No need to recap the plot or echo consensus points.Thanks to the movie, I got to memorize Lancaster's beaming rows of perfect teeth, all 500 of them. He does chew up the scenery, but I guess it's excusable since Gantry's supposed to be a natural showman. The movie was cutting edge 1960. Taking on revivalists was never big in the Hollywood playbook. But that's what both Lewis's novel and the movie adaptation do. Needless to say, the film was controversial when first released, many theatres refusing to show it, even one in my home town if I recall correctly. Lancaster's Gantry is pretty clearly a natural performer drawn to any kind of stage where he can command and feed his ego. Money seems secondary to that overriding desire as does the Lord. Importantly, Gantry's also an entrepreneur, working out business arrangements with others, church pastors included. Needless to say, it's not a pretty picture of revivalist tent shows or of some church pastors.On the other hand, Sister Sharon (Simmons) appears sincere in her divine mission, appearing on stage like an angel. Her role crucially provides some compensation to revivalism and its believers. The trouble is the good Sister is overwhelmed by Gantry's personality and incorporates him into the show despite his questionable motives. Thus she's conflicted between the demands of mind and body, a not uncommon human conflict that most any audience can grasp. Meantime, looking on cynically is newsman Lefferts (Kennedy) who in today's terms appears something of a secular humanist. Thus, he's sympathetic to the needy people seeking solutions even in the revivalist brand. Note how the supplicants are almost uniformly elderly and needy looking, a good realistic touch. Though the movie exposes much that's false with popular religion, the purity of the divine message is left to shine through like the untouched cross standing above the burning tabernacle. It's a symbol loaded with meaning, and no doubt helped get the movie sold to reluctant distributors. Overall, the movie remains an interesting mix of personalities and character, still relevant even 60- years later. Kudos to Lancaster and Brooks for taking on controversy at a time when movies generally avoided such.

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 came into this expecting it to be an exposé of the tent revival movement, and it is that, but I was left with many questions that I have had about the revival phenomenon since I was a young man. More out of curiosity than anything else I attended many such revivals in Oklahoma in the late 1950s. I imagine that there has not been a better time and place to experience these events in their most authentic form, and I came away from them in the same frame of mind that I came away from this movie, wondering just how much of a con job they are. And wondering what the people involved really believe. Burt Lancaster gives a remarkable performance as Gantry in this adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel. At the beginning of the movie Gantry is a salesman who is not selling much. Then he sees an opportunity to attach himself to the itinerant evangelist Sister Sharon Falconer. He rises in the ranks due to his zealous sermonizing. By the end of the movie he has changed, even declining the advances of an old flame who commented that he had once "rammed the fear of God into me." I was left to speculate about whether Gantry had truly reformed or whether he had bought into his own malarkey. Just when it seemed that he had become a man of god, he closes with the enigmatic quote from the Bible:When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.Was he saying that he recognized his past behavior as fraudulent, or was he saying that he could now see a way to a more honest ministry?I found Jean Simmons to be miss-cast. She did not project the charisma and strength that I think would be necessary in her position. In the one healing scene she seemed particularly weak. If you want to see some real industrial strength healing in action, catch Oral Roberts in his prime on YouTube.Arthur Kennedy plays news reporter Jim Lefferts. He is probably a stand-in for Sinclair Lewis, being highly skeptical of the whole business. The exchanges between Gantry and Lefferts are at the core of the story. Gantry is such a slippery character that even the cynical Lefferts can't get beyond puzzling over just what sort of man he is.The revival performances I witnesses had it down pat in terms of how to put on a show. There was some warm-up music, maybe something like "Softly and Tenderly, Jesus Is Calling." After a few of the old time hymns the evangelist would come on, starting out slowly and building to a climax, then more aggressive music presented in a rock and roll style. In fact in attending rock concerts later in life I saw a great similarity in the arc of the presentations--the idea is to whip the audience into a frenzy as things go along. Of course in the revival setting, after the audience had been primed they were asked to come forward for conversion, healing, the laying on of hands, or whatever. I have to say that, even as an atheist, it was hard not to be taken in by the spirit of the thing, and I did not get that emotional experience from this movie.

Honestly, I don't know where to begin because there were a lot of things that I loved about watching this film Elmer Gantry (1960). There were so many great elements happening all at once especially the acting. Burt Lancaster did a splendid job and was a perfect choice for the leading role of Elmer Gantry because he featured lots of honest to goodness acting. His energy, enthusiasm, and charismatic appearance made Gantry such a cool character. His acting was most definitely my favorite aspect of the movie because his performance truly brought the movie to life. My rule for telling whether I watched a good movie or not is by seeing how often I notice the outlining of the screen that the movie is displayed on and I barely noticed it when watching Elmer Gantry because I was so into it. The director of the film, Richard Brooks, did a fine job with choosing the camera angles and transitioning. Take it from someone who loves everything about film and is trying to become a prominent film director when I say you can learn a lot from watching Mr.Brooks film. Brooks displayed professional frame balance practically throughout every scene. Overall, after watching Citizen Kane I kinda became bored of watching old-school films but Elmer Gantry has restored my enjoyment of old- school films once again. I just began enjoying older films a lot more than what is being produced today in the film world. I thought the script for Elmer Gantry was exceptional; I loved every quote in the movie especially, "One minute you're a howling banshee,the next, you're cold potatoes." Everyone should watch Elmer Gantry because it is simply a great movie.