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Elmer Gantry Overview:

Elmer Gantry (1960) was a Drama - Film directed by Richard Brooks and produced by Bernard Smith.

The film was based on the novel of the same name written by Sinclair Lewis published in 1927.

SYNOPSIS

Fine adaptation of Sinclair Lewis's 1927 novel about a charismatic ex-football player who becomes an evangelist, plagiarizing speeches to promote himself above all else as he successfully exploits the folks of America's Corn Belt during the '20s.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

Academy Awards 1960 --- Ceremony Number 33 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best ActorBurt LancasterWon
Best Supporting ActressShirley JonesWon
Best Music - ScoringAndre PrevinNominated
Best PictureBernard Smith, ProducerNominated
Best WritingRichard BrooksWon
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Elmer Gantry BlogHub Articles:

SUMMER UNDER THE STARS BLOGATHON: Shirley Jones in ELMER GANTRY (1960)

By Lara on Aug 28, 2013 From Backlots

Today’s star of the day on TCM is the ever-popular Shirley Jones, a talented and versatile performer who made a name for herself in movie musicals and ultimately went on to steal America’s heart as Mrs. Partridge on the 1970′s television series “The Partridge Family.” A... Read full article

Entre Deus e o Pecado (1960) / Elmer Gantry (1960)

By Lê on Nov 30, -0001 From Critica Retro

Entre Deus e o Pecado (1960) / Elmer Gantry (1960) Quando um filme garante um Oscar a um ator, nós cinéfilos rapidamente ficamos interessados neste filme. Quando o ator que ganhou o Oscar tem uma carreira tão prolífica e interessante quanto a de Burt Lancaster, só podemos imaginar que sua... Read full article

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Elmer Gantry Quotes:

Elmer Gantry: I have here in my pocket - and thank heaven you can't see them - lewd, dirty, obscene, and I'm ashamed to say this: French postcards. They were sold to me in front of your own innocent high school by a man with a black beard... a foreigner.
Jim Lefferts: You look like a man who could use a drink.
Elmer Gantry: You know somethin', Jim? There oughta be a law against drinkin'.
Jim Lefferts: There is. Prohibition.
Elmer Gantry: That's against sellin', not drinkin'.
Jim Lefferts: Amen.
George Babbitt: Besides, I'm for a free press, for free enterprise... and for whatever the hell the other freedoms are!
Elmer Gantry: I was accosted by three painted women. Your streets are made unsafe by shameless, diseased hussies, rapacious pick-pockets, and insidious opium-smokers.
Elmer Gantry: [repeated] Love is the morning and the evening star.
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Elmer Gantry Facts
After this film was released, Burt Lancaster got a letter from a boyhood friend he had not heard from in years. The friend wrote him that Lancaster's part in this film was the closest to the way Lancaster acted in real life when they were kids.
200 stunt people and 1200 extras were used for the fire scenes.
Among the writers Gantry condemns in one of his sermons is Sinclair Lewis, the author of the book the film is based on.
Pat Hingle landed the title role, but before filming began, he became caught in a stalled elevator in his apartment building. He lost his balance while trying to crawl out and fell 54 feet down the shaft. He sustained massive injuries, including a fractured skull, wrist, hip and leg, and several broken ribs. He also lost his little finger on his left hand. Hingle spent much of the next year relearning how to walk and was forced to give up the part in order to recover from his horrific injuries.
For the film's debut on US network television, the subplot featuring Shirley Jones in her Oscar-winning role as a prostitute was largely excised. This was because Jones was then the star of the hugely successful and very wholesome The Partridge Family.
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