Elmer Gantry (1960)

Directed by Richard Brooks. Starring Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, Arthur Kennedy, Shirley Jones, Dean Jagger, Edward Andrews, Patti Page, John McIntire, Joe Maross, Dayton Lummis, Hugh Marlowe, Barry Kelley.

Sinclair Lewis’ controversial novel becomes a controversial film in the hands of socially-conscious agitator Richard Brooks. Lancaster won the only Academy Award of his career with his molten charisma as the titular cynical con man who operates as a rabble-rousing revivalist. He can take an entire small town into the palm of his hands with his fire-and-brimstone sermons, but he can’t fool everyone, including Kennedy’s reporter (a cultivated doubter) and Jones’ prostitute (a spurned lover of Elmer’s dating back many years). Though it’s undeniably overblown and overlong, there are more than enough skillfully bristling moments within the melodrama to seize upon the panic, sway to the spiritual snake-oil merchant’s charms, and give in to its persuasive barnstorming and condemnatory (literal) hellfire. Jones also won an Oscar, along with Brooks for his screenplay adaptation, which alters (and prunes) much of the source material.

79/100