Rent Elmer Gantry (1960)

Period Melodrama. - Elmer Gantry review by Steve

Exuberant and intelligent drama set in the midwest in the '20s about an itinerant troupe of revivalists working the rural towns of the bible belt, passing the hat around the poor farming families of the depression. After being joined by travelling salesman Elmer Gantry, they try to take on the challenge of adapting to the new markets in the cities.

 This is the role Burt Lancaster was born to play, as the charismatic preacher: big hearted, generous, forgiving and full of sin. And he delivers a huge, boisterous performance. It is an actors' film, with Jean Simmons also memorable as the star of the show, Sister Sharon, and Shirley Jones dazzling as the sex worker from Gantry's past.

Sinclair Lewis' 1927 novel draws on Sister Aimee Semple McPherson's real life showbiz evangelism. It is a curiously American phenomenon which fuses capitalism and protestantism. The film critiques a broad range of themes around the subject of evangelistic faith, much of it editorialised through Arthur Kennedy's atheistic news journalist. It is cynical of revivalism's provenance and ethics.

The story has a valid point to make about the preachers' exploitation of their followers, but this is by no means a dissertation. The threadbare locations, the impoverished times, the showmanship and the personalities are vividly brought to life. It is a colourful, sumptuous production which is carried by the magnetism of Lancaster's Oscar winning performance.