Rating: 
Summary: One of Lancaster's Top 2 Performances
Review: Most viewers consider this Lancaster's best film that he never would top again in his lengthy film career. I think that he at least equalled or topped it when he was an older man, playing a "has been," in "Atlantic City." Both roles have in common that he is presented to us as a con man, who is taking people for their money, but is not a caricature of such a person. With many layers of complexity, Lancaster gives us Elmer Gantry, a charismatic preacher in early 20th century America who takes the country by storm in his revivalist act. Jean Simmons plays the devout leader of this traveling religious tent show but there is an air of Christian martyrdom about her that is missing from Gantry's preacher persona. Even Gantry though will be shaken to his core as events unfold around him yet he is always a man who lands on his feet. A superb screenplay with wonderful performances all the way around, Sinclair Lewis himself, the novelist, probably would have approved of this version of his work.
Rating:
Summary: One of Lancaster's Top 2 Performances
Review: Most viewers consider this Lancaster's best film that he never would top again in his lengthy film career. I think that he at least equalled or topped it when he was an older man, playing a "has been," in "Atlantic City." Both roles have in common that he is presented to us as a con man, who is taking people for their money, but is not a caricature of such a person. With many layers of complexity, Lancaster gives us Elmer Gantry, a charismatic preacher in early 20th century America who takes the country by storm in his revivalist act. Jean Simmons plays the devout leader of this traveling religious tent show but there is an air of Christian martyrdom about her that is missing from Gantry's preacher persona. Even Gantry though will be shaken to his core as events unfold around him yet he is always a man who lands on his feet. A superb screenplay with wonderful performances all the way around, Sinclair Lewis himself, the novelist, probably would have approved of this version of his work.
Rating:
Summary: Lancaster's Best Performance
Review: The Oscar that Lancaster won was justly deserved for he becomes Gantry, the hypocritical yet charismatic preacher. Superbly matched by the always outstanding Jean Simmons and a definitely out-of-character Shirley Jones as a "fille de noir." The picture, though long, never lapses and is an intriguing look at how manipulative organized religion can be.
Rating: 
Summary: Anti-Christian bigotry
Review: The writer of the book, Sinclair Lewis, was a well-known anti-Christian bigot and the production staff that created this film followed closely along those lines.Hollywood would never produce a film disparaging other religions like they do on a regular basis, Christianity. "Elmer Gantry" is nothing but hatemongering at its worst. The idea is to make Christians look like bigots and phoneys. This film shows Christians in the worst possible light, and hateful degenerates like Sinclair Lewis not only lack writing talent but whatever they do garner, they do so in the name of socialism. Aside from the insulting light in which Christianity is portrayed, this film is also just simply long and boring. It just drags on and on with no redeeming quality to it. I highly suggest passing on this trash.
Rating:
Summary: great commentary
Review: This movie has excellent acting and directing- It is a great commentary of how religion can sometimes be used to manipulate people instead of guiding and inspiring people. A must see!
Rating:
Summary: Lancaster's Oscar Role
Review: This was Burt Lancaster's Oscar winner, a film in which the great performer achieved a Best Actor statuette for, according to those who knew him from his East Harlem days, largely playing himself. The fast talking Elmer Gantry, the colorful lead of the film of the same name, uses his gift of gab to get him by in what the Bible pounding revivalist recognizes is a tough world. When the film was released Lancaster reportedly heard from friends during his New York youth that he had not seen in years, who recalled the youthful Lancaster's gift of gab, which had become a neighborhood staple. Lancaster, along with the film's producer-director-writer Richard Brooks, recognized the cinematic potential of the Prohibition era novel by America's first Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Minnesotan Sinclair Lewis. Gantry alternates as a poker playing, whisky drinking, brawling brothel habitue and a stern-faced preacher extolling the masses in packed tent services to toe the mark for the Lord or face the fires of hell. Lancaster and Brooks spent six months in the director's office hashing out the story, two emotional creative forces hellbent on achieving the major success which resulted. The effort earned a Best Screenplay Oscar for Brooks. The story that was put on the screen in the 1960 classic involved non-stop action and biting irony, along with a needed touch of humor to lighten the story's heavy impact. Lancaster's transitory existence is revealed in the first scene of the film, when he barely escapes with his life after being attacked by a group of hobos in the box car of a train on which he is riding. It is not long after that when Lancaster steps into a church and hears a sermon from the beautiful Sister Sharon Falconer, played by the woman who would