Review of Elmer Gantry (1960) by Stuart K — 30 Dec 2012

Directed by Richard Brooks (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Lord Jim (1965) and $ (1971)), this is a powerful and dramatic film based on Sinclair Lewis's 1927 satirical novel, but the film version only adapted 100 pages of Lewis's 465 page book.

But, it still makes for a powerful if overlong epic, which is carried by one powerhouse performance. In the 1920's, Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster) is a hard-drinking travelling salesman, but he is charismatic and friendly.

One evening, he attends the travelling roadshow of Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons). Attracted by the business the evangelists get, Gantry cons his way into the roadshow, and takes on the persona of a fiery preacher.

Gantry does a "good cop/bad cop" routine with his audience, telling them that they'll burn in hell for all eternity unless they repent, which alot of them do, sold by Gantry's theatrics.

However when Gantry's former girlfriend Lulu Baines (Shirley Jones), now a prostitute, turns up, things go wrong, and she tries to win him back, but she's planning to frame him and ruin his reputation.

However, Gantry is trying to win the heart of Sister Falconer. It's a powerful drama, and Lancaster is a good showman as well, and you actually believe what he's saying too, (he won an Oscar for this).

Brooks keeps the mood up, and it has a shocking and literally fiery finale too. It's this that's influenced Paul Thomas Anderson with There Will Be Blood (2007) and The Master (2012) with it's explosive depictions of religion.