Religion is a fairly complicated, if not problematic, institution as far as I'm concerned. It's easy to say that spirituality is a good thing, but all the crazy people in the world seem to justify varying degrees of corrupt activities in the name of religion - think of the recent terrorist attacks, for example. The movie Elmer Gantry is about people who, while not exactly evil people, take advantage of the gullible and the confused in the name of religious salvation. The film contains Burt Lancaster's Oscar-winning performance, as a slick salesman with a gift for verbosity, if not always with a gift for persuasion, down on his luck until he stumbles into a revivalist meeting run by Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons), and hits upon the idea of conning people in the religious arena. The rest of the movie deals mainly with Gantry's rise - and, of course, fall.
As I said before, the movie begins with Gantry's life as a travelling salesman during the Depression. He's basically a stereotypical slimy salesman; he makes great (and potentially annoying) pains to be friendly and ingratiating, he exaggerates plenty, and tells dirty jokes to charm the average-joe/potential customer. Think WKRP in Cincinnati's Herb Tarlek with better wardrobe. However, unlike Herb, Elmer Gantry has a gift for rhetoric and persuasion, due to his ill-fated experience in religious school, and the first scene, in a speakeasy on Christmas Eve, shows Gantry, making a extraordinary speech that would fit quite well at a revival meeting, inspired by two lowly charity workers who try miserably to squeeze some change out of these drunks. His friends at the club say that he'd make a good preacher, even though it seems pretty apparent that Gantry is selling religion just like he sells vacuum cleaners. However, the vacuum cleaners aren't moving like they used to, and Elmer resorts to the life of a vagabond until he stumbles onto Sister Sharon's revival tent. Ever the painfully ingratiating pitchman, Elmer wheedles his way into Sister Sharon's affections, soon becoming the star attraction of the revival. In fact, his preaching is so powerful that very soon Sharon's movement gains in popularity, getting the chance to actually play in a large town, rather than the country communities they've played in before.
Two major pitfalls arise that could topple Gantry's reign, however. One is a reporter (Arthur Kennedy), who follows Sharon's movement with her official approval, yet who is clearly agnostic at the very least. He soon publishes his opinions in his paper, and of course Gantry has to do something about this unwelcome show of sanity, else he loses his reputation. But even more dangerous than the reporter is a prostitute (Shirley Jones, also an Oscar winner) who used to be one of Gantry's past lovers in his more secular salesman days, and who would be enough for me to give up any haughty religious feelings I may harbour, if, indeed, I did.....
The copyright of the article Elmer Gantry in Hollywood Archives is owned by . Permission to republish Elmer Gantry in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
