Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

SnoopyStyle It's the prohibition era. Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster) is a slick traveling salesman who is a boozer and a dog hound. He is a born salesman well versed with the bible. He is so good that it is hard to tell the difference whether he's sincere or lying. He is one haunted by his checkered past and his immorality. He is taken with Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons) who runs revival meetings. She's a true believer. He badgers her until she allows him to preach. He becomes so successful that he becomes indispensable to Sister Sharon's roadshow. Bill Morgan sees thru Elmer and tells Sharon that in 1917 he was expelled from the seminary for seducing the deacon's daughter. She ignores the warning and they become a great success in the big city. Then his past comes back to haunt him in the form of Lulu Bains (Shirley Jones) who is now a prostitute.Burt Lancaster gives such a big performance. It is so big that it always has a tinge of falsehood. His laugh is so outrageous that it plays both sides of the divide. It's this big performance that is so memorable. Jean Simmons is the perfect compliment. She is the embodiment of purity of spirit. Burt definitely deserves his Oscar win. I can see some people taking offense from the depiction of religious revival. However I see a great role model in Sister Sharon. It's also a tale of salvation for Elmer Gantry.

tieman64 Burt Lancaster acted in a number of excellent films during the late 1950s and early 1960s. "Elmer Gantry", directed by Richard Brooks, is one of his best.Set in the early 1920s, the film stars Lancaster as Elmer Gantry, a fast talking charlatan and con man who uses his seductive tongue to weasel his way into the church of Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons), a Christian fundamentalist and female evangelist. Together the duo travel from town to town, setting up massive revival tents and seducing thousands upon thousands of believers.At its best, "Elmer Gantry" draws parallels between the words of business, entertainment and organised religion. In Brooks' hands, the church's foot-soldiers are more hucksters and crafty salesmen than men and women of God. They're selling a product, tailoring their pitches and pep talks to the wants and needs of the people, and even actively manufacturing desires, phobias and neuroses. Lancaster's character is himself a creepy sales machine who always knows exactly which screws to turn. His product? Himself. Ego-maniacal and craving attention, Gantry will do anything to be at the head of a pulpit.Burt Lancaster has often been accused of overacting. His character in "Elmer Gantry" is admittedly bombastic and exuberant, but fittingly so. Like an advertising executive on caffene, Gantry is a man of wild gestures and big promises, though there is subtlety and truth in the way Lancaster sculpts Gantry's smiles and the edges of Gantry's eyes. Gantry's facial features are hard, forced and false, all an act designed to seduce. Think of him as a precursor to Paul Thomas Anderson's Daniel Plainview (based on a 1927 Upton Sinclair novel)."Elmer Gantry" was itself based on less than 100 pages from an ahead-of-its-time novel by Sinclair Lewis (released in 1926). But where Lewis is satirical, edgy, angry, funny and resolutely anti-Christian, Brooks' film is kinder, gentler, ambiguous and scared of offending Christian audiences. Is Brooks' Gantry a believer? It seems so, despite his motivations. Do miracles happen within the film, thereby proving the existence of Christ? Again, it seems so, though the film is ambiguous enough to also suggest the exact opposite. Lewis' stance may have been too militant, even for the supposedly "progressive" 1960s; just another example of how timid cinema can be.Still, as a watered-down critique of fundamentalism, and even religion in a broader sense, the film works well. It's most sympathetic character is an atheist journalist, played by the great, underrated Arthur Kennedy. Kennedy's character sees through everyone's shams, but empathises with them nevertheless. A key scene involves him writing a newspaper article which shocks readers. Gantry and Falconer are hucksters and racketeers, he writes, selling superficialities in a world in which well-meaning intentions, religion and social goods offer no resistance to vices or social evil. Kennedy's readers support him, until the fast talking Elmer Gantry once again shifts popular opinion. Rather than change people, religion tends to force man to compartmentalise, repress or engage in wanton denial.The film missteps in its final act, with a fire-and-brimstone climax and an ending which is arguably too sympathetic toward Gantry. Better to portray him as a snake. A wolf in sheep's clothing. Brooks, though, has Gantry redeemed. He's just another soldier answering God's call. The film's best scene? Gantry stepping into an African American church and singing "I'm On My Way To Canaan's Land". The sequence is brilliant, Gantry's words like a threat, his tongue like the tool of Satan.8.5/10 - Richard Brooks is not well known today, but he directed a number of very good films (think of him as another John Huston). "Elmer Gantry" is one of his best. Worth one viewing.

princebansal1982 Elmer Gantry had nothing new for me in terms of plot. So I was looking forward to good acting to tide me over. Burt Lancaster won an Oscar for his role in this film. But frankly his performance was a bit hammy at times. Certain scenes did require a hammy performance, especially when he was preaching but he did that a lot. Jean Simmons was a delight though. I am a big fan of Audrey Hepburn and she reminds me of her. So that maybe a big reason why I liked her. Another thing that I didn't like was the character Elmer Gantry. The audience is never given a clear picture of him. Is he just a conman or good guy ? Instead he is shown as something of a conman with heart of gold. He just switches between good and bad so fast that I was sometimes left puzzled.

campbell-russell-a The exchanges between Elmer Gantry as played by Burt Lancaster and Jim Lefferts played by Arthur Kennedy is the what brings me back to this film time and again. They are pitted as enemies yet they understand each other as no other character in the film can. With a wry smile, Kennedy displays a grudging respect for Elmer's ability to manipulate crowds and twist logic to suit his purpose. "Jim Lefferts is an honorable man. But so was Brutus. And we all know that Brutus was an anarchistic, alcoholic assassin!" How can you argue with someone who is prepared to use such outrageous tactics? But it is when Elmer uses Jim's innate honesty to trap him into admitting his agnosticism that turns black comedy into a dramatic poignancy. "Do you believe Jesus Christ can give us life everlasting?" asks Elmer. "I'd love to believe it," replies Jim. The depth Kennedy brings to this line is moving beyond words but Elmer, rather than being moved, presses his advantage to assert that Jim's "confessed bigotry" has led to his attack upon Sister Sharon bringing revivalism to the town of Zenith. After Elmer destroys Jim with his street-fighter use of indefensible insinuation and blackmail, he declares he bares Jim "no malice". His outrageousness is so blatant that there is nothing Jim can do but raise his glass to Elmer.There are many other memorable moments in the film but two stand out for me. Elmer when on a crusade against sin dramatically orders the chief of police to "break down that speakeasy door" to which the chief replies in a bemused tone "Just knock. They'll open up".The other is when Elmer goes on his way at the end of the film. Jim's respect is again tweaked as Elmer absolves the crowd who beg him to forgive them for having ran instead of standing by Sister Sharon as she and her church burnt the night before. "That was inspired, " claims Bill Morgan, the ardent believer. 'Jim boy, do believe it was inspired? " Elmer asks Lefferts. "I think it was real friendly," Jim replies. He admires Elmer's humanity and sensitivity towards others because it is not just for show. Ultimately, Jim is moved by Elmer's honesty. "You really do believe in the Lord, don't you." Jim says this to Elmer not as a question but as a gesture of good will towards his greatest adversary and confidante.Elmer is an honest hypocrite and Jim can't help but like him.