Missmediajunkie v. "Elmer Gantry"

Working through the films of 1960 brought me to "Elmer Gantry," based on a section of a Sinclair Lewis novel about Revivalist preachers during the 1920s. It's an interesting film, but one I've had trouble parsing. Burt Lancaster stars as the title character, a silver-tongued traveling salesman and former seminary student who loves drinking, smoking, and seducing every female in sight. One day he happens upon a revival meeting presided over by Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons), a charismatic evangelist, and promptly falls in love with her. He decides to join her cause, becoming a Billy Graham style, fire-and-brimstone preacher, to great success. However, his career is complicated by a woman from his past, a prostitute named Lulu (Shirley Jones), coming back into his life.

I knew almost nothing about "Elmer Gantry" before I saw it, except that it had been a major box office hit and won several Oscars, including acting trophies for Burt Lancaster and Shirley Jones. What immediately struck me as intriguing about the film was a notice preceding the opening titles, putting forth pre-emptive warnings about the film's criticisms of the Revivalist movement, and emphasizing that the film wasn't suitable for children. And yes, the film paints a very cynical portrait of Revivalism. There's a lot of tawdry deal-making and politicking going on behind the scenes, and Gantry finds that his new position is quite lucrative. He's able to inspire faith and devotion despite being a terrible hypocrite. Meanwhile, a true believer like Sister Falconer is ultimately punished for her hubris and ambition.

Initially, I found the film a little distasteful because the rise and success of Elmer Gantry is put in direct contrast with the trajectories of Lulu Baines and Sister Falconer, two women who experience their downfalls largely because they become involved with Gantry. On the other hand, this was a major point of the story. Lewis's novel was written as a satire, meant to show the absurdities and corrupt practices of Revivalism through his charming anti-hero. Gantry is able to unjustly escape the consequences of his behavior, while disaster befalls everyone around him. This is one of those cases where the film's age works against it, because social mores have changed so much, undercutting the film's messages. Gantry and Falconer's frank discussion of their evangelizing tactics seem perfectly normal and above board by modern standards. Gantry having his hidden vices, even in the context of the film's Prohibition era setting, isn't all that alarming. He comes across as more temporarily tarnished than truly anti-heroic.

I'm fascinated by the character of Lulu, the minister's daughter who Gantry seduced and abandoned to a life of prostitution. There are an awful lot of prostitute characters in the films of 1960, including Elizabeth Taylor's Gloria Wandrous in "BUtterfield 8" and the title character of "The World of Suzie Wong," all chafing against the restrictions of the Production Code. Lulu is not very complicated - she seeks revenge against Gantry, but loses her resolve when she sees him humiliated. I'd only seen Shirley Jones in Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals and "The Partridge Family" prior to this, and was impressed with how strong she is at playing someone so damaged and vicious. She has several scenes where she wields her sex appeal like a weapon, and it's startling. On the other hand, Lulu also reflects a bundle of terrible stereotypes about fallen women. And when put next to the saintly Sister Falconer, "Elmer Gantry" has one of the worst cases of Madonna/whore complex I've ever seen in a film.

I was also disappointed with the film's treatment of Elmer Gantry himself. Burt Lancaster's performance makes him too sympathetic, probably because the film needs him to be a romantic lead as well as a dramatic one. His moral fibre should be far more ambiguous, and his ability to escape real repercussions more troubling. Instead, we're repeatedly shown that he's remorseful of his treatment of Lulu, and truly in love with Sister Falconer. The film paints him as a flawed man who makes the right decisions in the end - saving Lulu from a violent pimp and quitting the Revivalism racket. Note that Gantry was more ambiguous in the original novel, and after parting ways with Sister Falconer, went right on preaching until he became a respected Methodist minister. I can't help but think this was a terrible wasted opportunity, especially since Lancaster was perfectly capable of delivering a memorable screen slimeball. "Elmer Gantry" came only three years after Lancaster played the iconic J.J. Hunsecker in "The Sweet Smell of Success," which notoriously received no love from the Academy.

I haven't decided what I think of the film, ultimately. It's well made and features some strong performances, but also feels half-baked in its ideas, and doesn't fully commit to its subject matter. It tries to have it both ways too many times, sympathizing with the Revivalists while criticizing their methods, and delivering a comeuppance to Gantry only to quickly walk it back. Sister Falconer's zealotry and downfall feel too out of left field, and interpretations that her tragedy is actually supposed to be a cosmic punishment for Gantry just make it come off worse. I think there's the potential for a great film here, given the source material, but the filmmakers weren't in the position to do the story justice. Given that nervous warning tacked on before the title sequence, I wonder if any commercial filmmaker in 1960 would have been.
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