For several sessions of congress he had backed a bill for a federal censorship of all fiction, plays, and moving pictures, with a penitentiary sentence for any author mentioning adultery even by implication, ridiculing prohibition, or making light of any Christian sect or minister. She is also an insane perversion of the sanctity of the elect, for she declares to Elmer, I cant sin! For all his wisdom, he speaks in platitudes, although Lewis does give him one searing moment of insight. Except in some of its sexuality (there are a couple cringe-making lines), however, the film doesnt feel outdated today. They were intended to feed the American dream, but instead fashioned the nightmareout of books! Elmer himself had owned two volumes of Conan Doyle, one of E. P. Roe, and a priceless copy of Only a Boy. His literary inspirations were McGuffeys Readers, Nick Carter, Bible stories, and such stock characters as Little Lame Tom who shamed the wicked rich man that owned the handsome team of grays and the pot hat and led him to Jesus. In Elmer Gantry, the object of Lewiss satire is not only Elmer himselfwho after the tabernacle fire rescued at least thirty people who had already rescued themselves .but the entire clerical profession and the fundamentalist Protestant dogmas they represent. The impact of religion on Elmer Gantry symbolizes what it has done to the American spirit. After two years as a traveling salesman, Gantry attends a revival meeting and is immediately bewitched by the evangelist Sharon Falconer. Equity is one part of a broader vision for the Hiawatha network of schools. He is a worldly man and gives Elmer some shrewd advice about how to build up the church. On publication in 1927, Elmer Gantry created a public furor. Where she is quiet and gentle with her manner of preaching, he is all fire and brimstone, literally throwing himself about the audience and inflaming them into repentance. Of course, turmoil closes in on them as their inherent instincts of love overpower their adherence to the Christian principles they attempt to profess. Lulu becomes devoted to Elmer but he gets bored with her. She has created an enchanted image of herself, and she has convinced her audience of that image, so that they see her as she wants to be seen, and only we, given glimpses of another self when she reveals herself to Elmer, come to know how complete and insane is her transformation. Im a very ignorant young woman with a lot of misdirected energy and some tiny idealism, she explains to Elmer. He manipulates his way into Sister Sharon Falconer (played brilliantly by the late Jean Simmons who should have won an Oscar for her performance in this role). Jean Simmons appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Drumhead (1991) as Rear Admiral Norah Satie. All those who profess to be religious in the novel are shown as hypocrites or morons; the best we can expect, apparently, is a nominal profession of belief for the sake of convenience: the good shepherd is the one who sees that his lambs are fed with material food, not stale spiritual claptrap. Consider the character of Jim Lefferts, as revealed in the first three chapters. You're all sinners. Still the supporting cast is brilliant as well. 3945; originally published in New York Herald Tribune Books, March 13, 1927. Elmer Gantry because Joness Lulu is a silly, air-spun girl. You're all doomed to perdition. Don Pickens is Frank Shallards roommate at Mizpah Theological Seminary. Box sets galore! But Elmer does have a program in Napap, which he hopes will make him something of a moral dictator. 2007 eNotes.com T. J. Rigg is a famous criminal lawyer and a trustee of Wellspring Methodist Church in Zenith. Elmer Gantry, like all of Lewiss big novels, is part of one program. Elmer Gantry - Rotten Tomatoes Awards He is drawn back to preaching when he falls in love with Sharon Falconer, and he hones his publicity and fundraising skills with her for several years until her death. Elmer Gantry is not, however, a movie about making good choices. Burt Lancaster as Elmer Gantry, lit in stark noirish style by cinematographer John Alton. At their next revival, the tent catches fire and kills a hundred people, including Sharon, but Gantry climbs over trapped women and escapes. The public has the power to end the careers of Falconer and Gantry; however, Gantry and Falconer sell the revivals, and eventually Falconers church, in a way that pleases the public. "Elmer Gantry Eddie Fislinger is a student at Terwillinger College and the president of the Y.M.C.A. It has provided much of his and Americas taste in architecture, clothing, music, literature, philosophy; it has provided everything but any longing whatever for decency and kindness and reason.. This has been the hottest school board race Ive seen in 25 years of living in Minneapolis, with lots of conspiracy theories and pearl-clutching. Given, too, that the film's production was 1960, we can say that "Elmer Gantry" does not reflect the current, 21st century, state of religious fundamentalism in America. Sharon is a woman of many selves: she is imperious and efficient, but also vulnerable. Some day he would be a bishop, yes, but even that was nothing compared with the fact that he had won a victory over his lower nature. He kneels in prayer, but in that instant he sees Cleo and at once thinks of seducing her. Within the sphere of a traveling troupe of bible beating, evangelicals on a religious crusade, the author's hero, one Elmer Gantry (supurbly played by Oscar wining Burt Lancaster) is as energetic as his tales. More information about the Trylons Lancastic! His dissatisfaction with his life, as well as his drinking, lying, and philandering give the audience a portrait of an unsavory man. The college president declares that he is a born preacher, and everyone urges him to become a minister. During the opening service, with a crowd of more than four thousand, fire breaks out. Elmer is, obviously enough, an example of the latter. After Sharon dismisses him in favor of Elmer, Cecil tries to conduct a rescue mission in Buffalo. Elmer Gantry begins in 1902. The film isn't just about rural religion in the 1920s, or how media is exploited, or how sometimes clever hucksters can outwit themselves. But in the house of Elmers mistress, Lulu Bains, they sing and read Seeing Nelly Home, Old Black Joe, Beulah Land, Farm and Fireside, and Modern Priscilla. Mark Schorer, in his biography of Lewis, records a remark that Lewis made to his friend Richards Brooks in 1946. She is also a pious churchgoer who has always wanted Elmer to become a preacher. But the arts and the sentiments and the sentimentalitiesthey were for Elmer perpetually associated only with the church. