Elmer Gantry

ELMER GANTRY (PG)

D: Richard Brooks 

United Artists (Bernard Smith)

US 🇺🇸 1960

146 mins

Drama

W: Richard Brooks [based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis]

DP: John Alton

Ed: Marjorie Fowler

Mus: Andre Previn

Burt Lancaster (Elmer Gantry), Jean Simmons (Sister Sharon Falconer), Arthur Kennedy (Jim Lefferts), Dean Jagger (William L. Morgan), Shirley Jones (Lulu Bains), Patti Page (Sister Rachel)

Burt Lancaster won the Best Actor Oscar in 1961 for his performance in this 1960 drama where he plays the eponymous character, an eloquently charming con man with a chequered past who manipulates his way into the circle of Sister Sharon Falconer, an itinerant evangelist who he assists in the staging of her sermons, where they take advantage of unknowing religious folk upon their travels from town to town.

The main plot may be a little dated by modern sensibilities, but the focus on this film really should be on the performances and the characters they portray, as they really are quite multi-layered, complicated souls.

Lancaster is excellent in the titular role, but Jean Simmons really should have been nominated for an Oscar beside him, as the drama really cooks when the two are working alongside each other over the course of the running time.

Shirley Jones also received an Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress as a prostitute, once wronged by Gantry in the past and planning revenge on him, while Richard Brooks won a third award for the film by picking up the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

It was also considered amongst the best films of 1960, receiving a nomination for Best Picture, and while I would put it in the top 10 best films of the year, I really don’t think it should have been recognised over many classic films that didn’t quite make the cut at the Academy Awards (Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho being the main example).

Certainly worth a watch for the performances alone.

8/10