You'll all burn in hell! Dr. Bruno Zechlin is Professor of Greek, Hebrew, and Old Testament Exegesis at Mizpah Theological Seminary. The film is a triumph for Lancaster and Kennedy and for all those who wish to visit a confusing period of Americanna, when the word of God was infected by preachers, pushers and spiritual leeches. "Elmer Gantry" United Artists Simon received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her performance as a runaway housewife in "The Happy Ending" (1969), After Sharon dismisses him in favor of Elmer, Cecil tries to conduct a rescue mission in Buffalo. If there was a soul to be saved - Gantry would save it. Elmer Gantry is a fast talking, hard drinking traveling salesman who always has a risqu story and a hip flask to entertain cronies and customers alike. because Joness Lulu is a silly, air-spun girl. In this essay, Aubrey discusses how Lewiss characterization in Elmer Gantry serves his satiric purpose. Awards On his return, Elmer meets J. A hundred and eleven people died that night, including all the gospel-crew save Elmer.. The film's slant may be predictable, and it also suffers from some common flaws of its era (an ugly, intrusive Andre Previn score, and occasionally wooden acting); but it's hugely entertaining nonetheless. But Elmer does have a program in Napap, which he hopes will make him something of a moral dictator. She ignores the warning and they become a great success in the big city. . It is the hour! We're confident we succeeded and have no doubt you'll agree. Elmers lawyer outwits Hetties lawyer, and she is forced to withdraw the charges she made against him and state that she was part of a plot by the liquor interests to ensnare him. As a preacher, he shamelessly plays on peoples emotions and their fear of Hell. It applied the methods of historical and literary analysis in order to determine the authorship, date and place of composition of the books of the Bible. He is influenced by the atheistic Dr. Zechlin who lends him theological works by liberals and skeptics. Elmer moves in ever-higher social circles and goes on a three-month speaking tour aimed at the youth of America. For all his wisdom, he speaks in platitudes, although Lewis does give him one searing moment of insight. 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. The Lancastic! Elmer Gantry is a picaresque novel. Bess Needham marries Frank Shallard and bears him three children. He is soon invited to preach at one of her meetings. An example is the bizarre marriage ceremony which takes place between Elmer and evangelist Sharon Falconer before her grotesque shrine. Elmer is soon preaching to crowds larger than almost all the churches in Zenith. In this scene at the end of the Many of my neighbors and friends see the furious posts on Facebook, with all the hysterical warnings about the imminent destruction of public education as we know it, and are honestly confused. Elmer is, obviously enough, an example of the latter. However as the pressure builds to tear him down, can Gantry prevent his past from returning to haunt him? During his career, Gantry contributes to the downfall, physical injury, and even death of key people around him, including a sincere minister, Frank Shallard, who is plagued by doubt. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." -- Albert Schweitzer So scandalous was Lewiss portrayal of religion that the novel was banned in several cities and denounced from Sharon is supposed to be a firebrand, based on evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, part Houdini, part Teddy Roosevelt, who preached a dramatic God. 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. Religion was a force in politics, yes, but a force capable of bringing down buildings? Others praised its accurate reporting and its denunciation of hypocrisy, comparing Lewis to great satirists such as Voltaire and Swift. But was booted out of seminary for seducing the preachers daughter, Lulu Baines (Shirley Jones). After this catastrophe, he briefly acts as a "New Thought" evangelist, and eventually becomes a Methodist minister. | (205) 348-6010 99107. 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. The footballer wins by flattering Elmer, insulting Elmers courage, and challenging Elmer to a fight over The Lord. Elmer is beset on all sides; his mother, the YMCA, the president of the college, even a visiting evangelistall single him out in their prayers and exhortations. 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. 41930. However, Lewis does not seem to have had such an intention at first; once again, half the novel is concerned with one theme and half with a related but different one. Photographer Nancy Musinguzis recent photos captured the over 7,000 people []. Be the first to contribute. Part of a tipper lorry became wedged underneath a gantry in a crash on the M5 on Thursday, 2 March. During the opening service, with a crowd of more than four thousand, fire breaks out. The title character of Elmer Gantry starts But he had never encountered vice . Still, her character of a betrayed woman who continues to care for Elmer illuminates the paradox of his power: he doesnt mean to hurt anyone, but he does. Early in his preaching career he jilts a country girl who loves him and whom he has seduced. He thinks they might, for all he knows, be true, and that is enough for him. Elmers next position is at a church in Monarch. But both the show and their relationship are threatened when one of Gantry's ex-lovers decides that she must settle a score with the charismatic performer. He had been a solitary in college, generous but fastidious, jarred by his classmates belching and sudden laughter. Like Carol Kennicott, he suffers a betrayal by books, for his reasoning had been turned from an examination of men as mammals to the mystic theories of souls and their salvation. Billy Sunday (18621935) was a professional baseball player who quit baseball a few years after he had a religious conversion. It seems unlikely that Lancasters character would risk immolation for her. 