soon become director Brooks' wife, Jean Simmons. His sights set on the comely brunette, Lancaster demonstrates his cunning wiles by using Patty Paige, who has a crush on him, to get better acquainted with Simmons. While Paige was clearly impressed as well as smitten with the fast talking Gantry, Dean Jaggers, Simmons' partner in the traveling evangelical enterprise, believes that the itinerant preacher's methods are disgusting. This is not the kind of Christianity which Jaggers, a more cerebral type than the earthy Gantry, seeks to promote. One of the pivotal dialogue lines of the film comes after Jagger openly expresses his disgust with Gantry. "You're better than the people," Lancaster explains. "I am the people!" After Gantry becomes a hit, drawing big crowds, he is brutally sideswiped by his past in the form of Shirley Jones, a prostitute and ex-girlfriend of the fast living preacher. He is set up by unsavory associates of Jones', after which a graphic account of his association with her appears in the local newspaper. Jones secured a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role. When Gantry is physically attacked during a tent service, local reporter Arthur Kennedy, the town agnostic, comes to his defense and throws punches at the preacher's antagonists. Kennedy is impressed by Gantry's air of bravado. Lancaster also likes Kennedy and the two men share whiskey, smoke cigars, and swap racy stories. The film ends on a tragic note with a tent fire and the ensuing death of Simmons. The fire sequence is compelling, reminiscent of such great fire scenes as those in two thirties' films, "Gone With The Wind" and "In Old Chicago." Elmer Gantry is one of the most fascinating figures ever to appear on screen. While his alcohol swilling, brothel visiting, risque story telling side reeks of hypocrisy, it is also plain to see that he believes in the salvation he preaches in the most emotional terms. At bottom, he is human and a possessor of human frailties, less than what he in sober moments realizes he ought to be, but willing to do what it takes to preach the message he feels compelled to deliver. At one point he blackmails one of the city's leading landlords, George F. Babbit, the primary character of the hugely successful novel by Lewis, "Babbit," to donate money to put Sistern Sharon and her group on radio after informing him that he knows he is renting out buildings to prostitution operators to carry out their trade.
Rating:
Summary: oscar oscar
Review: WHAT A MOVIE!BURT LANCHASTER GIVING THE PREFORMANCE OF HIS LIFE AS A TRAVELING PREACHER WHO HAPPENS TOO LIKE WOMEN AND BOOZE.HE HOOKS UP WITH JEAN SIMMONS,SISTER SHARON FALCONER,WHO ALREADY HAS HER OWN FOLLOWING AS A PREACHER AND THE SPARKS FLY.BURT LANCASTER WAS SO GOOD IN THIS ROLE THAT HE EARNED THE 1960 BEST ACTOR OSCAR FOR HIS WORK AS ELMER.JEAN SIMMONS SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED FOR HER RIVATING PREFORMANCE.THEN WE HAVE SOMEONE FROM ELMERS PAST WHO SHOWS UP HALFWAY THROUGH THE EPIC FILM TO THROW ELMER AGAINST THE CROSS.THAT SOMEONE IS SHIRLEY JONES OF OKLAHOMA AND CAROUSEL FAME WHO PLAYS LULU BAINES,A PROSTITUTE,WHO THREATENS TO RUIN GANTRY.OUR MISS SHIRLEY IS A KNOCKOUT IN THIS FILM AND SHE ALSO BROUGHT HOME THE BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS OSCAR FOR 1960.THE OSCAR REALLY SHOULD HAVE GONE TO JANET LEIGH IN PSYCHO THAT YEAR.WHO COULD EVER FORGET HER PORTRAYAL OF MARION CRANE,THE WOMAN WHO LIKES TO CLEAN OFF IN A SHOWER ONCE IN AWHILE.NEVER THE LESS,SHIRLEY SHINES IN THE ROLE AND DIRECTOR RICHARD BROOKS HITS A HOME RUN. SPEND A FEW HOURS WITH ELMER. YOU WILL BE GLAD YOU DID. A KNOCKOUT
Rating:
Summary: Jesus, the Quarterback
Review: When Burt won his Oscar my sister told me it was easy to play a part like Elmer Gantry. Maybe, but you've still got to be Burt Lancaster. What a delivery, what a presence, what a dynamo. And what subtlety he brought to this role, which pretty well matches his performance as J.J.Hunsecker, in Sweet Smell of Success. Jean Simmons is ok, Shirley Jones is frankly a little weak and I can't see her performance as Oscar-worthy. All the other actors give first-rate support. The script is highly intelligent and well-nuanced. The plot is excellent, the significance of the content is beautifully balanced. Of course, it's somewhat of its time, but none the worse for that: still gripping and entertaining throughout. The singing is a great aid. I can't think why Axmaker says Lancaster howls like a wolf --- wasn't he watching the film? Otherwise, the whole fascinating story is first-class fodder for full-time doubters, such as myself. Bigots, stay clear.
Rating:
Summary: A Story of Power and Truth
Review: While both the book and novel of Elmer Gantry are fictional and not meant to be docuemtaries (although it's obviously based on composites of the 1920s evangelists Aimee Semple and Billy Sunday), they both tell the powerful truth of, as the introductory title puts it, "those who abuse the faith of the people." Someone else mentioned here the scene where the preachers cynically plan to exploit the local yokels for their revival. I've been there folks, it's true, then and now most of the intelligent practioners of such things know that they're pulling a con job on the masses- so brothers and sisters, see this film along with Paul Robeson's "Body and Soul" and WAKE UP!
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