Elmer Gantry

A film set in America in the 1920s. Elmer Gantry is a travelling salesman. Talkative, hard-drinking and highly persuasive. In one town he walks into the tent meeting of a preacher named Sharon Falconer and understands at once what he is seeing: there is a product being sold here and he could do it well. He joins the outfit. He preaches, warms the crowd, improves the methods of collection. The meetings grow and the group moves to the cities. At the centre is not the question of faith but the question of persuasion: does Gantry believe what he says, or does he know what belief does to sales. The narrative leaves it open until the final moments. Sharon stands elsewhere; she genuinely believes what she preaches, and that is the real tension between them. A journalist follows the group and what he writes changes the direction of the story. The source is Sinclair Lewis's 1927 novel; there were attempts to ban the book when it appeared. Burt Lancaster plays Gantry, Jean Simmons plays Sharon and Arthur Kennedy the journalist. Richard Brooks directed and wrote it. The film won three Academy Awards: best actor, best supporting actress and best adapted screenplay. A strong production for anyone who likes classic drama that criticises American society. For a viewer wanting a clear verdict on religion, the film clears neither belief nor its opposite.