The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. As the film progresses, we learned of Elmer Gantry's past especially his own previous desire to be a minister/preacher. Can there ever have lived a clergyman with Elmers astonishing range of vices: his chronic insincerity, his hypocrisy, his lust, his overweening ambition, his cynicism, his appalling behavior to his family? Jones is too frothy, but when she appears halfway through, she adds bubbles to a long movie that was starting to go flat. TRIVIA: Six degrees of Star TrekThe six degrees of Star Trek holds that any movie connects to Star Trek within 6 steps. 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. But they could be healed constantly, and of the same disease.. Elmer Gantry - Wikipedia He befriends Frank Shallard. Some characters from Lewis even read Sinclair Lewis himself; the Reverend Philip McGarry asks his friend Frank Shallard to forget that you have to make a new world, bettern the Creators, right away tonightyou and Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells and H. L. Mencken and Sinclair Lewis (Lord, how that book of Lewis, Main Street, did bore me ).. He dealt with the connection between small-town provinciality and the religious proclivities of the time, the relationship between the gospel of Christianity and the gospel of business; and, because the novel was written out of the atmosphere surrounding the Scopes Monkey Trial, he dealt with the conflict between science and religion. However, Roberts doubts the truth of the doctrines he preaches so convincingly. User Ratings The affair threatens to destroy Gantry, but Rigg hires a detective to besmear Hettie, and she and her husband are forced to sign an affidavit declaring Gantrys innocence. WebIf he is not completely redeemed at the film's end, he indicates that his love for the ill-fated Sharon Falconer is real and not mere lust.The character of Sister Falconer, as played by Af Harry Sinclair Lewis, best known as Sinclair Lewis, was born on February 7, 1885, in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. It is the call! He follows her to her bedroom where he sees a couch high on carven ivory posts, covered with a mandarin coat; unlighted brass lamps in the likeness of mosques and pagodas; gilt papier-mch armor on the walls; a wide dressing-table with a score of cosmetics in odd Parisian bottles; tall candlesticks, the twisted and flowered candles lighted; and over everything a hint of incense. She gives him a robe for the service of the altar. Of course, turmoil closes in on them as their inherent instincts of love overpower their adherence to the Christian principles they attempt to profess. The character of Sharon Falconer was loosely based on events in the career of the Canadian-born American radio evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, who founded the Pentecostal Christian denomination known as the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in 1927. ", Movie Lacks Something, But a Stunning Lead Performance Isn't It. Even Gantry wouldnt have been such a bad fellow if hed been, say, a salesman. Only a very curious moral outlook could have permitted the creator of such a monster as Elmer Gantry to say that his characters lack of a sense of decency would not have been objectionable if he had changed his profession . In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. Elmer Gantry is a nuanced look at the world of evangelists and revivals. The Baptist influences to which Elmer is subjected in his youth, particularly at Terwillinger College and Mizpah Theological Seminary, are handled very roughly. Sign In He becomes the symbiotic antithesis to Sister Sharon: while he tells of heading toward the depths of hell for his many sins, she tells of being saved from that fate if repentance is forthcoming. Dooley, D. J., The Art of Sinclair Lewis, University of Nebraska Press, 1967, pp. He is friendly but self-important; everyone thinks he is popular, but in fact he has almost no friends. Excellent recounting based on the controversial Sinclair Lewis novel that got three Academy Awards . He is no Harry Zenz or Bruno Zechlin, who have both thought deeply about theology and have emerged as atheists. Philip McGarry, Ph.D. in economics and philosophy, is made to show that no educated person can believe in Christianity except in a very vague way: the only dogma he was known to give out positively was the leadership of Jesusas to whose divinity he was indefinite. The good pastor, the Reverend Andrew Pengilly, finds God in nature, feels religion rather than reasons about it, and doesnt give a hang for doctrinal differences. 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. Bishop Wesley R. Toomis is a bishop in the Methodist Church who has a great reputation as an orator and thinker. 