International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, "Elmer Gantry, a Flawed Preacher for the Ages", "The Censorship Crusade: A Story For Banned Books Week | Americans United", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elmer_Gantry&oldid=1142298283, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, A 1970 Broadway musical adaptation, titled. SuperSummary | Literature Study Guides & Summaries 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. The Trylon features 50 deluxe rocker seats, a 20-foot screen, and a pair of Century Model SA 35mm projectors. He is a simple, decent, pious man who is loved by his congregation. However as the pressure builds to tear him down, can Gantry prevent his past from returning to haunt him? Awards The trouble is, he needed a good reason for his broad and over-the-top acting. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright 2022 The University of Alabama On the trip to his new church, he gets drunk and carouses with women; he is discovered and is dismissed from the seminary. He marries well and eventually obtains a large congregation in Lewis's fictional Midwestern city of Zenith. He begins a course of home study, in a brief episode which must play ironically against Benjamin Franklins self-education. Lewis divorced his wife in 1928, and married Dorothy Thompson. McPherson was involved in a scandal in 1926. 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. Under pressure from Elmer, Shallard resigns. WebWhen hedonistic but charming con man Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster) meets the beautiful Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons), a roadside revivalist, he feigns piousness to join You're all doomed to perdition. Later, in the middle of a church service, Gantry realizes that he misses Hettie but quickly spots a new choir member whom he hopes to get to know better. pat hingle elevator accident Frank finds some shame in being a preacher and longs to prove that he is nevertheless a real man. Not only had he been swathed in theology, but all his experience had been in books instead of the speech of toiling men. ( Elmer Gantry stirs soul, provokes thought was the headline in that mornings Tennessean.) More information about the Trylons Lancastic! There is no character development, and so Elmer, after his character is first established, does not change during the course of the novel. Elmer Gantry is as lost as those who followed in the tent revivals that swept the country during hard times. He is immediately attracted to her and also sees her revival meetings as a way to make money. Lewiss personal life was troubled, and he and his second wife were divorced in 1942. Special Effects winner, with presenters Polly Bergen and Richard Widmark. User Ratings He takes care to point out that people return again and again to get converted, which would seem to negate the idea that they are saved in a once in a lifetime experience. In a scene where Gantry and Falconer are hoping to get funding to set up their revival in the city of Zenith, lack of attendance is straightforwardly given as the reason for seeking out the revival. But occasionally Lewis tries to endow him with a soul, as in the incident of his conversion at Terwillinger College. 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. (205) 348-6010 Although most entertaining when Gantry is actually preaching (mainly in the opening half of the film), the intelligent script moves on from it's basic premise (that Gantry is a charlatan) to explore wider questions of the nature of humanity and society. 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. We're confident we succeeded and have no doubt you'll agree. 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. Leap Of Faith movie review & film summary (1992) | Roger Ebert She's a true believer. She is a monstrous creation who seems to grow in size with each revelation of her craziness. Lewis seems to have had a particular loathing of the conversion experience that is so central to Protestant spirituality. Shallard is forced to resign. Lewis preferred the liberal Birkhead to the conservative Stidger, and on his second visit to Kansas City, Lewis chose Birkhead as his guide. His dissatisfaction with his life, as well as his drinking, lying, and philandering give the audience a portrait of an unsavory man. The English novelist and playwright Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775-1818), known as Monk Lewis, a popular wri, Lewis, Wyndham Its a movie about driving passions so hot and strongfor a sale, for salvationthey burn a person up. Lewiss ingenuity was not exhausted on Elmer. WebBethel Merriday, by Sinclair Lewis, free ebook. 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. Elizabeth Taylor, Best Actress winner for Butterfield 8. 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 The portrayal of revivals as a necessary service with a precarious balance between helping and hurting both the revivals leaders and attendants is masterful. Although Elmer is clearly a self-centered individual from the beginning, Lewis presents him, up to and including his conversion, as being swept along by sociological and psychological forces over which he has no control. Sharon believes she is above sin and that she can do anything she wants to because she is Gods messenger. And yet Im not a liar! He thereby makes a defiant gesture, nonetheless, somewhat apart from his customary preoccupation with quixotic heroes whom he could admire for their protests, rebellion, and search for freedom. 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. Jean Simmons is lovely and convincing as as Sister Sharon Falconer, the charismatic female evangelist who wins Gantry's heart (and lust)as they team up to jump-start America's dwindling religious beliefs. Besides the rise of world fundamentalism and revelations of sexual abuse by big-name evangelists and Catholic priests, Elmer Gantry calls up popular figures such as Sarah Palin. 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. NATIONALITY: British The bill had always been defeated, but it was gaining more votes in every session [407408]. Gaining and keeping followers is the key to the success of any religion, and religious leaders must recognize this and figuratively, though sometimes literally, sell the religion. 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 attack on the hypocrisy of Protestant ministers continues throughout the novel. As a boy, the Baptist church was all he knew. She is a widow who owns a millinery and dressmaking shop. One famous evangelist was Gipsy Smith (18601947), an Englishman who made twenty-six trips to the United States. She is looking to work in Applied Business Anthropology. One night, Hetties husband catches them together; blackmail threats follow, and Gantry realizes that Hettie is part of the plot. It was the best-selling work of fiction in America for the year 1927, according to Publishers Weekly.[6]. "Elmer Gantry Another minor character who serves as one small brick in the vast anti-clerical edifice that is Elmer Gantry is Dr. Howard Bancock Binch, a renowned defender of the literal truth of the Bible. 23 Feb. 2023 . 'Until the nineteenth century, actors were classed as Rogues & Vagrants. Lundquist, James, Sinclair Lewis, Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1973, pp. Elmer Gantry, like all of Lewiss big novels, is part of one program. Elmer Gantry sets out to do just that in the world of evangelical revivalists, and an examination of the complicated relationship between the congregations and the religious leaders of the film may help illuminate the popularity of many religious movements, even those that appear to be a farce from the outside. The couple abandons their campaign against Elmer and leave 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. Another famous name was Aimee Semple McPherson (18901944), a female evangelist who clearly resembled the fictional Sharon Falconer. 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. The acting and directing is superb to the point that it becomes difficult to remember that it is only a movie. WebMemorable Moments. The Reverend McGarry tells Frank simply to accept the church with all its imperfectionswith its Gantrysand turn to giving hope and comfort to the piteous human beings who come to the church for help. A fast-talking traveling salesman with a charming, loquacious manner convinces a sincere evangelist that he can be an effective preacher for her cause. WebSpecialties: Welcome to Garrison Brothers, home of the first and oldest legal whiskey distillery in Texas. He also analyzes the characterization and structure of the novel and Lewiss occasional failure to integrate his story-telling with the social facts he presents. McGarry accidentally reveals Shallards doubts to Gantry, so Gantry uses them to defame Shallard as part of a campaign to raise money for a new church building. The Pilgrim's Regress (1933) (Courtesy of Degebo, Berlin, Germany.) Playing the title character, Lancaster won his first and only Oscar, for Best Actor. As in the violent, unpredictable climax, Elmer Gantry lives and dies on a kind of roiling energy, a reaction that seems to be happening Ashley Daugherty is a senior majoring in Anthropology and Spanish. One device after another is employed to introduce him to new denominations and round out the picture. 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.