His widowed mother was owned by the church, we are told, and the fact that the boy was fatherless is less important than that the church could not provide Elmer with principles. Now dont you go explaining! She teaches classes in Concentration, Prosperity, Love, Metaphysics and Oriental Mysticism, and invites Elmer to join her. He enters the ministry because he cannot think of anything else to do in life. The trouble is, he needed a good reason for his broad and over-the-top acting. As in Babbitt and Arrowsmith, we are made aware that there are sinister forces combining to strike at the very foundations of American liberties. You're all goin' to the painful, stinkin', scaldin', everlastin' tortures of a fiery hell, created by God for sinners, unless, unless, unless you repent. Ed. After several failed efforts to hear God calling him to the ministry, Gantry shares a bottle of whiskey with Jim and emerges with the feeling of having received the call. The supporting staff performed equally well. ", Movie Lacks Something, But a Stunning Lead Performance Isn't It. This is a film that has outlasted its time. A more elaborate kind of fantasy arises out of Lewiss belief that formal religion is based on the self-interest of its leaders. Dinner at the Governors Ball with Eddie Fisher. But it all comes to an end one night in Clontar, on the New Jersey coast, where Sharon has purchased a pier. Fired from the Seminary, he is hired as a traveling salesman of farm implements. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. They were intended to feed the American dream, but instead fashioned the nightmareout of books! At Sparta, Elmer gains statewide fame for his sensational sermons denouncing drinking and other sins. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. He first worked with William L. "Big Bill" Stidger, pastor of the Linwood Boulevard Methodist Episcopal Church in Kansas City, Missouri. He confesses his love for her and they begin an affair, peppering their lovemaking with religious imagery. ( Elmer Gantry stirs soul, provokes thought was the headline in that mornings Tennessean.) The bill had always been defeated, but it was gaining more votes in every session [407408]. According to Brooks, He [Lewis] confessed that he really loved Elmer, the big bum, and hated only what he stood for; but half-way through the novel he had been carried away, and turned on his character and demolished him.. Gantry, why dont you believe in God?. Her main supporter is worldly William Morgan (Dean Jagger) who believes in Falconer, and sees Gantry and Lefferts for the opportunistic impediments they are. 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. publication online or last modification online. Elmer Gantry Script His quest for God is a secular quest. 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. A fast-talking traveling salesman with a charming, loquacious manner convinces a sincere evangelist that he can be an effective preacher for her cause. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child. Evangelist Billy Sunday called Lewis "Satan's cohort". Connected to this it must be said that I did think the plot was a little thin at times and the strength of film does lie in the general portrayal of the world rather than the nitty-gritty of any one character or thread (although even the thin bits are pretty good). 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. Elmer Gantry subtitles. Dooley, D. J., The Art of Sinclair Lewis, University of Nebraska Press, 1967, pp. The last date is today's The fundamentalists also have to deal with outright skeptics, like Jim Lefferts, and covert atheists like Dr. Zechlin. An example is the bizarre marriage ceremony which takes place between Elmer and evangelist Sharon Falconer before her grotesque shrine. In fact, the film's theatricality can almost be seen as a strength, for it's constructed like a well-written play. Write a brief character sketch of Frank Shallard and describe his role in the novel. His father was a physician. She is looking to work in Applied Business Anthropology. Why does Lewis include him in the book? Elmer Gantry, then, is notable as the book in which Lewis moved religion to the center of his critique of American values and declared it to have failed. Consider the character of Jim Lefferts, as revealed in the first three chapters. We are going to find the golden Scriptures written in our own hearts, we are going to sing together, laugh together, rejoice together like a gathering of April brooks, rejoice that in us is living the veritable spirit of the Everlasting and Redeeming Christ Jesus!, Declining from this spirituality, she gives her gospel-crew a pep talk: lets hit people hard for money-pledges. Lewis said, flatly enough, that religion in the United States has become stifling; that, like the pioneer economy and the pioneer mentality of which it is a manifestation, it has become a threat instead of a benefit. , Sinclair Lewis: An American Life, McGraw Hill, 1961, pp. 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. The Baptist influences to which Elmer is subjected in his youth, particularly at Terwillinger College and Mizpah Theological Seminary, are handled very roughly. Elmer Gantry subtitles Terwillinger College and Mizpah Theological Seminary are both fundamentalist institutions. Later judgments have also been mixed. The two make a successful onstage pair, and their chemistry extends to romance. Fifty years since I married a preacher! When he teams up with evangelist Sister Falconer, he sells religion from a tent to 1920's America, helping Falconer with her aim of getting out of the tent into her own temple and building a proper congregation. Everything conspires to overwhelm him and break down his defenses; he does not really have a chance. We didn't want to make just any bourbon--we wanted to make the best bourbon. Drama. (205) 348-6010 So scandalous was Lewiss portrayal of religion that the novel was banned in several cities and denounced from But Frank rages on at the inconsistencies in doctrine, the contradictions in the Bible, the evil men who are ministers, and the fools and dullards who work about him in Zenith: Gantry, Bishop Toomis, Chester Brown, Hickenlooper, and PottsPotts especially, who gets his idea of human motives out of George Eliot and Margaret Deland, and his ideas of economics out of editorials in the Advocate, and his idea as to what he really is accomplishing out of the flattery of his Ladies Aid! Frank adds that he doesnt find Jesus an especially admirable characterJesus was more vain and furious than a leader should be. She is a monstrous creation who seems to grow in size with each revelation of her craziness. It has provided much of his and Americas taste in architecture, clothing, music, literature, philosophy; it has provided everything but any longing whatever for decency and kindness and reason.. ." Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. WebElmer Gantry. Shallard attempts to stand against Gantrys attempts to destroy him, but eventually he resigns from his pulpit. By what name was Elmer Gantry (1960) officially released in India in English? In Nebraska, he attends a meeting of the evangelist Sharon Falconer. FILM REVIEW: Burt Lancasters Oscar-Winning Elmer The result is as discouraging, as horrifying, as it would have been if Huck had been converted by Miss Watsons Bible stories. Fascinating - 1960's "Elmer Gantry," based on the Sinclair Lewis novel, could be made today with nothing changed and be as powerful - maybe more powerful - than it was in 1960. (Courtesy of Degebo, Berlin, Germany.) Like Sharon, she drew huge crowds and practiced faith healing. Lancaster is absolutely mesmerizing as "Elmer Gantry." On the train he meets a traveling salesman who invites him for a drink, which results in Elmer failing to keep his appointment at the church. The woman who does match Lancaster is Oklahoma-born Patti Page, making her film debut. Note: When citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. . He says both. Most distressing of all, says Frank, the sermons of the preachers are agonizingly dull. So Frank leaves the church temporarily to enter the army where he learns to be common with common men; he schools himself further with Ethan Frome, Pre Goriot, Tono-Bungay, and Renans Jesus. They also name Billy Sunday. Lulu later meets Elmer again many years later in Zenith, where they resume their clandestine affair. Gantry's entire repertoire is performed with encyclopedic thoroughness and accuracy. Lancaster's vitality as a sinful preacher lights up the screen "Love is the morning and the evening star! Paperback June 3, 2014. Then read chapter 30, section 5, where Jim reappears. Like ordinary mortals, she is often weary. 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. I know its trueits in the Bible. What Made Buster Keatons Comedy So Modern? | The New Yorker WebIn the 1920s, Elmer Gantry entertains a group of fellow salesmen in a speakeasy with his ribald jokes and easy charm. As a boy, the Baptist church was all he knew. The impact of religion on Elmer Gantry symbolizes what it has done to the American spirit. 3360. When a Salvation Army worker enters, Gantry shocks and moves the crowd with an impromptu, impassioned sermon equating God with love. To his understanding of Lewiss art, Jones seems to add firsthand knowledge about wartime religious revivals. As in the violent, unpredictable climax, Elmer Gantry lives and dies on a kind of roiling energy, a reaction that seems to be happening Elmer Gantry (film Your email address will not be published. Despite their reservations about the dignity of revival-style preaching, many of the pastors agree that it would be best for their congregations to get excited about Christianity again in hopes that this would subsequently bolster attendance. Jones is too frothy, but when she appears halfway through, she adds bubbles to a long movie that was starting to go flat. After Elmer writes a critical comment about him on a blackboard, Zechlin, who is suspected of heresy, is forced into retirement by the Seminary. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Some characters from Lewis even read Sinclair Lewis himself; the Reverend Philip McGarry asks his friend Frank Shallard to forget that you have to make a new world, bettern the Creators, right away tonightyou and Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells and H. L. Mencken and Sinclair Lewis (Lord, how that book of Lewis, Main Street, did bore me ).. 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. 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. Meanwhile, Babe Ruth was closing in on the home run record. Go out slowly! Good drama that had the potential to be one of the greats. He later becomes a lawyer. Elmer meets up again with Lulu, now married to Floyd Naylor, and they resume their flirtation. Ashley Daugherty is a senior majoring in Anthropology and Spanish. OFFICIAL 2023 FORMULA 1 THREAD: Bahrain GP TOMORROW 3/5 There is a great deal of fantasy in the novel, but it is weird and crude and goes badly with the realism. Traveling in the Southwest, he is beaten and blinded. These help her to put on a dramatic show that wins many converts. Miss West points to Frank Shallards accusation against Jesus: Did He ever suggest sanitation, which would have saved millions from plagues? She comments, As for the suggestion that Christ should have halted on the way to the Cross to recommend the American bathroom, it ought to go into the Americana section of the American Mercury. She concludes her essay as follows: If [Lewis] would sit still so that life could make any deep impression on him, if he would attach himself to the human tradition by occasionally reading a book which would set him a standard of profundity, he could give his genius a chance. Miss West expresses a prevailing attitude toward Lewis, but she does not, I think, understand what his best books accomplished. Since religions are often sold with a spin to attract the most people or a certain group of people, it is important that potential followers examine the reasoning and intentions of religious leaders. A charming conman pretends to be a preacher and romances a roadside revivalist. Thus equipped, Elmer advances to conquer the world. User Ratings More information about the Trylons Lancastic! Elmer Gantry is a role and a character as big as he is, and Lancaster puts his whole back into it. Should creationism be taught in public schools? When I was a youngster fascinated by the Batman TV show and Lost in Space, I saw Elmer Gantry for the first time. As Elmer (Burt Lancaster) is a saleman with a powerfully persusive tongue who joins up Sister Sharon Falconer (glamorous Jean Simmons) along with her colleagues , Sister Rachel (Patti Page) , William L. Morgan (Dean Jagger) touring grass-roots evengelist circus during the depressed twenties . 