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. Under pressure from Elmer, Shallard resigns. The last date is today's In 1905, after two years study, he is ordained. One of the first scenes with Sister Sharon Falconer involves her asking for donations from these people. Early in his preaching career he jilts a country girl who loves him and whom he has seduced. And even these emotions were represented in the House of the Lord, in the way of tacks in pew-cushions, Missionary Suppers with chicken pie and angels-food cake, soporific sermons, and the proximity of flexible little girls in thin muslin. Charles W. Ferguson, in the Bookman, described Elmer Gantry as a glorious lampoon, although he also commented that the novel was a social commentary and not a work of fictional art. The novel's protagonist, the Reverend Dr. Elmer Gantry, is initially attracted by booze and easy money (though he eventually renounces tobacco and alcohol) and chasing women. The result is as discouraging, as horrifying, as it would have been if Huck had been converted by Miss Watsons Bible stories. "Elmer Gantry Also, Neil Diamonds 1976 live performance of his song Brother Loves Travelling Salvation Show, here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brt4r_y1y4Q#t=68In a very Elmer Gantry moment, starting at 2:54, after singing the Lord gave us two good hands, brothers and sisters, one for the givin and one for the takin, Diamond stretches out his hand toward a young woman who places in it the key to what must be her hotel room. Before long, he marries Cleo Benham, the choir director, but finds her an unenthusiastic lover. He survived for a while by interpreting some of the Biblical stories as symbols that revealed the glory of God and the leadership of Christ. Elmer Gantry fails because it is neither a realistic portrayal of the state of religion in America nor a caricature whose manifest unfairness can be forgiven because of the wit and humor which have gone into it. George Babbitt, the namesake of one of Lewis' best-known novels, appears in Elmer Gantry very briefly during an encounter at the Zenith Athletic Club. For example, the division between Northern and Southern Baptists is explained in this way: [B]efore the Civil War the Northern Baptists proved by the Bible, unanswerably, that slavery was wrong; and the Southern Baptists proved by the Bible, irrefutably, that slavery was the will of God. Later in the novel, Frank Shallard realizes how threatened conservative clergymen are by scientific knowledge and how inadequate they are to preside over educational institutions. Co-stars Jean Simmons and Shirley Jones. Lewis researched the novel by observing the work of various preachers in Kansas City in his so-called "Sunday School" meetings on Wednesdays. Close Alert. The evangelist Sharon Falconer, although she is not attached to any particular church, is no exception to the anti-religion theme. gantry I am really and truly sanctified! End Russia is a European country. Webthe return nicholas sparks ending explained; Nach Altersklassen. The purpose of Napap is to make life conform to the ideals agreed upon by the principal Christian Protestant denominations. This would be accomplished by combining into one association all the moral organizations in Americathe Anti-Saloon League, the Lords Day Alliance, the Watch and Ward Society, and the Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Moralsand then lobbying for legislated morality. Its hero makes his way, with the help of native cunning and oratorical ability, through almost the whole domain of religion in the United States. She wore expensive clothes and jewelry and put on a spectacular show. 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. I kept asking him about steelwhat its made of, what its used foruntil one day he said in exasperation, I dont care about steel. As a preacher, he shamelessly plays on peoples emotions and their fear of Hell. He is not a deep thinker and does not really care whether the Baptist doctrines he preaches are true or false. New collections from David Bowie, Wilco, Joni Mitchell, Joe Strummer and more He starts to teach Prosperity classes on his own but cannot make a living from them. According to Brooks, He [Lewis] confessed that he really loved Elmer, the big bum, and hated only what he stood for; but half-way through the novel he had been carried away, and turned on his character and demolished him.. Taken from the classic Sinclair Lewis novel of the same name, director Richard Brooks garnered an Oscar for Best Screenplay for his adaptation, and Burt Lancaster won his sole Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Elmer Gantry. Ashley Daugherty is a senior majoring in Anthropology and Spanish. Elmer Gantry is not, however, a movie about making good choices. Is he successful? Yes, sir-ree, it might feel simplistic but at least it's fair and square. 