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. publication in traditional print. WebThere is a bit of a rough edit in the middle, because the scene is actually over 8 minutes long, and I needed to get it down to under 5 minutes. WebElmer Gantry. Lewis indicates the shaping of minds and values in such a village as Elmers: The church and Sunday School at Elmers village, Paris, Kansas, a settlement of nine hundred evangelical Germans and Vermonters had been the center of all his emotions, aside from hell-raising, hunger, sleepiness, and love. They had a son, Michael, in 1930, the same year that Lewis became the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Though it makes its position on for-profit religious functions clear from the very beginning of the film, it attempts its critique in a fair manner. On his return, Elmer meets J. He is a born salesman well versed with the bible. Gaining and keeping followers is the key to the success of any religion, and religious leaders must recognize this and figuratively, though sometimes literally, sell the religion. Lewiss version of what passed for religion in the United States of the 1920s brought him threats against his life and gave his name the same rhetorical function in Protestant fundamentalist sermons as that of Clarence Darrow, Darwin, and the devil himself. The clash between fundamentalists and liberals comes to a dramatic and violent climax in the final incident involving Shallard. He had learned to assemble Jewish texts, Greek philosophy, and Middle-Western evangelistic anecdotes into a sermon. Franks mentor has been Father Pengilly, a fanciful figure whom we have already discussed. Elmer Gantry On a rainy, cool day Ha Tien is a warm and welcoming site. The Faithful Dog who saved his master during a terrific conflagration . (Later Elmer runs from a conflagration, saving no one but himself. But the honest man who dares to live according to his convictions, and to speak about them in public, has no place in a superstitious society; when he gives an antifundamentalist lecture, Frank is beaten and blinded. Elmer pulls the burning jacket off her, and beats There, Gantry befriends the Methodist bishop and is appointed pastor of a church in Banjo Crossing. Go out slowly! He has a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago who espouses a very liberal theology. Lewis, C.S. I once dated (briefly) a guy who sold steel. His widowed mother was owned by the church, we are told, and the fact that the boy was fatherless is less important than that the church could not provide Elmer with principles. If "Elmer Gantry" worked better than most was largely due to Brooks ability to tell a rattling good yarn at a cracking pace and to the performances of a superb cast. (205) 348-6010 And yet Lewiss attitude to his character is a little more complex than this long list of his faults might suggest. User Ratings While there are multiple factors for this, a significant part of this increase is due to the incarceration of formerly released individuals [], On the afternoon of Saturday, June 30, Minneapolis was one of 600 cities and towns across the country to come alive with thousands of people vigorously and collectively denouncing the U.S. governments federal immigration policies as part of the Families Belong Together nationwide march. Liking the idea of having power over an audience, Elmer convinces himself he has been called to the ministry. Elmer wants to marry her but she says she is too old for marriage (she is thirty-two, three or four years older than Elmer) and she must also remain free to devote herself to her missionary work. North, who is in charge of the National Association for the Purification of Art and the Press, known as Napap. Binch is also a snob who has contempt for other preachers. He was supposed to bring peace to mankind. With Jim (who is more skeptical and quick-witted than Gantry) home sick in bed, Gantry attends the meeting with his mother and is converted. He is one haunted by his checkered past and his immorality. Like a priestess she takes him to the chapel, a shrine with hangings, a crucifix, statues of the Virgin, and heathen idols, including a naked Venus. Did he approve earthly monarchies or rebel against them? Contact UA. As in Babbitt and Arrowsmith, we are made aware that there are sinister forces combining to strike at the very foundations of American liberties. Elmer Gantry WebToday universally recognized as a landmark in American literature, Elmer Gantry scandalized readers when it was first published, causing Sinclair Lewis to be "invited" to a jail cell in New Hampshire and to his own lynching in Virginia. Fire is mentioned throughout the film, and cinematographer John Alton sets the mood by casting dark red and brown shadows. But though this satire is perhaps the best part of the book, revivalism is not the only target. Lewis preferred the liberal Birkhead to the conservative Stidger, and on his second visit to Kansas City, Lewis chose Birkhead as his guide. WebIn 1960, Elmer Gantry, based on the best-selling 1927 novel by Sinclair Lewis, was brought to the screen by writer/director Richard Brooks. Elmer works