Elmer Gantry (film)

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Elmer Gantry
original movie poster
Directed by	Richard Brooks
Produced by	Bernard Smith
Written by	Richard Brooks Sinclair Lewis (novel)
Starring	Burt Lancaster Jean Simmons Arthur Kennedy
Music by	André Previn
Cinematography	John Alton
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	July 7, 1960 U.S. release
Running time	146 min.
Language	English
Budget	$3,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Elmer Gantry is a 1960 film based on the 1927 novel by Sinclair Lewis, which tells the story of a con man who teams up with a female evangelist to sell religion to small-town America.

The film stars a young Burt Lancaster as Gantry, Jean Simmons as Sister Sharon, Arthur Kennedy, Dean Jagger, Shirley Jones as Lulu Baines, Patti Page, Edward Andrews, John McIntire, and Chief Tahachee. Adapted by Richard Brooks, who also directed, the movie presents less than 100 pages of the novel, deleting many characters and fundamentally changing the character and actions of female evangelist Sharon Falconer.

The film won Academy Awards for Best Actor (Burt Lancaster), Best Supporting Actress (Shirley Jones) and Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium. It was also nominated for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture and Best Picture.

[edit] References

Wheeler Dixon. "Cinematic Adaptations of the Works of Sinclair Lewis." Sinclair Lewis at 100: Papers Presented at a Centennial Conference. Ed. Michael Connaughton. St. Cloud: St. Cloud State University, 1985. 191-200.

Films directed by Richard Brooks