Here, they are the sinister forces of righteousness. Lewis said, flatly enough, that religion in the United States has become stifling; that, like the pioneer economy and the pioneer mentality of which it is a manifestation, it has become a threat instead of a benefit. It comes when Elmer regales Pengilly with a self-congratulatory story about the success of Elmers ministry in Zenith. WebWhen hedonistic but charming con man Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster) meets the beautiful Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons), a roadside revivalist, he feigns piousness to join He also forms a Committee on Public Morals, persuades the police to make him a temporary lieutenant, and personally leads raids on the red-light districts. He is immediately taken He was saturated with itthe sermons, hymns, Bible stories, funerals, weddings, Sunday schools. During his Yale career Lewis also traveled widely, including a trip to England working on a cattle boat, and he also lived in the Utopian colony at Englewood, New Jersey, which was founded by the novelist Upton Sinclair. Think about how Jim would view Elmer, and how he might react to what Elmer says. After he had become a celebrity, Lewis usually managed to avoid controversy over his books by being out of the United States when they appeared. Based on the muckraker Sinclair Lewis' novel, and superbly translated to the screen by Richard Brooks (In Cold Blood , The Professionals, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), this story of huckster-ism by religion is a masterpiece. (Courtesy of Degebo, Berlin, Germany.) He is a well-educated Englishman in his early thirties with a colorful past. Frank suffers from self-consciousness about his occupation; it is the same sense of doubt which Lewis has expressed about the writing career: Frank still resented it that, as a parson, he was considered not quite virile; that even clever people felt they must treat him with a special manner; that he was barred from knowing the real thoughts and sharing the real desires of normal humanity.. pat hingle elevator accident He marries a woman he does not love. On publication in 1927, Elmer Gantry created a public furor. She tells Elmer that she has visions; God talks to her. After several years as a travelling salesman of farm equipment, he becomes manager for Sharon Falconer, an itinerant evangelist. Elmer Gantry But both the show and their relationship are threatened when one of Gantry's ex-lovers decides that she must settle a score with the charismatic performer. Thus Rebecca West could write incisively about the religious and historical perspectives of Elmer Gantry: The passages in the book which present to one what Mr. Lewis regards as the proper attitude to religion are disconcertingly jejune. Miss West goes on to say that like Mark Twain, who in Connecticut Yankee looked at medieval Europe and said, My, werent they dumb? Lewis has no sense of the struggle of the human mind to evolve from chaos to the achievements of his age. British guitarist and vocalist. How would you describe his demeanor? The couple abandons their campaign against Elmer and leave Elmer starts his career as a Baptist and then joins up with a charismatic but equally unprincipled female revivalist preacher. . Elmer Gantry Binch stopped gulping his fried pork chops and held out a flabby, white, holy hand.. Bess Needham marries Frank Shallard and bears him three children. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child. He is so good that it is hard to tell the difference whether he's sincere or lying. He confesses his love for her and they begin an affair, peppering their lovemaking with religious imagery. Over the next few years, he is appointed to larger and larger parishes, eventually to a church in Zenith. In 1905, after two years study, he is ordained. Despite his doubts, and following Zechlins advice, Shallard decides to remain in the church. Afterward, he must resign himself to helplessness for the rest of his life. Additionally, this positive representation of the necessity of revivals to faltering churches is soured by the probability that Falconers revivals take advantage of the lower class. Taken from the classic Sinclair Lewis novel of the same name, director Richard Brooks garnered an Oscar for Best Screenplay for his adaptation, and Burt Lancaster won his sole Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Elmer Gantry. His father was a physician. Later Frank is thrown from the church and he ventures forth as a worker in a charity organization. TRIVIA: Six degrees of Star TrekThe six degrees of Star Trek holds that any movie connects to Star Trek within 6 steps. One such character is the dean of Terwillinger College, who makes a brief appearance in chapter 4, section 3, in which he wonders, in conversation with his wife, whether he has sacrificed too much by going into the ministry. Your email address will not be published. After collecting money from the patrons, Gantry takes a drunken barfly back to his hotel room. Go out slowly! She has created an enchanted image of herself, and she has convinced her audience of that image, so that they see her as she wants to be seen, and only we, given glimpses of another self when she reveals herself to Elmer, come to know how complete and insane is her transformation. Religion is an aspect of culture that permeates all societies, and much of history is defined by religions in power at the time. As the years went on, however, compromises were reached, and these can be seen in the career of Elmer, who begins as a fundamentalist and winds up as the pastor of a large, urban church. [2][3] AFI|Catalog - American Film Institute It's strange, the way this movie opens and builds so strongly, and then has such an unsatisfying ending. