other freedoms are!

- George Babbitt

Trivia

When this film first ran on network TV, the unabridged subplot featuring Shirley Jones in her Academy Honour-winning functioning as a prostitute was chopped out of the motion-picture show considering information technology clashed so violently with her role as the wholesome mom on "Partridge Family, The" (1970).

After this picture was released, Burt Lancaster got a letter from a boyhood friend he had not heard from in years. The friend wrote him that Lancaster's role in this moving-picture show was the closest to the way Lancaster acted in real life when they were kids.

Notes

The film begins with the post-obit written statement: "We believe that sure aspects of Revivalism can acquit exam-that the deport of some revivalists makes a mockery of the traditional behavior and practices of organized Christianity! We believe that everyone has a correct to worship according to his censor, but-Freedom of Organized religion is not license to abuse the organized religion of the people! However, due to the highly controversial nature of this film, nosotros strongly urge you to prevent impressionable children from seeing it!" The credits so run, followed by a close-upward of the offset page of the novel Elmer Gantry.
Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) wrote the novel in 1927 as a satire of evangelist religion. His "Elmer Gantry" is a drunken carouser who falls into faith as a way of gaining riches and fame. An ordained Baptist government minister, Gantry is expelled from the seminary when he seduces a immature girl, but before long becomes the manager of evangelist "Sharon Falconer." Afterward Falconer dies in a fire, Gantry becomes a highly successful Methodist minister, and although he is set up to exist defenseless in a scandal, he evades confidence and goes on to increase his influence, ability and corruption. Ane of the book's characters, "George Babbitt," had earlier been the lead character in Lewis' popular novel Babbitt.
Lewis was inspired to create Gantry by the flamboyant evangelist ministers prominent in 1920s society, including Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944) and Billy Sunday (1862-1935). The book engendered extensive controversy, both in the literary customs, much of which felt that the characters were mere caricatures, and in the religious community, which resented the portrayal of a degenerate minister. As noted in publicity materials for the film, "Lewis was personally invited to nourish his own lynching." Despite existence banned in diverse cities, Elmer Gantry was i of the novels that led Lewis to being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930.
The book was adapted into a play by Patrick Kearney and opened on Broadway on August 7, 1928. According to data in the file on the film in the MPAA/PCA Drove at the AMPAS Library, as early every bit 1928 producers sought PCA analysis of a film version of the novel or play, but were informed that its content made it unsuitable for a motion picture.
In a July 1960 New York Times article, managing director Richard Brooks wrote that he first entertained the idea of writing a moving-picture show adaptation of Elmer Gantry in 1945, when Lewis favorably reviewed Brooks's starting time novel, The Brick Foxhole, in Esquire magazine. When Brooks, at the fourth dimension a marine, was then threatened with a court-martial for declining to submit the novel to the Marine Corps for approval, Lewis agreed to testify on his behalf. Afterwards the suit was dropped, Lewis met Brooks at a bar, where he gave him permission to effort to film his book, cautioning the young author to consult the many critiques of the novel, written past such journalists as H. L. Mencken and Elmer Davis, in guild to amend on it. "I cannot overstate how much these reviews helped me in formatting the film," Brooks wrote.
Although he had non yet officially acquired the rights to the novel, in 1953 Brooks appealed to the PCA for blessing of a script. Correspondence in the PCA file indicates that at that fourth dimension, PCA head Geoffrey Shurlock suggested that Brooks use the assistance of an evangelist government minister to set an outline. In April 1955, New York Times reported that Brooks had purchased an option on the novel and was because Montgomery Clift to play the lead role. At the time, Brooks assumed he might produce the feature in 1956. As noted in an October 1959 New York Times article, several studios refused to support the controversial film and Brooks had to re-buy the option each successive yr. Finally, he attained the participation of Burt Lancaster, whom he had met while writing for Lancaster'due south first picture show, The Killers (1946), and the 1947 moving picture Brute Force (for both, see AFI Catalog of Characteristic Films, 1941-fifty). After Lancaster signed on in 1958, United Artists agreed to finance and distribute the accommodation. Brooks noted in the July 1960 New York Times characteristic that he then spent over one yr writing eight drafts of the screenplay.
