Elmer Gantry (1960)
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, (more)
- Director(s):
- Richard Brooks
- Format(s):
- DVD
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Synopsis of Elmer Gantry
Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster), a drunken, dishonest street preacher allegedly patterned on Billy Sunday, wrangles a job with the travelling tent ministry conducted by Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons). Thanks to Gantry's enthusiastic hellfire-and-brimstone sermons, Sister Sharon's operation rises to fame and fortune, enough so that Sharon realizes her dream of building her own enormous tabernacle. These ambitions are put in jeopardy when a prostitute (Oscar-winning Shirley Jones), a former minister's daughter who'd been deflowered by Gantry years earlier, lures Gantry into a compromising situation and has photographs taken. It took several years for any Hollywood studio to take a chance with Sinclair Lewis' novel, and when it finally did arrive on the screen, producer/director Richard Brooks was compelled to downplay some of the more "sacrilegious" passages in the original. Also appearing in Elmer Gantry are Arthur Kennedy as an H.L. Mencken-style atheistic journalist, and Edward Andrews as George Babbitt, a character borrowed from another Sinclair Lewis novel. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Theatrical Feature Running Time:
- 147 mins
Complete Cast of Elmer Gantry
- Burt Lancaster - Elmer Gantry
- Dean Jagger - William L. Morgan
- Shirley Jones - Lulu Bains
- Patti Page - Sister Rachel
- Joe Maross - Pete
- Michael Whalen - Rev. Phillips
- Philip Ober - Rev. Planck
- Rex Ingram - Preacher
- Sally Fraser - Prostitute
- Max Showalter - Deaf Man
- Jean Willes - Prostitute
- Jean Simmons - Sister Sharon Falconer
- Arthur Kennedy - Jim Lefferts
- Edward Andrews - George Babbitt
- John McIntire - Rev. Pengilly
- Everett Glass - Rev. Brown
- Hugh Marlowe - Rev. Garrison
- Wendell Holmes - Rev. Ulrick
- Milton Parsons - Revivalist
- Barry Kelley - Capt. Holt
- John Qualen - Storekeeper Sam
- Director(s):
- Richard Brooks
- Writer(s):
- Richard Brooks
- Producer(s):
- Bernard Smith
- 1960 - Hollywood Foreign Press Association - Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
- 1960 - National Board of Review - Best Supporting Actress
- 1960 - New York Film Critics Circle - Best Actor
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