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. Before Falconer and Gantry set up their revival in Zenith, a large city which is described as a place where Falconer and Gantry can become famous, Falconers revivals were held in the country and in small towns. WebElmer Gantry. Quarles has no time for vain arguments that lead nowhere! Quarles is hostile to the kind of free intellectual inquiry that the liberals advocate, and he relies instead on prayer and faith. Shortly Frank meets more of real life than he is prepared for. Gantry's noisy methods seem to work, even if they draw derision from the religious establishment and attacks from the cynical press. For two years, he helps her lead revival meetings in large cities, mastering the art of press advertising and fundraising. In his travels he comes across the traveling revival show of evangelist Sister Sharon Falconer. The speech is a roaring success. The following was written for REL 360: Popular Culture/Public Humanities. You're all doomed to perdition! TAKE NOTE: The films opening title sequence includes this advice: Due to the highly controversial nature of this film, we strongly urge you to prevent impressionable children from seeing it!, You can read the full Sinclair Lewis novel Elmer Gantry online at Project Gutenberg Australia, here:http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300851h.html, You might want to watch some Patti Pagemaybe Whatever Lola Wants, here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSsH_i6xpf8. As Elmer turns an attractive and charming preacher with a large audience . 23 Feb. 2023 . 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. WebBy John Helmer, Moscow @bears_with During the US Army invasion of Morocco and Algeria in 1943, enroute to the invasion of Italy, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), as the CIA was called then, came up with the donkey turd bomb for destroying the enemy.Since 2014, the CIA has come up with the modern equivalent its called the Ukrainian bomb. Webdc.title: Elmer Gantry. Elizabeth S. Prioleau, "The Minister and the Seductress in American Fiction: The Adamic Myth Reduz". Mel Gibson aside, you don't expect to see a sympathetic portrayal of religion in the movies; from 'Night of the Hunter' onwards, the dodgy preacher has been a more common character than the saintly one, and there's another kicking for the born-again movement in 'Elmer Gantry'. I just spend two days at my best friends' home for his father's funerals, and during the obligatory moments of life contemplation, we were wondering what was awaiting us all. Based on the muckraker Sinclair Lewis' novel, and superbly translated to the screen by Richard Brooks (In Cold Blood , The Professionals, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), this story of huckster-ism by religion is a masterpiece. In Nebraska, he attends a meeting of the evangelist Sharon Falconer. [5], However, the book was a commercial success. Reviewers were divided on the merits of the novel. 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. He retains his theological navet, however, and it is clear that his modernism is not sufficient. Encyclopedia.com. The film leaves the realities of these mystical happenings up to interpretation, and so gives the congregants active, if small, roles in the narrative. Other Protestant groups also get their share of abuse, as do the Jews and the Catholics. date the date you are citing the material. Traveling with the show is Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Jim Lefferts, who looks at the show and Elmer with a critical eye, although Sister Sharon, William, and Elmer welcome him. The growth of fundamentalist Christianity in contemporary America is a source of bafflement to those who just don't get it; including, by and large, the movie industry, which may like to end its films with sanctimonious moralising, but which usually reserves the right to serve us substantial portions of sex and violence beforehand. He is an opportunist, a rogue, a charlatan. 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. 12630. 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. The two make a successful onstage pair, and their chemistry extends to romance. REL 360: Popular Culture/Public Humanities, Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ, Humans and Nazis: Reevaluating the Conversation of. Like everything else in the Lone Star State, our dreams were big from the start. 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. The Allegory of Lov, Lewis, Sinclair Elizabeth Taylor, Best Actress winner for Butterfield 8. Schorer discusses Lewiss research for the novel, including the clergyman he met in Kansas City. 