Richard Brooks

Bringing Elmer Gantry to the screen took Richard Brooks fifteen years. In a New York Times piece of July 1960 he tells of first considering the novel for adaptation in 1945. Sinclair Lewis had agreed to testify on his behalf in a lawsuit; after the case was dropped the two of them met in a bar and Lewis gave him leave to attempt the book as a film. With the rights not yet formally his, Brooks submitted a screenplay to the PCA for approval in 1953. By April 1955 the paper had him buying an option on the novel and considering Montgomery Clift for the lead. Several studios refused to back so contentious a picture, so the option had to be repurchased year after year, and then writing eight drafts took him over a year. He shot it in the classical 1.33:1 aspect ratio, by that time little used. The film won Academy Awards for best actor, supporting actress and adapted screenplay, and the only writing credit on the page is his.