Sinclair Lewis had conducted extensive research for his novel by observing the work of preachers in Kansas City in so-called “Sunday School” meetings. He first worked with William L. “Big Bill” Stidger, pastor of the Linwood Boulevard Methodist Episcopal Church in Kansas City, Missouri. Stidger then introduced Lewis to other clergymen, including Reverend Leon Milton Birkhead, a Unitarian and an agnostic.
Other ministers that Lewis interviewed included Burris Jenkins, Earl Blackman, I. M. Hargett, Bert Fiske, and Robert Nelson Horatio Spencer, who was rector of a large Episcopal parish, Grace and Holy Trinity Church.
In the opening scene, Elmer Gantry (Lancaster) appears on the screen as a drunkard trying to mooch drinks while selling his own distinctive take on the scripture with his remarkable gift of gab.
A narcissistic, womanizing, college athlete, he had abandoned his ambition to become a lawyer, because the legal profession did not suit his personality and lifestyle.
Later on, while a notorious and cynical alcoholic, Gantry is mistakenly ordained as a Baptist minister. He briefly acts as a “New Thought” evangelist, and later on becomes a Methodist minister.
During his career, Gantry contributes to the downfall, injury, and death of several people around him, including minister Frank Shallard.
Gantry then marries well, and obtains a large congregation in Lewis’s fictional Midwestern city of Zenith.
When he encounters Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons), a role inspired by the real-life Aimee Semple McPherson, he appeals to her vanity and joins her camp.
Together, they become rich and famous enough for Sister Falconer to build her own huge seaside temple, with him serving as her manager as well as an itinerant evangelist. Soon Gantry also becomes her lover, but eventually, he ends up losing both her and his position when she is killed in a fire at her new tabernacle.
Grade: B+ (**** out of *****)
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The screen character of Sharon Falconer was based on several elements in the career of real-life Aimee Semple McPherson, a Canadian-born American evangelist who founded in 1927 the Pentecostal Christian denomination, known as the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.
Gantry, a womanizer who loves life and nearly every femme he meets, then falls for Lulu Baines (cast against type Shirley Jones), once a preacher’s daughter and now a prostitute bent on revenge.
Writer-director Richard Brooks has made significant changes in adapting the novel to the screen. Brooks has turned Elmer Gantry into an “All-American Boy,” lusting after fame, money, and status. Hence, Gantry is no longer the ordained minister fallen from grace as depicted in the novel, but rather a traveling salesman for the Lord. Similarly, Jim Leffers (Arthur Kennedy), Elmer’s friend, is transformed from a seminary dropout in the novel into a cynical but savvy reporter.
Lancaster was born to play Gantry, a charismatic, handsome man who turns his life into a theatrical spectacle that needs and depends on live audience. Gantry loves wine, women, and music. Full of contradictions, his bawdy humor, self-love, opportunism, and energy are useful in gaining friends and positions, but he’s also driven by sincere love for others, and authentic wish to make life better for the whole world.
Nonetheless, the tone of the book is maintained in this overwrought version, resulting in a largely gripping chronicle, despite its shortcoming of being too vulgarized and overw0ught.
Censorship and Changes
George Shurlock of the PCA administration considered the film’s first draft to be in severe violation of the Production Code.
In accordance with the age of Lancaster, who was 47, the writer-director Brooks adapted the story by focusing on Gantry’s middle years. He also changed Falconer into a sincerely religious figure, a converted “Jim Lefferts” from a seminary student to an atheist reporter and, most importantly, portrayed Gantry as not an ordained minister.
This change sidestepped the Code restrictions, which disallow ministers to be portrayed in a negative light. In a November 24, 1958 memo, Brooks noted that he had retained the story’s 1920s setting in order to avoid any potential identification with contemporary or recent religious leaders.
Oscar Nominations: 5
Picture, produced by Bernard Smith
Screenplay (Adapted): Richard Brooks
Actor: Burt Lancaster
Supporting Actress: Shirley Jones
Score (Drama or Comedy): Andre Previn
My Oscar Book:
Oscar Awards: 3
Actor
Supporting Actress
Screenplay (Adapted)
Oscar Context
In 1960, a rather weak year, “Elmer Gantry” competed for the Best Picture Oscar with Billy Wilder’s serio-comedy “The Apartment,” which won, John Wayne’s historical epic “The Alamo,” the British drama “Sons and Lovers,” and Fred Zinnemann’s “The Sundowners.”
Richard Brooks was overlooked in the nomination process by his peers at the Directors Branch; he would earn a nod in 1966 for the action blockbuster The Professionals, also starring Lancaster.
The winner of the Best Score Oscar was Ernest Gold for Exodus, Otto Preminger’s tale of the founding of the State if Israel.
UA release of Burt Lancaster and Richard Brooks production
Directed by Richard Brooks
Screenplay by Richard Brooks, based on Sinclair Lewis 1927 novel, “Elmer Gantry”
Produced by Bernard Smith
Cinematography John Alton
Edited by Marjorie Fowler
Music by André Previn
Distributed by United Artists
Release date: June 29, 1960
Running time: 146 minutes
Budget $3 million
Box office $5.2 million (US/ Canada rentals)
