Elmer Gantry

Richard Brooks (In Cold Blood) hits another home run with this fabulous examination of Evangelism and religious hypocrisy. At the center is Burt Lancaster, giving unquestionably the performance of his life.

It's 1928 in the Midwest, and glad-handing, hard-drinking and womanizing salesman Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster) drifts around aimlessly looking for something to do. He falls for Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons), a traveling evangelist preaching a Revivalist gospel, and passes himself off as a clergyman. Gantry is a natural showman and his hellfire preachings win him thousands of converts - and also the affection of Sharon. A feud with hard-boiled reporter Jim Lefferts (Arthur Kennedy) wins him more notoriety, but the scheming of Lulu (Shirley Jones), a jilted lover, threatens to sink his lucrative business.

Elmer Gantry remains topical in the age of Pat Robertson and Jimmy Swaggart, where Christianity has indeed become a business - and a lucrative one at that. The movie lacks the stilted, obnoxious "Christianity = bad" message of Inherit the Wind, but manages to be far more angry and affecting. The best scene has a group of religious and business leaders debating whether or not to endorse Gantry: "Christianity is not a business!" Reverend Garrison (Hugh Marlowe) thunders, while another priest (John McIntire) levels a more measured objection. But most are happy to go along with Gantry and slimy businessman Babbit (Edward Andrews), realizing that honest Christianity has little appeal to the masses. Are people really being saved when they're attracted to the most superficial elements (a charismatic preacher, musical performances and spectacle)?

Elmer Gantry was highly controversial in 1960, and even today seems designed to offend conservative, middle-class sensibilities. Besides the religious content, there is a shocking amount of unalloyed sex talk, with Lulu using undisguised innuendos and Gantry's musings on sex. The most crude scene is Gantry's seduction of Sharon, a bald display of base hypocrisy. The overall portrait of '20s America, with glad-handing greedheads, lascivious hypocrites and cynical flakes shouting down the genuinely good people, isn't especially pleasing. The film cops out with something like a happy ending, but the overall tawdriness still seeps through.

Dramatically the film is solid. Brooks's script, as usual, sparkles with muscular dialogue and well-drawn characters, and his outsized direction is perfect for the subject matter. Gantry's enemies are largely won over his to his side through sheer force of personality, with even the most cynical characters gaining some amount of respect for him. This unlevens some of the suspense of the second half, and the climax proves more pathetic than tragic, but even in its weaker moments the film remains compelling. A nice score by Andre Pevin, mixing original music with traditional hymns and spirituals, contributes a lot too.

Burt Lancaster gives the performance of a life-time, putting his natural showsmanship and masculinity to wonderful use. Gantry remains a wonderful enigma, a skilled showman with a complete lack of scruples, a charlatan who believes at least some of what he preaches, a womanizer hounded by conscience pangs. The film's Gantry lacks the pure black-heartedness of Sinclair Lewis's original creation, but Brooks and Lancaster make him into something arguably more compelling: a genuinely complex protagonist.

Jean Simmons (Spartacus) is equally impressive, making Sharon's faith a mixture of genuine belief and pathetic self-delusion. Arthur Kennedy rehearses his cynical journalist bit for Lawrence of Arabia, a tired archetype that he makes compelling. Shirley Jones's (Two Rode Together) bad girl is believably twisted and pathetic until her improbable change of heart. Dean Jagger (The Nun's Story), Edward Andrews (Summertime), Hugh Marlowe (All About Eve), John McIntire (Psycho) and singer Patti Page fill in key supporting roles.

Elmer Gantry remains one of Hollywood's best takes on religion, and one that remains well-taken. Religious revivalism comes and goes but the cheapening of religion through showmanship and commercialism remains a constant.