ELMER GANTRY (DVD/WS/1.66:1/1960/THEATRICAL T/VINTAGE CLASSICS) DVD

Elmer Gantry
Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster), a drunken, dishonest street preacher allegedly patterned on Billy Sunday, wrangles a job with the travelling tent ministry conducted by Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons). Thanks to Gantry's enthusiastic hellfire-and-brimstone sermons, Sister Sharon's operation rises to fame and fortune, enough so that Sharon realizes her dream of building her own enormous tabernacle. These ambitions are put in jeopardy when a prostitute (Oscar-winning Shirley Jones), a former minister's daughter who'd been deflowered by Gantry years earlier, lures Gantry into a compromising situation and has photographs taken. It took several years for any Hollywood studio to take a chance with Sinclair Lewis' novel, and when it finally did arrive on the screen, producer/director Richard Brooks was compelled to downplay some of the more "sacrilegious" passages in the original. Also appearing in Elmer Gantry are Arthur Kennedy as an H.L. Mencken-style atheistic journalist, and Edward Andrews as George Babbitt, a character borrowed from another Sinclair Lewis novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast Burt Lancaster as Elmer Gantry Jean Simmons as Sister Sharon Falconer Dean Jagger as William L. Morgan Arthur Kennedy as Jim Lefferts Shirley Jones as Lulu Bains Edward Andrews as George Babbitt Patti Page as Sister Rachel John McIntire as Rev. Pengilly Joe Maross as Pete Everett Glass as Rev. Brown Michael Whalen as Rev. Phillips Hugh Marlowe as Rev. Garrison Philip Ober as Rev. Planck Wendell Holmes as Rev. Ulrick Rex Ingram as Preacher

Crew Edward Carrere - Art Director Dorothy Jeakins - Costume Designer Richard Brooks - Director Marjorie Fowler - Editor Andre Previn - Composer (Music Score) Robert J. Schiffer - Makeup Harry Maret - Makeup John Alton - Cinematographer Gilbert Kurland - Production Manager Bernard Smith - Producer William F. Calvert - Set Designer Frank A. Tuttle - Set Designer Harry D. Mills - Sound/Sound Designer Richard Brooks - Screenwriter Sinclair Lewis - Book Author

Elmer Gantry
This once scandalous adaptation of the trenchant Sinclair Lewis novel may now seem a little dated, but it still has much to recommend it. It pulls few punches in its story of the hypocrisy, materialism, and opportunism at the heart of the evangelical world of Bible-thumping barnstorming revival troupes, an industry that professes to be about spiritual salvation. In the title role, Burt Lancaster moves like a powerful steam engine through the rustic countryside: there's no stopping this man. Gantry is charismatic and enigmatically complex, even if Lancaster is occasionally too much a bull in a china shop to convey his character's subtler motivations. Still, there's no denying his magnetism, which helped Lancaster earn his first and only Academy Award. Jean Simmons offers a more quietly sophisticated portrayal as Sister Sharon Falconer, but it is Shirley Jones, in the flashier role of Gantry's ex-flame and prostitute Lulu, who garnered the Best Supporting Actress nod from the Academy. Some questionable character development in the film's latter stages is overcome by writer/director Richard Brooks's barbed and darkly satirical Oscar-winning script, which also keeps the film from getting bogged down in obvious moralizing, as we are encouraged to love, loathe, and forgive the characters. Brooks' sharp editing and quick pacing are also an important asset in this dialogue-driven 2 1/2-hour film. ~ Dan Jardine, All Movie Guide
 

Andre Previn: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Drama or Comedy Score (nominated) Burt Lancaster: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Actor (winner) Burt Lancaster: Golden Globe, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama (winner) Burt Lancaster: New York Film Critics Circle, Best Actor (winner) Jean Simmons: Golden Globe, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama (nominated) Richard Brooks: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Adapted Screenplay (winner) Richard Brooks: Directors Guild of America, Best Director (nominated) Richard Brooks: Golden Globe, Best Director (nominated) Shirley Jones: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Supporting Actress (winner) Shirley Jones: Golden Globe, Best Supporting Actress (nominated) Shirley Jones: National Board of Review, Best Supporting Actress (winner)

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Picture (nominated) British Academy of Film and Television, Best British Film (nominated) Golden Globe, Best Picture - Drama (nominated) National Board of Review, Best Picture (nominated)

General Specifications: Language Options: English, French, Spanish Subtitle Options: French, Spanish Sound Processing: 1: PCM mono Additional Features: Original theatrical trailer English: mono French: mono Spanish: mono French and Spanish subtitles DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1: Vistavision MPAA Rating: NR DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 147 min Part of Series: Vintage Classics   DVD Chapters: Scene Selections 0. Scene Selections 1. Warning/Title [2:32] 2. Fast Talker [12:27] 3. Sharon's Big Tent [10:58] 4. Charm A Charmer [6:54] 5. Chapter 5 [12:09] 6. Chapter 6 [6:20] 7. Chapter 7 [5:59] 8. Chapter 8 [:32] 9. Chapter 9 [15:13] 10. Chapter 10 [7:04] 11. Chapter 11 [7:54] 12. Chapter 12 [5:33] 13. Chapter 13 [7:07] 14. Chapter 14 [11:06] 15. Chapter 15 [3:47] 16. Chapter 16 [7:11]