During the service one man begins speaking in tongues. Then his past comes back to haunt him in the form of Lulu Bains (Shirley Jones) who is now a prostitute. Consider the character of Jim Lefferts, as revealed in the first three chapters. This tended to undermine the uniqueness of Christianity and the literal interpretation of the Bible. Also, Neil Diamonds 1976 live performance of his song Brother Loves Travelling Salvation Show, here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brt4r_y1y4Q#t=68In a very Elmer Gantry moment, starting at 2:54, after singing the Lord gave us two good hands, brothers and sisters, one for the givin and one for the takin, Diamond stretches out his hand toward a young woman who places in it the key to what must be her hotel room. To increase his vocabulary he begins a word list: incinerate, Merovingian, Golgotha, Leigh Hunt, defeasance, chansonromantic-sounding words. Binch is brought on for one five-page section of chapter 14, when Elmer and Sharon happen to meet him in Joliet and lunch with him. The two make a successful onstage pair, and their chemistry extends to romance. Playing the title character, Lancaster won his first and only Oscar, for Best Actor. Only the novels It Cant Happen Here (1935) and Kingsblood Royal (1947) have stood the test of time. Complex, Fascinating, Relevant; A Must See, A Much Better Than Average Literary Adaption, A thought-provoking look at revivalist religion in which includes the magnetic presence of Burt Lancaster. Four men and two women crawled about a pillar, barking like dogs, barking the devil out of the tree.. The two make a successful onstage pair, and their chemistry extends to romance. Excellent recounting based on the controversial Sinclair Lewis novel that got three Academy Awards . 41930. ), Elmers friend Jim Lefferts, a freethinker, has a somewhat wider list than Elmer: an encyclopedia, Pickwick, Swinburne, Ingersoll, and Paine. "You're all sinners! If there was a soul to be saved - Gantry would save it. Elmer Gantry is a fast talking, hard drinking traveling salesman who always has a risqu story and a hip flask to entertain cronies and customers alike. Lit by fire, Lancaster (Elmer Gantry) preaches to a crowd. You have every right to an explanation. If all of them are there, he says. In the following essay excerpt, Lundquist suggests that Lewis portrays religion as stifling, as a manifestation of the pioneer mentality that characterized the old American and has become a threat to the new American. It seems unlikely that Lancasters character would risk immolation for her. Grebstein, Sheldon Norman, Sinclair Lewis, Twayne United States Authors Series, No. WebHow does the novel Elmer Gantry end? Hettie Dowler becomes Elmers secretary at Zenith when Elmer is already famous. The novel's protagonist, the Reverend Dr. Elmer Gantry, is initially attracted by booze and easy money (though he eventually renounces tobacco and alcohol) and chasing women. Driven by ambition to become a bishop, he is hugely successful, and is given bigger and bigger churches. Elmer would probably not be able to answer this question. Afterward, he must resign himself to helplessness for the rest of his life. Ferguson, Charles W., Review of Elmer Gantry, in Critical Essays on Sinclair Lewis, edited by Martin Bucco, G. K. Hall, 1986, pp. Harry Zenz is a student at the Mizpah Theological Seminary. Ive made herby prayer and by having a right to be her!. I once dated (briefly) a guy who sold steel. International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, "Elmer Gantry, a Flawed Preacher for the Ages", "The Censorship Crusade: A Story For Banned Books Week | Americans United", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elmer_Gantry&oldid=1142298283, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, A 1970 Broadway musical adaptation, titled. Frank suffers from self-consciousness about his occupation; it is the same sense of doubt which Lewis has expressed about the writing career: Frank still resented it that, as a parson, he was considered not quite virile; that even clever people felt they must treat him with a special manner; that he was barred from knowing the real thoughts and sharing the real desires of normal humanity.. It was on the steamer home that he met and became intimate with J. E. North, the renowned vice-slayer, executive secretary of the National Association for the Purification of Art and the Pressaffectionately known through all the evangelical world as the Napap. Mr. North was not a clergyman (though he was a warm Presbyterian layman), but no clergyman in the country had more furiously pursued wickedness, more craftily forced congressmen, through threats in their home districts, to see legislation in the same reasonable manner as himself. To revisit this article, select My Account, then View saved stories. B. Equity is one part of a broader vision for the Hiawatha network of schools. Juanita Klauzel is Elmers girlfriend in Cato, Missouri, when he is a student at Terwillinger College. I just spend two days at my best friends' home for his father's funerals, and during the obligatory moments of life contemplation, we were wondering what was awaiting us all. By what name was Elmer Gantry (1960) officially released in India in English? Having ridiculed the unfortunate Dr. Binch, Lewis removes him from the scene and never mentions him again. If there are three dates, the first date is the date of the original Lewis is like a ruthless hunter who spares nothing and still has ammunition left at the end of the day. The main purpose of the picaresque novel (a modern example of which is Saul Bellows The Adventures of Augie March), is satire. (Courtesy of Degebo, Berlin, Germany.) Higher criticism also showed that some elements in the Bible were also found in other religions and mythologies (the virgin birth, for example). Lulu becomes devoted to Elmer but he gets bored with