A November 21, 1958 memo in the PCA file specifies that Shurlock considered the film's commencement typhoon to be in violation of the Code. In response (and in accordance with Lancaster'due south historic period), according to a modern interview with Brooks, the writer-manager adjusted the story to focus on Gantry'southward centre years, changed Falconer into a sincerely religious figure, converted "Jim Lefferts" from a seminary student to an atheist reporter and, about importantly, portrayed Gantry as non an ordained minister. This change sidestepped Lawmaking restrictions disallowing ministers to be portrayed in a negative calorie-free. In a November 24, 1958 memo, Brooks noted that he retained the story'due south 1920s setting in order to avoid whatever identification with contemporary religious leaders.
As a consequence, Shurlock stated in August 1959 that the bones story met with Lawmaking requirements, requiring only minor changes in linguistic communication earlier the film could be awarded a seal. According to modern sources, in meetings with the National Catholic Legion of Decency, Brooks agreed to add together the written disclaimer that precedes the moving picture, alert parents non to bring children to screenings. The Legion then granted Elmer Gantry a B rating, stating that it created a negative atmosphere that failed to distinguish conspicuously between true "religionists" and commercial exploiters of religion.
Despite the changes to the book and the Code'south lenience, by spring of 1959 many church leaders were expressing business that any adaptation of the novel would exist offensive. In June 1959, as noted in the PCA files, George A. Heimrich, the Due west Declension Director of the National Council of Churches of Christ, issued a press argument attacking the film industry as a whole and Elmer Gantry in particular for its overemphasis on violence and sex. In response, however, Robert Due west. Fasten, General Secretary of the Board for Dwelling house Missions of the Congregational and Christian Churches, wrote the following to the PCA: "The film industry has recently begun to testify increased maturity and artistic sensitivity....In that location is no need for Protestants to be defensive almost Elmer Gantry. I'm sure our ministry has enough validity and integrity to withstand this classic caricature."
In response to what a October 28, 1959 Variety article described equally the "severe attack" from Protestant pressure level groups, Brooks countered that the "new generation of filmmakers...now take the courage to tackle subjects that were one time taboo." In the Variety article, Brooks attributed this to both the emergence of independent production companies and a "lessening of the old fears." In a October xxx, 1959 Los Angeles Mirror-News editorial, Brooks called the church groups' response "a matter of veiled strength, censorship and boycott." The debate connected until the motion picture's release, when Rev. Dr. Dan R. Potter, director of the Protestant Council of the Urban center of New York, called the film "a slap at religion." As noted in a July twenty, 1960 Multifariousness commodity, Brooks once over again responded that the picture attempted to portray a search for truth in religion.
Partially every bit a result of the controversy, Brooks kept the script and the product strictly confidential. The terminal draft was canonical in Baronial 1959 with only minor modifications by the PCA, but the filmmakers refused to brand a synopsis of it available to the press, every bit was the customary practice. Producer Bernard Smith was quoted in a October 29, 1959 Los Angeles Times commodity as stating that "the script `is and so technical that a layman might misunderstand it.'" Despite Brooks's circumspection, as reported in an Baronial 1961 New York Times article, the script "barbarous into the hands of another producer," who so petitioned the PCA to exist immune the aforementioned liberties as had Brooks. As a result, Brooks was forced to make new changes to the already-canonical script, fostering an even more intense want for secrecy on the sets of his future productions.
