Yet at the fire, it is Sharon who is heroic. Shallard is then attacked by religious fanatics and blinded. Frank suffers from self-consciousness about his occupation; it is the same sense of doubt which Lewis has expressed about the writing career: Frank still resented it that, as a parson, he was considered not quite virile; that even clever people felt they must treat him with a special manner; that he was barred from knowing the real thoughts and sharing the real desires of normal humanity.. This site built with Project Largo from INN and proudly powered by WordPress. AKA: Elmer Gantry, le charlatan. There they meet their host, Deacon Bains, and his daughter Lulu, an ingenue whom Gantry continually tries to seduce. D. J. Dooley remarks that to Lewis Christianity is not only untrue, but inconceivable. Dooley feels that Elmer Gantry is flawed 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. True, unless, taking our cue from Sharon Falconer and the multitude of fraudulent evangelistic minor characters in the book, we begin to see Elmer Gantry as Lewiss triumphant depiction of a land of demons and grotesques of all sizes and shapes, created from the extremes of human impulse and incapable of self-awareness because they are already beyond it, Elmer included. Blessed Virgin, Mother Hera, Mother Frigga, Mother Ishtar, Mother Isis, dread Mother Astarte of the weaving arms, it is thy priestess . They read from the Song of Solomon. He is treasurer of the Congregational church, but Elmer succeeds in getting him to support the Methodists instead. The two make a successful onstage pair, and their chemistry extends to romance. The main purpose of the picaresque novel (a modern example of which is Saul Bellows The Adventures of Augie March), is satire. Jim doubts the literal truth of the Bible and has contempt for the church. He is rewarded by being appointed minister of the Wellspring Methodist Church in the large city of Zenith, where the worldly trustee, T. J. Rigg, advises him to bring in the crowds with a rousing sermon denouncing vice. Elmer Gantry has been called the purest Lewis by Schorer. If all of them are there, he says. Once Gantry accuses the city government of protecting the brothels and drug dealers, he becomes one of the most powerful men in Zenith. When he finally got the green light, it was United Artists that agreed to distribute the film. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child. , Sinclair Lewis: An American Life, McGraw Hill, 1961, pp. 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. The fledgling work even had legs, if short ones. Ad Locust is a traveling salesman for the Pequot Farm Implement Company who befriends Elmer on the train to Monarch. He dies in a gambling den. 3945; originally published in New York Herald Tribune Books, March 13, 1927. Im not! British guitarist and vocalist. It is the Morning and the Evening Star. Lewis seems determined to avoid religious discrimination: all sects appear in equally bad light. But for my money it is Jean Simmonds, surely robbed of her own Oscar here, who has the most impressive part. The title character of Elmer Gantry starts 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. Your email address will not be published. Webdc.title: Elmer Gantry. As with any service, the revivals in Elmer Gantry would not be put on if the pastors and congregations of these areas did not have a demand for them. Over seventy-five years after it first appeared, Elmer Gantry still has power to shock as well as amuse. According to Mark Schorer, in his introduction to Sinclair Lewis: A Collection of Critical Essays, No novel in the history of American literature outraged its audience so completely, and very few novels in American literature had a larger immediate audience. The book was banned in Boston and other cities and denounced from hundreds of pulpits. 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. I know its trueits in the Bible. She is forced by her father to marry Lloyd Naylor. It seems unlikely that Lancasters character would risk immolation for her. How would you describe his demeanor? Satire ridicules its subject, with the intention of arousing contempt or scorn in the reader. The novel tells the story of a young, narcissistic, womanizing college athlete who abandons his early ambition to become a lawyer. Your email address will not be published. Jones is too frothy, but when she appears halfway through, she adds bubbles to a long movie that was starting to go flat. Happiness is the key to success. He urges Elmer to become a minister. He begins a course of home study, in a brief episode which must play ironically against Benjamin Franklins self-education. He ends up as a minister in the Episcopal church. Elmer himself had owned two volumes of Conan Doyle, one of E. P. Roe, and a priceless copy of Only a Boy. His literary inspirations were McGuffeys Readers, Nick Carter, Bible stories, and such stock characters as Little Lame Tom who shamed the wicked rich man that owned the handsome team of grays and the pot hat and led him to Jesus. You'll all burn in hell! The second date is today's The legal profession does not suit the unethical Gantry. Source: David J. Dooley, Aspiration and Enslavement, in The Art of Sinclair Lewis, University of Nebraska Press, 1967, pp. I can kiss you like this Quickly she touches his cheek, Yes, or passionately, terribly passionately, and it would only symbolize my complete union with Jesus! The preacher meets someone in the town, too: a waitress ( Lolita Davidovich) with a crippled young son. Still the supporting cast is brilliant as well. Reviewers were divided on the merits of the novel. Required fields are marked *. 