her. He befriends local reporters in hopes of getting his name in the papers, and eventually he leads a raid on Zeniths red-light district. Schorer discusses Lewiss research for the novel, including the clergyman he met in Kansas City. But occasionally Lewis tries to endow him with a soul, as in the incident of his conversion at Terwillinger College. Later Frank is thrown from the church and he ventures forth as a worker in a charity organization. At Mizpah Theological Seminary, Elmer and his fellow students all smoke in their dormitory, even though smoking is practically forbidden. As he gains experience, Elmer attempts to broaden his mind. Pursuing a career as a freelance writer, Lewis began to produce fiction with ease and ingenuity, and he published five novels from 1912 to 1919. In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has played a variety of He charms the congregation and quickly becomes part of the community. Some while later Shallard goes on a lecture tour to speak against fundamentalism. Gantry introduces savvy business practices to Sharons ministry and manipulative psychology to the services themselves, and Sharon becomes wealthy as a result. Kayfabe, or, Why a Scholar of Religion Might Be Interested in Pro Wrestling. Im a very ignorant young woman with a lot of misdirected energy and some tiny idealism, she explains to Elmer. It is not merely a case of the good priest versus the bad priest. Well, he didn't disappoint here, either, with a fantastic performance as those of you who have seen this already know. Gantry threatens to avenge him but takes no action. One thing he is aware of is that professing belief serves his purposes very well, and for all he knows, every word of Baptist or Methodist dogma might be true. The movie provided Burt Lancaster, Shirley Jones, and Richard Brooks all with Oscars and it has become a classic. Tracing two years in th, Matthew Gregory Lewis Elmer reads Browning, Tennyson, Dickens. This short scene is written from Elmers point of view. Even the physical description of Binch is calculated to evoke disgust: Dr. Harry Zenz vehemently disagrees with Eddie. When a charismatic preacher comes to town for a revival meeting, he seeks out Gantry and tricks him into attending. Is there really a conflict between science and religion, between reason and faith, or can the two live in harmony? Dinner at the Governors Ball with Eddie Fisher. MAJOR WORKS: Although Elmer is clearly a self-centered individual from the beginning, Lewis presents him, up to and including his conversion, as being swept along by sociological and psychological forces over which he has no control. It is the Morning and the Evening Star. Co-stars Jean Simmons and Shirley Jones. Where she is quiet and gentle with her manner of preaching, he is all fire and brimstone, literally throwing himself about the audience and inflaming them into repentance. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child. It is Elmers Napoleonic ambition to combine all such organizations to the greater glory of himself: He would combine in one association all the moral organizations in Americaperhaps, later, in the entire world. He first worked with William L. "Big Bill" Stidger, pastor of the Linwood Boulevard Methodist Episcopal Church in Kansas City, Missouri. Gantry considers Shallards company an obstacle to his plans with Lulu, so he engineers Shallards resignation with accusations of apostasy. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Thats Elmer Gantry. One should imagine instead, I think, that she might have the same great-grandaddy as President Lyndon Baines Johnson: Baptist preacher George Baines. He could hear her wailing, Dont be afraid! And if I could still only be sure about the virgin birth! In another scene, Falconer exhibits pride and materialism when she admits that she always wanted her own church with a giant glowing cross. The couple abandons their campaign against Elmer and leave Nellie Benton is Jim Lefferts girlfriend when he is a student. Every decision Elmer makes thereafter is one of compromise. The Lancastic! Like everything else in the Lone Star State, our dreams were big from the start. If there are two dates, the date of publication and appearance . Lynnell Mickelsen: Why all the conspiracy theories and pearl-clutching in this years school board race. On his first visit in 1889, he held campaigns in cities from Boston to San Francisco. Lewis divorced his wife in 1928, and married Dorothy Thompson. At times he is almost satanic, a compendium of all the vices; they are too many and too flagrant for him to be real. When Elmer joins evangelist Sharon Falconer, he supplies poetry for her sermons, using Ella Wheeler Wilcox, James Whitcomb Riley, and Thomas Moore, with philosophy from Ralph Waldo Trine. Gantrys descendants stretch from Neil Diamonds 1969 song Brother Loves Travelling Salvation Show to the 2012 film The Master, by Paul Thomas Anderson (who also made Magnolia). At the end he is still eyeing the women in the congregation even as he calls for a crusade to make America a moral nation. At his Lively Sunday Evenings, Elmer gets up to many publicity-generating stunts. She is looking to work in Applied Business Anthropology. But while Elmers career ascends, that of the honest Frank Shallard, who goes to the seminary with Elmer, descends to the point where Frank is beaten up by members of the Ku Klux Klan for preaching what he believes to be the truth. Elmer starts to detest her when he finds out that she is cold, sexually. Sacrilege is a word that was used often in the violent arguments that accompanied the publication in 1927 of Elmer Gantry. McPherson was involved in a scandal in 1926. Based on the muckraker Sinclair Lewis' novel, and superbly translated to the screen by Richard Brooks (In Cold Blood , The Professionals, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), this story of huckster-ism by religion