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. Web1. It was on the steamer home that he met and became intimate with J. E. North, the renowned vice-slayer, executive secretary of the National Association for the Purification of Art and the Pressaffectionately known through all the evangelical world as the Napap. Mr. North was not a clergyman (though he was a warm Presbyterian layman), but no clergyman in the country had more furiously pursued wickedness, more craftily forced congressmen, through threats in their home districts, to see legislation in the same reasonable manner as himself. There 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. Elmer, like other Lewis protagonists, fears marriage. 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. There, Gantry befriends the Methodist bishop and is appointed pastor of a church in Banjo Crossing. 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, Diamond stretches out his hand toward a young woman who places in Elmer seems a demonic figure. Literally, in one case, when the tabernacle catches fire at the end of the movie. Four men and two women crawled about a pillar, barking like dogs, barking the devil out of the tree.. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Sinclair Lewiss Elmer Gantry (New York, 1927) is a ferocious satire against Protestant fundamentalist religion in the American Midwest. 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! Dont be afraid! Elmer Gantry is a satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis in 1926 that presents aspects of the religious activity of America in fundamentalist and evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s public toward it. At the novels beginning, Gantry is captain of the football team at the rowdy campus at Terwillinger College, a Baptist school. WebElmer turns to Rigg for help, who hires a detective to dig up incriminating evidence against Hettie and her husband. ", Movie Lacks Something, But a Stunning Lead Performance Isn't It. Many of the people attending the revivals would then be working-class individuals. J. E. North is the executive secretary of the National Association for the Purification of Art and the Press (Napap). Amoral and relentlessly ambitious, Elmer builds a statewide and national reputation as a fiery preacher who never tires of denouncing vice, while at the same time feeling no need to curb his own vices, particularly adultery. Is he successful? After Elmer writes a critical comment about him on a blackboard, Zechlin, who is suspected of heresy, is forced into retirement by the Seminary. In fact, the film could be seen as prescient, as both religious revivalism, and celebrity-scandal driven journalism (another of its subjects), have arguably become more prevalent since it was made. Elmer Gantry, like Arrowsmith, is an account of career development. Meanwhile, Hettie turns out to be a married woman who, with her husband, tries to blackmail Elmer. In Lincoln, he persuades her to let him speak at the meeting about how he, a businessman, was converted. 98107. The inspiration for Falconer, Aimee Semple McPherson, on the other hand, was thought of as a celebrity, and many felt her intentions were dubious. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright 2022 The University of Alabama Mark Schorer, in his biography of Lewis, records a remark that Lewis made to his friend Richards Brooks in 1946. The novel is absorbing, and I should like to say a few words about it. 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. He was supposed to bring peace to mankind. He welcomes Elmer into the Methodist church. Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/film-review-burt-lancaster-s-oscar-winning-elmer-gantry-trylon-theater-monday-and-tu/). In Newark, New Jersey, Alvin Shipwreck Kelly sat atop a flagpole for twelve days, and in Chicago, the gangster Al Capone was tightening his grip on bootlegging. Using his sales techniques, especially on one of Sister Sharon's underlings, the nave Sister Rachel, Elmer is able infiltrate her entourage. The result is a novel that satirically represents the religious activity of America in evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s toward it. 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. But Sharon stands by Elmer and truth prevails, until both are seduced by fame and blind faith over common sense, and fate deals them a crushing blow. Come! For the most part, he does not create complex human portraits but caricatures. Playing the title character, Lancaster won his first and only Oscar, for Best Actor. D. J. Dooley remarks that to Lewis Christianity is not only untrue, but inconceivable. Dooley feels that Elmer Gantry is flawed 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. True, unless, taking our cue from Sharon Falconer and the multitude of fraudulent evangelistic minor characters in the book, we begin to see Elmer Gantry as Lewiss triumphant depiction of a land of demons and grotesques of all sizes and shapes, created from the extremes of human impulse and incapable of self-awareness because they are already beyond it, Elmer included. He first worked with William L. "Big Bill" Stidger, pastor of the Linwood Boulevard Methodist Episcopal Church in Kansas City, Missouri. 