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago who espouses a very liberal theology. For two years, he helps her lead revival meetings in large cities, mastering the art of press advertising and fundraising. McGarry is accused by the fundamentalists of heresy, and he does not seem to accept the traditional dogmas of the Methodist Church: [T]he only dogma he was known to give out positively was the leadership of Jesusas to whose divinity he was indefinite.. Gene Warren and Tim Baar, The Time Machine. In Zenith, when a group of local clergymen meet as the Committee on Public Morals, they reveal a distinct lack of brotherly love amongst themselves: They all detested one another. Later he was to learn that references to Dickens, Victor Hugo, James Whitcomb Riley, Josh Billings, and Michelangelo give a sermon a very toney Chicago air. Though he does not have quixotic benignity, helpfulness, or idealism, he does have visions of how the ministry can be useful to him; he sees thousands listening to himinvited to banquets and everything , and he dreams of hundreds of beautiful women [who weep] with conviction and rush down to clasp his hand., In addition to his hypocrisy and his ignorance, Elmer is a liar, a sinner, and a coward. WebElmer Gantry has a great plot. Movie Forums . 2 hr 26 min. All those who profess to be religious in the novel are shown as hypocrites or morons; the best we can expect, apparently, is a nominal profession of belief for the sake of convenience: the good shepherd is the one who sees that his lambs are fed with material food, not stale spiritual claptrap. Burt Lancaster in all his "scene chewing" glory. Elmer Gantry But Frank rages on at the inconsistencies in doctrine, the contradictions in the Bible, the evil men who are ministers, and the fools and dullards who work about him in Zenith: Gantry, Bishop Toomis, Chester Brown, Hickenlooper, and PottsPotts especially, who gets his idea of human motives out of George Eliot and Margaret Deland, and his ideas of economics out of editorials in the Advocate, and his idea as to what he really is accomplishing out of the flattery of his Ladies Aid! Frank adds that he doesnt find Jesus an especially admirable characterJesus was more vain and furious than a leader should be. When a charismatic preacher comes to town for a revival meeting, he seeks out Gantry and tricks him into attending. Elmer works diligently and is rewarded at the Methodists Annual Conference by being sent to a bigger church, at Rudd Center. | Jean Simmons appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Drumhead (1991) as Rear Admiral Norah Satie. Gantry is portrayed as a smooth talking but frustrated salesman, struggling to make a living. (February 23, 2023). Then read chapter 30, section 5, where Jim reappears. Elmer Gantry - Rotten Tomatoes To increase his vocabulary he begins a word list: incinerate, Merovingian, Golgotha, Leigh Hunt, defeasance, chansonromantic-sounding words. In fact, the film could be seen as prescient, as both religious revivalism, and celebrity-scandal driven journalism (another of its subjects), have arguably become more prevalent since it was made. Bill Morgan sees thru Elmer and tells Sharon that in 1917 he was expelled from the seminary for seducing the deacon's daughter. In "Elmer Gantry," Burt Lancaster gives one of the all-time great screen performances. Driven by ambition to become a bishop, he is hugely successful, and is given bigger and bigger churches. 3360. Jim tries to persuade Elmer not to go along with it, but when Elmer attends the Annual Prayer Week he cannot resist the emotionalism of the service. The new Wellspring Church has been built, and Elmer is awarded an honorary doctorate from Abernathy College. As the film progresses, we learned of Elmer Gantry's past especially his own previous desire to be a minister/preacher. In 1944, his son Lieutenant Wells Lewis was killed in action in France during World War II. But it's Elmer's past, which catches up with him in Zenith, that may be his, and by association Sister Sharon's, downfall. Yes, sir-ree, it might feel simplistic but at least it's fair and square. Nothing reveals Lewiss isolation from an overview of life more clearly than the way he dismisses religion. Named himself in honour of the character in the Burt Lancaster movie Elmer Gantry. Later, he is kidnapped and beaten nearly to death, an episode that leaves him blinded. Reverend Jacob Trosper is the dean and chief executive of Mizpah Theological Seminary. Elmer himself had owned two volumes of Conan Doyle, one of E. P. Roe, and a priceless copy of Only a Boy. His literary inspirations were McGuffeys Readers, Nick Carter, Bible stories, and such stock characters as Little Lame Tom who shamed the wicked rich man that owned the handsome team of grays and the pot hat and led him to Jesus. The bill had always been defeated, but it was gaining more votes in every session [407408]. In the Shadow of No Future: Justice Claims and the Israel-Palestine Conflict? The Trylon features 50 deluxe rocker seats, a 20-foot screen, and a pair of Century Model SA 35mm projectors. He just didn't do subtle very well, as his acting tends to magnify the focus on himself--which, once again can be either good or bad. It was the best-selling work of fiction in America for the year 1927, according to Publishers Weekly.[6]. Webbest neighborhoods in san diego for young professionals. Juanita Klauzel is Elmers girlfriend in Cato, Missouri, when he is a student at Terwillinger College. He later becomes a lawyer. Burt Lancaster as Elmer Gantry, lit in stark noirish style by cinematographer John Alton. WebIn 1960, Elmer Gantry, based on the best-selling 1927 novel by Sinclair Lewis, was brought to the screen by writer/director Richard Brooks. Elmer, like other Lewis protagonists, fears marriage.
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