is a masterpiece. Burt Lancaster as Elmer Gantry, lit in stark noirish style by cinematographer John Alton. But it all comes to an end one night in Clontar, on the New Jersey coast, where Sharon has purchased a pier. These blossoming words, these organ-like phrases, these profound notions, had been rammed home till they stuck in his brain, ready for use. The character of Sharon Falconer was loosely based on events in the career of the Canadian-born American radio evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, who founded the Pentecostal Christian denomination known as the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in 1927. Jim tries to persuade Elmer not to go along with it, but when Elmer attends the Annual Prayer Week he cannot resist the emotionalism of the service. Lewis indicates the shaping of minds and values in such a village as Elmers: The church and Sunday School at Elmers village, Paris, Kansas, a settlement of nine hundred evangelical Germans and Vermonters had been the center of all his emotions, aside from hell-raising, hunger, sleepiness, and love. But he had never encountered vice . As a character, Dr. Gantry lacks verisimilitude, and he lacks it more the longer he lives.. Write a brief character sketch of Frank Shallard and describe his role in the novel. The target of his earthly desires is Beautiful Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons) a sincere, but fallible woman out to build a ministry. They are encouraged by Dr. Zechlin, who tells him that no reasonable person can be a believing Christian; nevertheless, he ought to stay in the church to liberalize it from withinin effect, to destroy it. But what perhaps made Elmer Gantry seem like such an act of outrage to so many readers is that Lewis did not simply treat religion in relation to other aspects of American life; he saw it instead as the molder of basic attitudes, most of which were, in his opinion, bad. I kept asking him about steelwhat its made of, what its used foruntil one day he said in exasperation, I dont care about steel. The Pilgrim's Regress (1933) Judson Roberts is an evangelist who is the state secretary of the Y.M.C.A. Elmer Gantry was raised by his mother, a staunch Baptist, in the small town of Paris, Kansas. Thus, Schorer concludes, there is no pressure upon Elmer to be forced into a position of new self-awareness. Quarles has no time for vain arguments that lead nowhere! Quarles is hostile to the kind of free intellectual inquiry that the liberals advocate, and he relies instead on prayer and faith. Gaining and keeping followers is the key to the success of any religion, and religious leaders must recognize this and figuratively, though sometimes literally, sell the religion. Elmer Gantry is a picaresque novel. WebElmer Gantry. That night she seduces him. It tells the story of a hypocritical, corrupt, but very successful preacher named Elmer Gantry. Finally, the Elmer Gantry script is here for all you quotes spouting fans of the Burt Lancaster movie. That night he has doubts, but he is persuaded to speak the following night at the Y.M.C.A. As the good Sister employs him as a Bible-spouting person to expand the God Will and along the way he gets considerable success . His quest for God is a secular quest. Still, Falconer dies for her beliefs and is shown to fervently believe in God; she clearly wants to save people. Given, too, that the film's production was 1960, we can say that "Elmer Gantry" does not reflect the current, 21st century, state of religious fundamentalism in America. ****. date the date you are citing the material. Over seventy-five years after it first appeared, Elmer Gantry still has power to shock as well as amuse. The fundamentalists also have to deal with outright skeptics, like Jim Lefferts, and covert atheists like Dr. Zechlin. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. Prayings the cheapest first-rate medicine I know, he says. He is tested by temptation and almost capitulates, but is then wrongly accused by the jilted temptress. Im not! PG. It's sophisticated script, complex characters, and wonderful acting opened a whole new world for me. WebElmer Gantry; Keith Phares, Sharon Falconer; Jennifer Rivera. The Reverend McGarry tells Frank simply to accept the church with all its imperfectionswith its Gantrysand turn to giving hope and comfort to the piteous human beings who come to the church for help. I think she does a brilliant job but I wished that she had more speaking moments. Connected to this it must be said that I did think the plot was a little thin at times and the strength of film does lie in the general portrayal of the world rather than the nitty-gritty of any one character or thread (although even the thin bits are pretty good). He calls out to God for help. Religion is an aspect of culture that permeates all societies, and much of history is defined by religions in power at the time. By so doing they give themselves an advantage over the general public. How long would a drunkard listen to the counsel of one who had never been inside a saloon? He thereby makes a defiant gesture, nonetheless, somewhat apart from his customary preoccupation with quixotic heroes whom he could admire for their protests, rebellion, and search for freedom. You're all sinners! However, Lewis does not seem to have had such an intention at first; once again, half the novel is concerned with one theme and half with a related but different one. He uses the church to further his own ambitions for power and fame. Many reviewers have already remarked on this terrific movie far better than I can, so this message is really for younger people interested in serious film. The merit of this argument is undermined because it is given by Babbitt, not out of caring for the citizens of Zenith, but rather because he stands to gain the most financially from the revival.
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