Elmer Gantry

(1960)

★ 7.3 IMDb · 206 votes

Genres: Drama

Year: 1960

Runtime: 146 мин

Country: United States of America

Director: Richard Brooks

Cast: Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, Артур Кеннеди, Dean Jagger, Shirley Jones, Patti Page, Эдвард Эндрюс, John McIntire, Hugh Marlowe, Joe Maross

Plot

A charismatic charlatan begins a business — and eventually romantic — relationship with a roadside evangelist to sell religion to 1920s America. Based on Sinclair Lewis' novel of the same name.

Elmer Gantry is a fast-talking, hard-drinking traveling salesman who always has a risqué story and a hip flask to entertain cronies and customers alike. He is immediately taken with Sister Sharon Falconer, a lay preacher whose hellfire-and-damnation revivalism has attracted quite a following. Gantry uses his own quick wit and Bible knowledge to become an indispensable part of Sister Sharon's roadshow, but his past soon catches up with him in the form of Lulu Bains, now a prostitute. 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.