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Elmer Gantry

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03:17

Elmer Gantry

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Summary

Oscar-winning drama starring Burt Lancaster and Jean Simmons. A conman swaps his job as a travelling salesman for hellfire preaching - a position that gives him power and has the added advantage of bringing him closer to the beautiful Sister Sharon.

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Review

A star rating of 5 out of 5.

Tony Sloman

Seldom does the cinema see such a perfect match of star and role as here, with Burt Lancaster as author Sinclair Lewis's conman who finds evangelism as easy to sell as vacuum cleaners. Lancaster rightly won the best actor Oscar for the finest performance of his career, and there were also Oscars for director Richard Brooks's screenplay and for musical comedy star Shirley Jones's supporting turn as vengeful prostitute Lulu Bains. The film itself lost out to The Apartment. Also brilliantly cast is co-star Jean Simmons as Sister Sharon Falconer, whose sincerity, like Gantry's, is never questioned. John Alton's colour photography is superb, but it's Brooks's handling of the key scenes that makes this film a Hollywood classic. Long, certainly, but deeply satisfying and richly rewarding, this is a truly great movie - the subject and tone of which caused some to shun it on its original release.

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7.7/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameElmer GantryBurt LancasterSister Sharon FalconerJean SimmonsJim LeffertsArthur KennedyLulu BainsShirley JonesWilliam L MorganDean JaggerSister RachelPatti PageGeorge BabbittEdward AndrewsRev PengillyJohn McIntirePeteJoe MarossRev BrownEverett Glass

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Crew

rolenameDirectorRichard Brooks

Details

Theatrical distributor

United Artists Corp. Ltd

Released on

1960-12-15

Languages

English

Available on

video and DVD

Formats

Colour

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