2007 eNotes.com Bishop Wesley R. Toomis is a bishop in the Methodist Church who has a great reputation as an orator and thinker. In the following essay excerpt, Light examines quixotic elements in Elmer Gantry. In the film, Gantry happens upon one of Falconers revivals being held in a country town. A Best Actor Oscar went to Burt Lancaster for his outstanding performance as a con-man-turned-preacher in this provocative indictment of religious corruption. Schorer also says that, while researching the book, Lewis attended two or three church services every Sunday while in Kansas City, and that: "He took advantage of every possible tangential experience in the religious community." PG. eNotes.com, Inc. 99107. Elmer thinks he is fat and pompous, but respects him nonetheless. He becomes one of the first clergymen in the country to have his services broadcast by radio, and in 1924, he travels to Europe with Cleo. A charming conman pretends to be a preacher and romances a roadside revivalist. 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. Lulu becomes devoted to Elmer but he gets bored with her. WebHow does the novel Elmer Gantry end? One admirable character, Frank Shallard, makes an essentially quixotic response to Elmer and his deceits. 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. 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. Gantry becomes her lover, but loses both her and his position when she is killed in a fire at her new tabernacle. Elmer tries but fails to continue as an independent evangelist. If all of them are there, he says. Im grateful to them for proving the book. Very few observers, however, thought that he had been as fair and dispassionate as he pretended; one comparatively balanced review of the novel was entitled Red Lewis in a Red Rage, and his former professor William Lyon Phelps declared in an interview that the book must have been written when Lewis was literally foaming at the mouth . Edwin Muir was one of the few critics who found some complexity in Lewiss attitude toward his central character; he thought this complexity was due to the division of intentions which was evident in other Lewis novelsLewis wanted to write both a satire and a novel, to indict his hero and to sympathize with him at the same time. When 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. The bell-boy is scarcely out of the room when Elmer grabs Cleo. 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. Whatever I may choose to do, though it might be sin in one unsanctified, with me God will turn it to his glory. Your email address will not be published. Elmer Gantry begins in 1902. They also decried the growth within the church of the higher criticism, that sought to understand the Bible based on modern methods of scholarship. At the beginning of the novel, Elmer is drunk, but he is drunk only in the fashion of a hell-raising college boy who talks a little like Huck Finn (his companion, perhaps significantly, is named Jim). He does not really hate sin, because it is useful to him: the more vice he can discover and denounce, the more his reputation as a man of God grows. At the end he is still eyeing the women in the congregation even as he calls for a crusade to make America a moral nation. As with any service, the revivals in Elmer Gantry would not be put on if the pastors and congregations of these areas did not have a demand for them. And he has involvements with several of his church secretaries. Have faith! Drama. This abridged version of Sinclair Lewiss novel of the same name focuses on Elmer Gantry, a con man expelled from seminary school, and Sister Sharon Falconer, a character loosely based on evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. If a satirist depicts the object of his satire as based on humbug, advocated by humbug, and defended by humbug, he must employ a great deal of wit and fantasy to prevent his attack from seeming cross-grained and peevish. The result would be the fascist state against which Babbitt, in anticipation of 1984, warns. But what perhaps made Elmer Gantry seem like such an act of outrage to so many readers is that Lewis did not simply treat religion in relation to other aspects of American life; he saw it instead as the molder of basic attitudes, most of which were, in his opinion, bad. Later Frank is thrown from the church and he ventures forth as a worker in a charity organization. Elmer gets converted to Christianity only because he cannot resist the pressures put on him to do so. He also forms a Committee on Public Morals, persuades the police to make him a temporary lieutenant, and personally leads raids on the red-light districts. Bell, a Black youth who had recently transferred out of Central to the High School for Recording Arts, was on Centrals campus to visit one of his former teachers. Besides being an effective satire targeted against religious hypocrisy, Elmer Gantry provides insight into the clash of cultural forces in America in the 1920s. Lancaster's vitality as a sinful preacher lights up the screen "Love is the morning and the evening star! Despite this though the film is still quite engaging and enjoyable as it delves into this world with a certain amount of glee; the fact that it peels off this world to look at Gantry specifically is a bit of a shame because it cuts under that focus a little.
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