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. I guess it's hard to imagine that your beloved one has faded into nothingness, so religion brings you a certain psychological comfort in knowing that there's such a thing as a soul and that, depending on a man's life, it gets the treatment it deserves. Protestant fundamentalism was in part a reaction in the early twentieth century to the development of the higher criticism in Biblical scholarship. Elmer attends Mizpah Theological Seminary, a Baptist institution in Babylon, in the Midwest. publication in traditional print. Lewiss ingenuity was not exhausted on Elmer. 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 famous evangelist Billy Sunday called Lewis Satans cohort.. Her main supporter is worldly William Morgan (Dean Jagger) who believes in Falconer, and sees Gantry and Lefferts for the opportunistic impediments they are. Shortly after the publication of Elmer Gantry, H. G. Wells published a widely syndicated newspaper article called "The New American People", in which he largely based his observations of American culture on Lewis' novels. Horace Carp is a student at Mizpah Theological Seminary. The consulting analyst's duties generally include planning studies and analyses of the business problems or issues, the consultants have been asked to help resolve. But the honest man who dares to live according to his convictions, and to speak about them in public, has no place in a superstitious society; when he gives an antifundamentalist lecture, Frank is beaten and blinded. He really shines as a tarnished, immoral salesman who spends Christmas at a bar and leaves with one of the ladies during the Great Depression in the heartland. but I have my doubts ", Wow! 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. [2][3] It is easy to see why Burt Lancaster won an oscar for his excellent portrayal of Elmer Gantry. On publication in 1927, Elmer Gantry created a public furor. A serious obstacle to her goal is Gantry, but more so is the cautionary and caustic pen of Jim Lefferts (Arthur Kennedy), a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who questions the personal and financial motives of her entourage. I give this movie a 10 only because there is nothing above that. In the Shadow of No Future: Justice Claims and the Israel-Palestine Conflict? But Page plays the small role of choir leader Sister Rachel. I have long felt that Burt Lancaster often made movies great because his acting was much bigger-than-life, and he also helped degrade a few movies for this very same reason. He is taken with Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons) who runs revival meetings. Starring Shirley Jones Arthur Kennedy Burt Lancaster Patti Page Jean Simmons. He is a born salesman well versed with the bible. While Gantry seeks and eventually gets forgiveness from Sharon, tragedy strikes when she finally manages to get out of her revivalist tent and opens a permanent church. Fired from the Seminary, he is hired as a traveling salesman of farm implements. A lady runs by Elmer in a blue jacket, and her jacket is on fire. In The Master, Joaquin Phoenix plays an alcoholic failure who falls in thrall to cult leader Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Like everything else in the Lone Star State, our dreams were big from the start. Elmer Gantry may have a rather unsavoury past but the one thing he can do better than anyone is sell himself, pots, pans, anything. But both the show and their relationship are threatened when one of Gantry's ex-lovers decides that she must settle a score with the charismatic performer. The incident is not strictly necessary for the plot, and Leffertss father never appears in the novel again. 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. Were in the temple of the Lord! But Sharon stands by Elmer and truth prevails, until both are seduced by fame and blind faith over common sense, and fate deals them a crushing blow. The ships captain who in the storm took counsel with the orphaned but righteous child of missionaries in Zomballa. 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. Many of the people attending the revivals would then be working-class individuals. Some found it repugnant and accused Lewis of grossly distorting his subject matter. Sharon Falconer is a charismatic evangelist who travels around the country holding spectacular revival meetings. Oh, my dear people, my dear people, I am not going to preach tonightwe are all so weary of nagging sermons about being nice and good! Elmer Gantry the novel came out in 1925 and it took 35 years to get it to the screen. 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." The target of his earthly desires is Beautiful Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons) a sincere, but fallible woman out to build a ministry. They make enough money to build a temple, and Sister Sharon falls for Elmer. He is a complete hypocrite and a complete opportunist. As the music dies, Gantry picks up where they left off and continues the hymn. Movie Forums . He is invited by a group of scholars to go on a lecture tour to oppose religious fundamentalism, but his first lecture, in a city in the southwest, he is interrupted by local toughs. He was saturated with itthe sermons, hymns, Bible stories, funerals, weddings, Sunday schools. Should creationism be taught in public schools? He uses the church to further his own ambitions for power and fame. These blossoming words, these organ-like phrases, these profound notions, had been rammed home till they stuck in his brain, ready for use. T. J. Rigg is a famous criminal lawyer and a trustee of Wellspring Methodist Church in Zenith. With a long line of charismatic cinematic rogues to his credit, Burt Lancaster pulls off a barnstorming performance as Elmer Gantry, the salesman turned opportunistic evangelist whose fast-talking pitch scarcely slackens, off-stage or on. Eddie spreads the word that Elmer, who has never shown any zeal for religion, has been converted. . But while Elmers career ascends, that of the honest Frank Shallard, who goes to the seminary with Elmer, descends to the point where Frank is beaten up by members of the Ku Klux Klan for preaching what he believes to be the truth. But occasionally