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Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, Dean Jagger, Arthur Kennedy, Shirley Jones ... see more see more... , Edward Andrews , Patti Page , John McIntire , Joe Maross , Everett Glass , Michael Whalen , Hugh Marlowe , Philip Ober , Wendell Holmes , Rex Ingram , Sally Fraser , Barry Kelley , Dayton Lummis , Milton Parsons , John Qualen , Max Showalter , Jean Willes

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 Simm... read more read more...ons). 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

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83% liked it

2,947 ratings

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96% liked it

28 critics

Unrated, 2 hr. 26 min.

Directed by: Richard Brooks I

Release Date: July 7, 1960

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DVD Release Date: March 6, 2001

Stats: 189 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (189)

  • FilmFanatik
    December 4, 2011
    FilmFanatik
    I find it very difficult to believe that Elmer Gantry made in to movie screens in 1960. It almost seems like a lynchpin or things to come in the decade. Religious satire mixed with the amazing performance of Burt Lancaster. Unbelievable. There's also a great performance from Jean... read more Simmons, as well as fantastic direction from Richard Brooks. There's also some great photography and location work on display to boot. Oh, and a fantastic script from beginning to end. A brilliant little film.
  • moonrivers
    September 7, 2011
    moonrivers
    Richard Brooks mesmeriising adaptation of Sinclair Lewis's book (--- what's killing Christianity is not unbelievers on the outside but rather the phony piety of those professing belief---) is chock full of noteworthy performances and riveting scenes as a silky smooth talking con ... read moreman joins a Christian tent revivalist across America's Bible Belt. The film actually begins with a printed warning to keep youngsters away ... nuff said.
  • ajv2688
    November 22, 2010
    ajv2688
    This movie has a good story and actors, I didn't get to see the end, though, so I should watch this movie again.
  • bottcorecords1
    April 3, 2009
    bottcorecords1
    Burt Lancaster stars in the title role as a charmingly loud and lascivious travelling home appliance salesman who enjoys preaching the word of the Lord as a hobby. When he attends a revivalist tent meeting led by Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons), he cons his way into the fol... read mored and begins to deliver his own fire-and-brimstone sermonizing to the followers. Sister Sharon sees Gantry for exactly what he is, but is convinced he has been sent by God to do his work for her. Or perhaps it's just that she finds him so irresistably charming. It is suggested in the movie that Sister Sharon convinces Gantry to give up his booze and women and lead a clean lifestyle. It's also suggested Gantry is a true believer in the Lord, a little rough around the edges, perhaps, but one of God's flock nonetheless. In this respect, the movie hardly condemns the narrow-mindedness of the fundamentalist, but it does present a side and allows the audience to form it's own opinions. Gantry shows us the birth of tentshow revivalism, the prohibition-era "one nation under God" narrow-mindedness of the day. Elmer openly mocks the Theory of Evolution (just like everyone else did at the time) and accuses those who write negative press about his church of being "atheists". It's not class warfare Gantry wages from the pulpit, but intellectual warfare. He frequently makes reference to the fact that he, like his followers is simple and uneducated (placing this as if it were a virtue) and mocking those who speak "big words" and attend Yale and Harvard. It's a cheap tactic in any time period (sorry Sarah Palin), and is probably the most telling tactic exposed in the movie. This could be the Jim and Tammy Faye Baker story. While the performances are good, at two and a half hours, the movie drags, and it drags at the point (threats of blackmail and infidelity) where it's should generate the most intensity. Add to that a tacked-on dramatic ending, and you have a pretty disappointing film.
  • tsigur
    November 25, 2007
    tsigur
    Probably one of the best screenplays ever written. Lancaster makes me want to be a better man.
  • hypathio7
    September 17, 2007
    hypathio7
    Religious satire, I love it! Gantry has an image to uphold for his flock, he has the skills to be a dynamic preacher, but how long can he keep fooling the flock because he's really a conartist.
  • fb1468220308
    April 5, 2009
    fb1468220308
    Considered a minor classic in most circles Elmer Gantry is a strange little bit of blasphemy in that it isn't really that blasphemous. It tells the story of Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster), a drunk drifter/salesman in the early 1900s. In his youth Elmer studied to become a preacher... read more, but was expelled when he gave into some of his own...animalistic instincts. One day he drifts into the Revival tent of Sister Sharon (Jean Simmons), and he attempts to join up with the group posing as a preacher himself. The setup seems like a begining for vicious satire, yet the film lacks the teeth to take any stance on the plot points. Character motivations/actions are sometimes non-sensical, perhaps a product of the cencorship codes of the era, but all of the performances are strong and the film is filled with nicely composed and crisply shot scenes.
  • DocHalister
    October 3, 2011
    DocHalister
    An absolute tour d' force for Burt Lancaster. His best role ever, and I can't imagine another actor in his stead. Great direction by Brooks, and a great story (based on an American classic--Nobel prize winner Sinclair Lewis's novel by the same name). Burt didn't win the Oscar ... read morefor this, but Shirley Jones won for Supporting Actress. She shouldn't have. Yes I LOVE her in The Music Man but the only reason she wins this is because she plays "against type" (a floozie) and Academy voters are suckers for that. This film should be standard fare in American Studies courses. It focuses on personalities and plot, not on belief-bashing, so a reviewer notes the more anti-religious aspects of the novel are toned down, but I don't disapprove. Entertainment wins out over "scoring points" this time.
  • codyfranklin2
    December 3, 2007
    codyfranklin2
    I would find Jesus if Burt told me to.
  • jjb3332003
    January 29, 2011
    jjb3332003
    An interesting look at the revivalist movement; in some ways a film ahead of it's time and still applicable today, but ultimately falls into the 60's overdramatic trap.

