The Silver Screen Oasis

Features a great performance by Burt Lancaster in the title role as a huckstering preacher. Jean Simmons, Arthur Kennedy, Dean Jagger, Edward Andrews, and Shirley Jones lend sturdy support. IMHO fundamentalist religion is being used here and elsewhere for sinister motives.

Although I do not recall very well the details of its plot, I do remember it is a powerful film, thanks to terrific performances by Lancaster, Simmons and Jones; maybe the best of its kind along with Capra's "The Miracle Woman".

Wasn't this film (loosely) based on the life of Amy Semple McPherson, the evangelist of the early 20th century? Do you recall whether the film carried the disclaimer about "any similarity to persons living or dead is purely coincidental?" Thanks.

Hollis

I don't know about the disclaimer you mention Hollis, but I've read that Jean Simmons' character in the film, apparently was based on Mrs. McPherson.

On the other hand, I'm sure that the 1931 "The Miracle Woman" was actually inspired on Mc Pherson's life.

I enjoyed seeing Patti Page in a film ... A rarity ...

Shirley Jones did well winning her Oscar without singing anything but I thought she was a bit over the top. I have to give credit to Burt Lancaster whom I thought was exceptional and very deserving, but I really didn't like the characters much. I've seen Jean Simmons more appealing and everyone else was a schyster. I'm not sure what this film was up against as far as Oscars but it took some in ...

This is one of my favorite movies ever. This is also the movie that turned me into a HUGE Arthur Kennedy fan. Of all his movies I've seen (and I've seen a lot), this is the one role that I thought he was absolutely perfect in, predating his journalist role in Lawrence of Arabia. His portryal of Jim Lefferts is cynical, but yet sympathetic to Sister Sharon when her whole empire downfalls. In the late 50's/early 60's, he was getting a lot of roles where his character was always a bit sleazy or smarmy, but at least in Elmer Gantry he was able to show a bit of softness, which I like.

I also thought the Oscars that year should have been flipped around. Instead of Burt Lancaster and Shirley Jones, I think Jean Simmons and Arthur Kennedy should have won, but neither were nominated. I love Burt and I think he's a tremendous actor, but I always felt that Jack Lemmon in The Apartment was the best performance of those nominated. I do think Burt was excellent in it though, although he reminded me of the character he plays in The Rainmaker with Katharine Hepburn, just a bit more feverish and with a religious twist. Although I think he and Jean Simmons are a better couple. They had a lot of chemistry--the good religious Sister Sharon giving into smooth-talking, handsome Elmer Gantry. They were believable.

I like Shirley Jones as well, but I never really thought her character was special enough to win an Oscar. I think she's sexy and beautiful, and the line where she mentions that Elmer rammed the fear of God into her is both hilarious and telling. But I always favored her in musicals--she did the good girl thing so well!

But overall, it's one of my favorite movies. Everything about it--the score, the dialouge, the direction and the story--is top notch. It's a long movie, but I've never found it to be draggy.