Lewis tries to endow him with a soul, as in the incident of his conversion at Terwillinger College. He is coerced into becoming a minister because his family, his town, and his college are so tightly structured around the church. Thus Rebecca West could write incisively about the religious and historical perspectives of Elmer Gantry: The passages in the book which present to one what Mr. Lewis regards as the proper attitude to religion are disconcertingly jejune. Miss West goes on to say that like Mark Twain, who in Connecticut Yankee looked at medieval Europe and said, My, werent they dumb? Lewis has no sense of the struggle of the human mind to evolve from chaos to the achievements of his age. The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. He is so good that it is hard to He enters the ministry because he cannot think of anything else to do in life. The novel is absorbing, and I should like to say a few words about it. Paperback June 3, 2014. Elmers mind is shallow; he simply does not have the capacity for serious thought about such issues. He welcomes Elmer into the Methodist church. It is success that proves faith in this religion, not the other way round. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/elmer-gantry. The two make a successful onstage pair, and their chemistry extends to romance. Pengilly sees through him with the spiritual eye of an eagle, and asks, Mr. NATIONALITY: British If a satirist depicts the object of his satire as based on humbug, advocated by humbug, and defended by humbug, he must employ a great deal of wit and fantasy to prevent his attack from seeming cross-grained and peevish. The boy sees the preacher as a man who can possibly heal his crippled leg. We're confident we succeeded and have no doubt you'll agree. He speaks in many big cities and acquires a new secretary, Hettie Bowler, with whom he has an affair. He is soon invited to preach at one of her meetings. He wonders whether he might have become a great chemist, which would surely have been better (and more profitable) than year after year again of standing in the pulpit and knowing your congregation dont remember what youve said seven minutes after youve said it. From discontented dean, who never appears again, the narrative moves immediately to the aged parents of the deans wife. He charms the congregation and quickly becomes part of the community. North, who is in charge of the National Association for the Purification of Art and the Press, known as Napap. Encyclopedia.com. publication online or last modification online. (February 23, 2023). As he gains experience, Elmer attempts to broaden his mind. But it certainly was worth the wait. He is immediately Well, he didn't disappoint here, either, with a fantastic performance as those of you who have seen this already know. His quest for God is a secular quest. He joins up with Mrs. Evans Riddle, who teaches New Thought, a Westernized version of Indian religion. Im a very ignorant young woman with a lot of misdirected energy and some tiny idealism, she explains to Elmer. Since he is ordinarily only a caricature, we cannot consider him a believeable human being; and when Lewis tells us that he has a conscience, we refuse to believe it. When Elmer is converted, Jim moves out of his room in disgust. Also, Neil Diamonds 1976 live performance of his song Brother Loves Travelling Salvation Show, here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brt4r_y1y4Q#t=68In a very Elmer Gantry moment, starting at 2:54, after singing the Lord gave us two good hands, brothers and sisters, one for the givin and one for the takin, Diamond stretches out his hand toward a young woman who places in it the key to what must be her hotel room. Her voice was warm, a little husky, desperately alive. Elmer Gantry subtitles. This tended to undermine the uniqueness of Christianity and the literal interpretation of the Bible. Continuity mistake: At the end, there is a scene in a burning church. Later, Lewis will show Elmer no mercy, but at this stage his target is not so much the soon-to-be preacher but the social and psychological context in which he is formed. It was both a popular and critical success, selling 295,000 copies in the first year. In a notable passage Lewis tells us sympathetically of the problems of the rebel, of the preacher or the writer who suffers from sensitivity and innocence: He was supposed to cure an affliction called vice. Religion is an aspect of culture that permeates all societies, and much of history is defined by religions in power at the time. Shirley Jones small part made the movie. After the fire and Sharons death, Elmer is conscience-stricken. He plans to quit the church and get a good job selling real estate. Box sets galore! WebOn publication, Elmer Gantry had a sensational reception. Burt Lancaster acted in a number of excellent films during the late 1950s and early 1960s. As a boy, the Baptist church was all he knew. One might say that on matters of truth, he is neutral; he is not a believer or a nonbeliever. McGarry is accused by the fundamentalists of heresy, and he does not seem to accept the traditional dogmas of the Methodist Church: [T]he only dogma he was known to give out positively was the leadership of Jesusas to whose divinity he was indefinite.. date the date you are citing the material. Shirley Jones won an Oscar for best supporting actress in her role as the woman who can bring Gantry down. Pretending to be outraged, Elmer resigns his position. Elmer's presence is against the wishes of Sister Sharon's manager, William Morgan, who sees through Elmer's smooth-talking veneer, although he can't argue with the bottom line that Elmer brings to the meetings. Lewis divorced his wife in 1928, and married Dorothy Thompson. At Terwillinger College, Elmer captains the football team. He is friendly but self-important; everyone thinks he is popular, but in fact he has almost no friends.
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