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. But occasionally Lewis tries to endow him with a soul, as in the incident of his conversion at Terwillinger College. Aubrey holds a Ph.D. in English and has published many articles on twentieth century literature. It's easy to miss the Katar River restaurant, hidden away in a little industrial strip behind the Lake & Hiawatha shopping center in south Minneapolis. Despite his doubts, and following Zechlins advice, Shallard decides to remain in the church. Over the next few years, he is appointed to larger and larger parishes, eventually to a church in Zenith. His portrait of a golden-tongued evangelist who rises to power within his church-a saver of souls who lives a life Thanks to Stacia Kissick Jones and her movie review blog She Blogged By Night for the above, noted here: http://shebloggedbynight.com/2012/the-laughing-devil-in-his-sneer-brother-loves-travelling-salvation-show. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). Her voice was warm, a little husky, desperately alive. One attendant of the revivals even describes himself as only being a good Christian when a revival is in town, and then going back to his old ways once it is gone. Finally, in the summer of 2005 I took a look after seeing several Burt Lancaster films and being reminded how good an actor he was. Word Count: 916. According to such people: A proper school should teach nothing but bookkeeping, agriculture, geometry, dead languages made deader by leaving out all the amusing literature, and the Hebrew Bible as interpreted by men superbly trained to ignore contradictions, men technically called Fundamentalists., Christian beliefs about the proper observance of Sundays also comes under heavy satirical fire in this passage: [T]he Maker of a universe with stars a hundred thousand light-years apart was interested, furious, and very personal about it if a small boy played baseball on Sunday afternoon.. 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." Then from 1918 to 1920 he is in Sparta, where the population is 129,000. Novels for Students. It must have been for acting against type, coming off wholesome musical Oklahoma! He spends a year there, and three years in Vulcan, where Cleo gives birth to two children. Bess Needham marries Frank Shallard and bears him three children. Two years before adapting Elmer Gantry to the sceen, writer and director Richard Brooks, also adapted and directed The Brothers Karamazov (1958), which featured William Shatner (the original Captain Kirk) in his first movie role, as the saintly brother Alexei. But for my money it is Jean Simmonds, surely robbed of her own Oscar here, who has the most impressive part. After college, he attends a Baptist seminary and is ordained as a Baptist minister. (February 23, 2023). He raises money to build a new church. 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 Don Pickens is Frank Shallards roommate at Mizpah Theological Seminary. Elmer Gantry is not, however, a movie about making good choices. 1961 In another service a couple comes forward to ask that Falconer cure the husbands deafness. There they meet their host, Deacon Bains, and his daughter Lulu, an ingenue whom Gantry continually tries to seduce. As Elmer turns an attractive and charming preacher with a large audience . Indeed, why doesnt he? Elizabeth S. Prioleau, "The Minister and the Seductress in American Fiction: The Adamic Myth Reduz". Other Protestant groups also get their share of abuse, as do the Jews and the Catholics. On publication in 1927, Elmer Gantry created a public furor. Binch is also a snob who has contempt for other preachers. The dean sends Gantry and classmate Frank Shallard to pastor a nearby church. He had learned to assemble Jewish texts, Greek philosophy, and Middle-Western evangelistic anecdotes into a sermon. Franks mentor has been Father Pengilly, a fanciful figure whom we have already discussed. Introduction of Gantry Girder. Tough pla takes the ease of use of regular pla and steps it up. 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. Additionally, this positive representation of the necessity of revivals to faltering churches is soured by the probability that Falconers revivals take advantage of the lower class. Elmer escapes by knocking other people out of the way, but Sharon is burned to death. Gantry was in the middle of trying to settle down and marry Sharon when she saw that shooting star at the end, and from that moment, she seemed to feel truly touched by God. 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. He meets Elmer on a steamer home from Europe and invites him to lecture on behalf of Napap. Wallace Umstead is a student Mizpah Theological Seminary who becomes the secretary of the Zenith Y.M.C.A. After his wedding to Cleo, he gasps to himself, Oh, good God, Ive gone and tied myself up, and I never can have any fun again! His treatment of her on the wedding night is reminiscent of Eddie Schwirtzs treatment of Una Golden. Addeddate 2017-01-24 22:02:04 Identifier in.ernet.dli.2015.184871 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t87h71c67 Ocr ABBYY FineReader 11.0 Ppi 600 Scanner Internet Archive Python library 1.2.0.dev4. Gantrys fame continues to grow, and he is soon preaching at churches across America.
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