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. Elmer Gantry WebElmer Gantry. Lewiss ingenuity was not exhausted on Elmer. Already a member? because Joness Lulu is a silly, air-spun girl. You're all sinners. BETHEL MERRIDAY - mail.freeread.com.au One famous evangelist was Gipsy Smith (18601947), an Englishman who made twenty-six trips to the United States. Higher criticism was a method of Biblical criticism that originated in Germany. | ), Elmers friend Jim Lefferts, a freethinker, has a somewhat wider list than Elmer: an encyclopedia, Pickwick, Swinburne, Ingersoll, and Paine. Lewis attacked it as no more than mass hysteria. I'm sure back in 1960, this film must have been pretty controversial, shocking and challenging in its portrayal of evangelistic religion as cynical, money-grabbing and being as much about show business as God. END Religion was a force in politics, yes, but a force capable of bringing down buildings? Reviews There are no She is a monstrous creation who seems to grow in size with each revelation of her craziness. Frank Shallard is a student at Mizpah Theological Seminary, but he doubts the literal truth of the Bible. you have to deal with a lot of these two-by-four hick preachers with churches about the size of woodsheds and getting maybe eleven hundred a year, and yet they think they have the right to make suggestions! Elmer Now in college, Gantry and his roommate, Jim Lefferts, spend much of their time drinking and chasing women, but their primary amusement comes from ridiculing their classmates incessant religious proselytizing. Horace Carp is a student at Mizpah Theological Seminary. Many of the people attending the revivals would then be working-class individuals. Elmer would probably not be able to answer this question. Elmer Gantry WebVoila! Oh, my dear people, my dear people, I am not going to preach tonightwe are all so weary of nagging sermons about being nice and good! "Elmer Gantry - Summary" Literary Essentials: Christian Fiction and Nonfiction Jim tries to persuade Elmer not to go along with it, but when Elmer attends the Annual Prayer Week he cannot resist the emotionalism of the service. His father was a physician. Mahlon Potts is the influential minister of the First Methodist Church in Zenith. During his Yale career Lewis also traveled widely, including a trip to England working on a cattle boat, and he also lived in the Utopian colony at Englewood, New Jersey, which was founded by the novelist Upton Sinclair. In creating the evangelist Sharon Falconer, the author presents himself with a bigger, although more complex, target. A Century of Burt Lancaster series: http://take-up.org/series/94, The Trylon Microcinema is located at 3258 Minnehaha Ave. S.Minneapolis, MN 55406424-5468, Trylon Discount cards$25 for 5 tickets, cards can be redeemed for 1 or 2 seats at a time (on the day of show). After North invites him to lecture for Napap, Elmer is filled with ambition to combine all the moral organizations in America, with himself as the leader. They have better chemistry between them than Simmons and Lancaster did, but Elmer Gantry is the grandaddy of them all. She engages in worthy activities at the church in Banjo Crossing, and falls in love with Elmer. As a character, Dr. Gantry lacks verisimilitude, and he lacks it more the longer he lives.. WebDownload scientific diagram | 7 Vibro compaction employing wooden gantry, 1939. It is the Morning and the Evening Star. And even if you saw the big sign outside, you probably wouldn't know that this is specifically an Ethiopian restaurant, and a very good one. Everything conspires to overwhelm him and break down his defenses; he does not really have a chance. Elmer reads Browning, Tennyson, Dickens. The new Wellspring Church has been built, and Elmer is awarded an honorary doctorate from Abernathy College. Was a member of the of the bogus Fleetwood Mac band, that the then manager Clifford Davis send on a US tour in 1974 when the real Fleetwood Mac rejected the tour. The film is beautifully visual and as Elmer Gantry's past comes haunting again to tarnish the tent revival and watch Gantry and Sister Sharon fall again. Lloyd Naylor, who is in love with Lulu, complains to Lulus father about Elmers amorous conduct towards her. A brooding look at revivalist religion in which the over-the-top acting of Burt Lancaster steals the show . ", Jesus was a simple virtuous teacher, . It is easy to see why Burt Lancaster won an oscar for his excellent portrayal of Elmer Gantry. The novel tells the story of a young, narcissistic, womanizing college athlete who abandons his early ambition to become a lawyer. Elizabeth Taylor, Best Actress winner for Butterfield 8. Elmer, like other Lewis protagonists, fears marriage. Gantrys conversion makes him the talk of the campus, and Jim soon moves out. He also notes that the more bizarre and irrational the experience, the more the evangelists value it, but he leaves the reader in no doubt about the contempt with which he views such phenomena: once occurred what connoisseurs regard as the highest example of religious inspiration. When Gantry is framed as a