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Critic Reviews

Variety Staff
April 8, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

Brooks honors the spirit of Lewis' cynical commentary on circus-type primitive exhortation with pictorial imagery that is always pungent. He also has written dialog that is frank and biting. Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum
April 8, 2008
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

Brooks was the ultimate vulgarizer of serious literature. Full Review

A.H. Weiler
May 20, 2003
A.H. Weiler, New York Times

The briskly paced drama of a religious opportunist, his colleagues and his times utilizes the tools of the motion picture in expert fashion. Full Review

Wesley Lovell
August 15, 2011
Wesley Lovell, Oscar Guy

If not for the amazing performance of Burt Lancaster, the film would collapse under its own self-righteousness. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
July 4, 2011
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Greatly enhanced by the spirited Oscar performance by Burt Lancaster. Full Review

Dan Jardine
August 6, 2010
Dan Jardine, Slant Magazine

The film pulls few punches in its story of the hypocrisy, materialism, and opportunism at the heart of the evangelical world of Bible-thumping barnstorming revival troupes Full Review

April 8, 2008
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Lancaster pulls out all the stops in one of his most memorable roles as the lustful, ambitious charlatan of Sinclair Lewis's powerful novel. Full Review

Kim Newman
April 8, 2008
Kim Newman, Empire Magazine

This gets progressively nastier and winds up with an impressive hellfire finish. Full Review

Emanuel Levy
November 6, 2007
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

Burt Lancaster gives one of his most memorable and zestiest performances as the lustful, charismatic evangelist charlatan in Richard Brooks' loose adaptation of Sinclair Lewis 1927 powerful novel. Full Review

Geoff Andrew
January 26, 2006
Geoff Andrew, Time Out

With a host of fine performances, and a strong sense of period and place conveyed by John Alton's lush camerawork, there's still plenty to enjoy. Full Review

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    • Elmer Gantry: Well, as long as I got a foot, I'll kick booze. And as long as I got a fist, I'll punch it. And as long as I got a tooth, I'll bite it.
    • Elmer Gantry: And when I'm old and gray and toothless and bootless, I'll gum it till I go to heaven and booze goes to hell.
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Elmer Gantry Trivia

  • Who starred in all three of the following films; 'Judgement At Nuremberg', 'Elmer Gantry' and 'Brute Force'?  Answer »
  • TV audiences know Shirley Jones for her role as Mrs. Partridge on "The Partridge Family." However, she is also an Oscar-winning film actress, having won the Best Supporting Actress award in 1961 for her portrayal of a prostitute in this film:  Answer »
  • Who was Elmer Gantry?  Answer »
  • Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster) and Sister Sharon (Jean Simmons) are evangelists, and they set out to preach religion to America. He is an ambitious fake. Shirley Jones is Lulu, the "fallen woman" from Gantry's past who complicates his plans. Name this Oscar-winning 1960 movie.  Answer »
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