Although a Jan 1959 Hollywood Reporter news item stated that Brooks's contained company, Richlaw Productions, would produce the picture, that company was not listed in any other source. An August 1959 Hollywood Reporter news item noted that Irving Lazar was originally to have co-produced the film with Smith. Don Ameche was originally bandage as "William L. Morgan," but when the film'south first was delayed, he left the product and was replaced by Dean Jagger. Other 1959 Hollywood Reporter news items mention Susan Hayward and Christopher Plummer as possible stars, and add together Marking Allen, Frank Killmond, Jason Johnson, Mike Stonemason, Charles Alvin Bell, Mushy Callahan, Milton Parsons, Jim Richardson, Adrienne Marden, Robert Hoy, Saul Gorss and Tenton T. Knight to the cast, although their appearance in the terminal film has non been confirmed. Although Hollywood Reporter reported that Kevin McCarthy had been cast, he was not in the moving-picture show. In addition, a modern source adds to the cast Budd Buster, Mary Adams Hayes, Colin Kenny, Mike Lally, John McKee, David McMahon, Gloria Pall, Charles Perry, Dan Riss, Bert Stevens, Jack Stoney and Ken Terrell. Although Hollywood Reporter production charts from early November-early December 1959 listing Joseph Pevney every bit a manager of the picture, his bodily title has not been determined and it is likely that he worked as a 2nd unit director. A modern source adds the following crew members: Robert Webb (second asst dir), Bob Herron and Charles Horvath (Stunts), Leonard Doss (Color Consultant) and Kenyon Hopkins (Mus cond).
The novel'southward writer is mentioned past proper name in the picture, during the scene in which Gantry convinces editor "Eddington" that he deserves radio time to rebut Lefferts' accusations, and compares the announcer to such other vivid, atheist writers as Lewis and Mencken. Hollywood Reporter production charts and news items state that much of the moving-picture show was shot at the Columbia Ranch and the Columbia and M-Grand-Yard studio lots, and equally noted in studio press materials, the scenes of the tabernacle were shot on location in Santa Monica, CA. Brooks stated in a mod interview that the scene in which the tabernacle burns downwards included 200 stunt people and 1,200 extras, many of whom were recruited from nearby aeroplane factories. Press materials relate that the filmmakers had trouble starting the fire and and so brought old nitrate films from the Columbia studio and used the highly flammable substance to commencement the burn.
Press notes add that two of Lancaster's children, Joanna and Sighle, appeared in the film. Lancaster sings several hymns in the motion picture, and a September 1959 Daily Variety news particular noted that United Artists Records was planning to distribute commercial recordings of the tunes. During filming, Jean Simmons, who at the time was married to Stewart Granger, began an thing with Brooks that culminated in their marriage on November i, 1960. Their offset daughter was built-in the post-obit year and they remained married until 1977.
Shirley Jones stated in a modern source that Brooks wanted Piper Laurie to play the function of "Lulu Bains" and a result was initially cold to her. Subsequently her success in the role, for which she won her only Academy Laurels, she turned down many dramatic parts, fearful of being typecast as a prostitute. As a consequence, Elmer Gantry marked the only purely dramatic role in her feature film career.
Brooks shot the film in the then rarely used, classic attribute ratio of 1.33:1, stating in a July 20, 1960 Multifariousness article that the story required the intimacy of the smaller proportions. Every bit noted in that article, he then had to ensure that the motion picture would exist exhibited in that ratio, rather than the more than standard wide screens, and worked with certain theaters to provide the right lenses.
At the June 29, 1960 premiere in Hollywood, children nether the age of 16 were not allowed in unless accompanied past a parent. The film ran with minor deletions in Canada, England and Australia. According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, in conjunction with the moving picture'south release, the novel was serialized in the NY Daily Mirror in August 1960.
Elmer Gantry won Academy Awards for Best Thespian (Lancaster), Best Supporting Actress (Jones) and Best Adjusted Screenplay. In addition, it earned Oscar nominations for Best Moving-picture show and All-time Music (Andre Previn). Among the picture show's many other honors, Brooks was nominated for the DGA Award for Best Director and won the WGA Honor for All-time Written American Drama, and Lancaster won a Best Actor Gilt Globe honor. When the 1992 movie Bound of Faith (directed past Richard Pearce and starring Steve Martin and Debra Winger) was released, many reviewers commented on its story's similarity to Elmer Gantry.

Miscellaneous Notes

Voted Best Actor (Lancaster) by the 1960 New York Picture Critics Association.

Voted One of the Twelvemonth's Ten All-time Films by the 1960 New York Times Motion picture Critics.

Winner of the Author's Guild of America Award for All-time Screenplay--Drama of 1960.

Released in Us Summer July 1960

Released in The states Summertime July 1960