philanderer, both Falconer and Gantry endure the wrath of an angry public in Zenith, but are quickly restored to their pedestals upon a retraction. She is flirtatious, and able to get men to do her bidding. More information about the Trylons Lancastic! Here, they are the sinister forces of righteousness. , Sinclair Lewis and the Method of Half-Truths, in Society and Self in the Novel, Columbia University Press, 1956, pp. It is a pity that Lewis did not choose to develop more fully the few exceptions to the prevailing mendacity, including the lightly sketched figure of Reverend Andrew Pengilly. We're confident we succeeded and have no doubt you'll agree. Indeed, why doesnt he? The book was banned in Boston and other cities and denounced from pulpits across the United States. Later, Lewis will show Elmer no mercy, but at this stage his target is not so much the soon-to-be preacher but the social and psychological context in which he is formed. He is a well-educated Englishman in his early thirties with a colorful past. The Faithful Dog who saved his master during a terrific conflagration . (Later Elmer runs from a conflagration, saving no one but himself. It must have been for acting against type, coming off wholesome musical Oklahoma! Lewiss famed businessman character, George Babbitt, and pastors in the community discuss the merits of holding a revival in Zenith. The wife is full of complaints about the life she has had to lead, married to a preacher, criticized by the church women if they thought her clothes werent suitable, sick of having to pretend to be so good when we were just common folks all the time! Her tirade at her husband, who only wants to be allowed to go to sleep, includes the following passage: Oh, dear. Sit down and take in everything this film is offering, you won't be disappointed. Elmer Gantry is a picaresque novel. In a very Elmer Gantry moment, starting at 2:54, after singing the Lord gave us two good hands, brothers and sisters, one for the givin and one for the takin, I can kiss you like this Quickly she touches his cheek, Yes, or passionately, terribly passionately, and it would only symbolize my complete union with Jesus! Form in the novel, he contends, requires that there be an opposition between the individual and society; yet in this book there are no impediments to Elmers barbarous rise from country boob to influential preacher. Elmer Gantry is a loosely episodic chronicle, he continues, which suggests at once that there will be no sustained pressure of plot, no primary conflict about which all the action is organized and in which value will achieve a complex definition. At each of the three climaxes in the book, Lewis retreates into melodrama. The target of his earthly desires is Beautiful Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons) a sincere, but fallible woman out to build a ministry. He also raised large amounts of money at his meetings, and like Elmer Gantry, he was one of he first evangelists to spread his message through the new technology of radio. Drama. The impact of religion on Elmer Gantry symbolizes what it has done to the American spirit. After two more Elmer Gantry appears as a minor character in two later, lesser-known Lewis novels: The Man Who Knew Coolidge and Gideon Planish. The second date is today's Source: James Lundquist, Moralities for a New Time, in Sinclair Lewis, Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1973, pp. Burt Lancaster plays the eponymous anti-hero as rogue of such charm that you almost want him to succeed; while the ambiguous character of his partner Sister Falconer (Jean Simmons), who doesn't seem to know herself whether is she a fellow-fraud or a genuine messenger of God, makes a perfect dramatic foil. But though this satire is perhaps the best part of the book, revivalism is not the only target. After she admits to Elmer that she loves to dance, she says, Oh, of course I roast dancing in my sermons, but I meanwhen its with people like us, that understand, its not like with worldly people, where it would lead to evil. It is not hard to see how she and Elmer are a perfect match. 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. You could even argue that Gantry is performing a kind of public service, meeting a need with maximum opportunism but without malice. But shifting moods again, she can acknowledge that she is just an ignorant young woman with a lot of misdirected energyand even an evil one: Oh, I hate the little vicessmoking, swearing, scandal, drinking just enough to be silly. She brings a Native feminist lens to the contemporary dance world with her body of work, the latest of which is Weave, a collaborative dance project. The novel is absorbing, and I should like to say a few words about it. At the church, Elmer tries to seduce Lulu Bains, the daughter of one of the deacons, while Shallard warns him against even the appearance of evil.
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