diligently and is rewarded at the Methodists Annual Conference by being sent to a bigger church, at Rudd Center. , Sinclair Lewis: An American Life, McGraw Hill, 1961, pp. Pursuing a career as a freelance writer, Lewis began to produce fiction with ease and ingenuity, and he published five novels from 1912 to 1919. He charms the congregation and quickly becomes part of the community. (Courtesy of Degebo, Berlin, Germany.) He joins the staff of a metaphysical cult but is fired when he is caught stealing from the collection plate. Kraus used []. It's a first rate film! WebDaily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state and national news along with advertising. Here, they are the sinister forces of righteousness. The public has the power to end the careers of Falconer "Elmer Gantry" is an amazing film that does not seem dated at all, having lost none of its bite or appeal with the passing of time. Bess Needham marries Frank Shallard and bears him three children. Elmer is soon preaching to crowds larger than almost all the churches in Zenith. Protestant fundamentalism was in part a reaction in the early twentieth century to the development of the higher criticism in Biblical scholarship. WebHollywood legend Burt Lancaster nabbed a Best Actor Oscar as glad-handing, soul-redeeming charlatan Elmer Gantry, a huckster who spins his talent for preaching into a mtier behind the pulpit. WebWhen hedonistic but charming con man Elmer Gantry meets the beautiful Sister Sharon Falconer, a roadside revivalist, he feigns piousness to join her act as a passionate preacher. For the most part they are hypocrites, not even believing the doctrines they preach to their congregations every week. He also thinks that Baptist leaders are word-splitting, text-twisting, applause-hungry, job-hunting, medieval-minded second-raters . Horace Carp hates the Baptists and wants to switch to the more upscale Episcopalians as soon as possible because this will give him a better social position in which he will be able to marry a nice rich girl. Brother Karkis only wants his divinity degree so he can get a better paying job. Elmer Gantry is a picaresque novel. Lewiss reputation as a satirist of American life continued to develop in the 1920s with the novels Babbitt (1922), Arrowsmith (1925), Elmer Gantry (1927), and Dodsworth (1929). He returns to it in the context of Sharons revival meetings. In it he established ties with Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith. Elmer is so infatuated with Sharon that he gives up smoking and drinking for her. PG. WebIn the 1920s, Elmer Gantry entertains a group of fellow salesmen in a speakeasy with his ribald jokes and easy charm. It is easy to see why Burt Lancaster won an oscar for his excellent portrayal of Elmer Gantry. Buy, Sell, and Trade your Firearms and Gear. In this scene at the end of the In the following essay excerpt, Lundquist suggests that Lewis portrays religion as stifling, as a manifestation of the pioneer mentality that characterized the old American and has become a threat to the new American. After exposing the professors secret, Gantry receives an anonymous gift of thirty dimes, which he uses to buy photographs of strippers. As the good Sister employs him as a Bible-spouting person to expand the God Will and along the way he gets considerable success . Mrs. Evans Riddle is the proprietor of the Victory Thought Power Headquarters in New York. , Sinclair Lewis and the Method of Half-Truths, in Society and Self in the Novel, Columbia University Press, 1956, pp. In The Master, Joaquin Phoenix plays an alcoholic failure who falls in thrall to cult leader Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman). 1961 This is tantamount to an admission that the church is happy to receive money that is tainted by the very practices it denounces so vehemently. One such character is the dean of Terwillinger College, who makes a brief appearance in chapter 4, section 3, in which he wonders, in conversation with his wife, whether he has sacrificed too much by going into the ministry. Cleo Benham is the high-minded daughter of Nathaniel Benham. Gantry uses his own quick wit and Bible knowledge to become an indispensable part of Sister Sharon's roadshow, but his past soon catches up with him in the form of Lulu Bains, now a prostitute. Bill Morgan sees thru Elmer and tells Sharon that in 1917 he was expelled from the seminary for seducing the deacon's daughter. But the only good ministers of the Gospel seem to be those who, like Dr. Bruno Zechlin, the Old Testament scholar at Mizpah, have given up their religious beliefs. Bishop Wesley R. Toomis is a bishop in the Methodist Church who has a great reputation as an orator and thinker. Their satisfaction comes from functioning healthily, from physical and mental exercise, whether it be playing tennis or tackling an astronomical problem. While this notion of religious rites on the tennis court is rather curious, Lewis seems nevertheless to acknowledge a religious impulse, even if he would eliminate God and organized churches. Elmer Gantry (film Shortly after the publication of Elmer Gantry, H. G. Wells published a widely syndicated newspaper article called "The New American People", in which he largely based his observations of American culture on Lewis' novels. REL 360: Popular Culture/Public Humanities, Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ, Humans and Nazis: Reevaluating the Conversation of. So, I'll give him the credit and assume he was just playing his role, not hamming it up too much as it often appears. Then from 1918 to 1920 he is in Sparta, where the population is 129,000. Shirley Jones won Best Supporting Actress for her role as the preachers daughter turned prostitute. Elmer joins the Methodists and is sent to the small town of Banjo Crossing, where he falls in love with Cleo Benham, the daughter of a church trustee.
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