Elmer Gantry (1960)
Imagine putting Sister Sarah from Guys and Dolls and Bill Starbuck from The Rainmaker in a movie together. You’ll pretty much get Elmer Gantry. A charismatic conman comes to town, and tries to convince Sister Sharon (no, I’m not kidding) that he’s just as evangelical as she is.
I like both Jean Simmons and Burt Lancaster, but I didn’t end up liking Elmer Gantry. Neither one of them had to try for their performances; it was as if they were called begrudgingly for a remake of their earlier films and they didn’t bother attending rehearsals because they didn’t need to. Every one of Burt’s grandiose speeches could have been rattled off in The Rainmaker, and every reserved expression of Jean’s could have been found in the dailies of Guys and Dolls. Why make the movie at all? Two reasons: to give Burt Lancaster a make-up Oscar (from The Rainmaker, From Here to Eternity, or Come Back Little Sheba) and to give Shirley Jones an against-type Oscar.
For some reason, Shirley Jones wasn’t happy being the Queen of Musicals. If I’d become enormously famous for Oklahoma and Carousel, I wouldn’t bite the hand that fed me. I would be grateful and continue to play nice girl roles. Many, many actors don’t feel the same way, and some of them are rewarded with Oscars. Shirley played a prostitute in Elmer Gantry, and her famous line, “He rammed the fear of God into me so fast I never heard my old man’s footsteps!” won her an Academy Award, even though she was far from convincing as a hooker.
As you can tell, I really didn’t like this movie. If you love Shirley Jones and want to see her play Lulu the prostitute, you can watch this one, but there’s really no other reason why you’d watch this instead of a Guys and Dolls/The Rainmaker double feature.
Want to watch it? Click here to watch it on ok.ru. And thanks "Classic Cinema Central Seleus B" for posting!
More Burt Lancaster movies here!
More Jean Simmons movies here!
I like both Jean Simmons and Burt Lancaster, but I didn’t end up liking Elmer Gantry. Neither one of them had to try for their performances; it was as if they were called begrudgingly for a remake of their earlier films and they didn’t bother attending rehearsals because they didn’t need to. Every one of Burt’s grandiose speeches could have been rattled off in The Rainmaker, and every reserved expression of Jean’s could have been found in the dailies of Guys and Dolls. Why make the movie at all? Two reasons: to give Burt Lancaster a make-up Oscar (from The Rainmaker, From Here to Eternity, or Come Back Little Sheba) and to give Shirley Jones an against-type Oscar.
For some reason, Shirley Jones wasn’t happy being the Queen of Musicals. If I’d become enormously famous for Oklahoma and Carousel, I wouldn’t bite the hand that fed me. I would be grateful and continue to play nice girl roles. Many, many actors don’t feel the same way, and some of them are rewarded with Oscars. Shirley played a prostitute in Elmer Gantry, and her famous line, “He rammed the fear of God into me so fast I never heard my old man’s footsteps!” won her an Academy Award, even though she was far from convincing as a hooker.
As you can tell, I really didn’t like this movie. If you love Shirley Jones and want to see her play Lulu the prostitute, you can watch this one, but there’s really no other reason why you’d watch this instead of a Guys and Dolls/The Rainmaker double feature.
Want to watch it? Click here to watch it on ok.ru. And thanks "Classic Cinema Central Seleus B" for posting!
More Burt Lancaster movies here!
More Jean Simmons movies here!