Elmer Gentry 1960
Elmer Gentry (Burt Lancaster) is a hard talking hard drinking traveling salesman who talks more than he can deliver. He just drifts from town to town living hand to mouth, calling home everywhere he lays his hat.
He meets an evangelist, Sister Sharon Falconer (Jeans Simmons) who leads a revivalist movement. Elmer with his persuasive talk manages to infiltrate the Christianity revival movement and gives confidence to Sr. Sharon to spread her word of God to even the most hostile of the congregation in the town of Zenith.
The movement is reviewed by the local newspaper man, Jim Lefferts, who is a sceptic but is fascinated with how Elmer manages to convince his audience.
Pretty soon, they are the talk of town and Elmer leads the townsmen on moralist hunt to wreck establishments selling booze and flesh!
In one such brothel that Elmer led to destroy, he was taken aback when he bumped into his old flame, Lulu (Shirley Jones, mother of Hardy Boys co-star Shaun Cassidy). Lulu is still vengeful on Elmer for jilting her.
Elmer manages to get Lulu out of prison.
In the meantime, Sharon confides to Elmer of her humble beginnings and her life long ambition to establish a tabernacle to spread the word of God. She turned down Elmer's proposal to settle down and start a family.
Lulu, with evil on her mind, calls Elmer over to capture pictures of them in compromising postures. She blackmails Sharon for cash, failing which the pictures would be sold to the press.
Sharon offers to pay up but at the last minute, Lulu declines and sells it to the press anyway. The backlash leaves the movement in tatters. Lulu, on second thoughts, makes amendments in the papers later, when she is saved from her pimp who beats her to pulp for losing money and Elmer comes to her rescue.
A grand mass was in progress when a fire gutted and Sharon perishes in the fire.
Elmer moves on with his life with his suitcase whilst the rest of the Sr Sharon's gang decide to continue her good work.
When Elmer is asked to continue his preaching, he just says, "When I was a child, I understood as a child and spoke as a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things." (1 Corinthians 13:11)
I could swear that many of Jean Simmons' demeanour and mannerisms were much like Audrey Hepburn's.
They managed to bring forth many controversial issues like the poor records and management of funds by the evangelist group, the gullibility of people to religion and the sinful lives that the preacher are or have had without creating much of adverse publicity. I was pleasantly surprised to see a forewarning at the start of the film of the sensitive nature of the story and the unsuitability of the story to the young impressionable minds of children.
Elmer Gentry (Burt Lancaster) is a hard talking hard drinking traveling salesman who talks more than he can deliver. He just drifts from town to town living hand to mouth, calling home everywhere he lays his hat.He meets an evangelist, Sister Sharon Falconer (Jeans Simmons) who leads a revivalist movement. Elmer with his persuasive talk manages to infiltrate the Christianity revival movement and gives confidence to Sr. Sharon to spread her word of God to even the most hostile of the congregation in the town of Zenith.
The movement is reviewed by the local newspaper man, Jim Lefferts, who is a sceptic but is fascinated with how Elmer manages to convince his audience.
Pretty soon, they are the talk of town and Elmer leads the townsmen on moralist hunt to wreck establishments selling booze and flesh!
In one such brothel that Elmer led to destroy, he was taken aback when he bumped into his old flame, Lulu (Shirley Jones, mother of Hardy Boys co-star Shaun Cassidy). Lulu is still vengeful on Elmer for jilting her.
Elmer manages to get Lulu out of prison.
In the meantime, Sharon confides to Elmer of her humble beginnings and her life long ambition to establish a tabernacle to spread the word of God. She turned down Elmer's proposal to settle down and start a family.
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| Jean Simmons |
Sharon offers to pay up but at the last minute, Lulu declines and sells it to the press anyway. The backlash leaves the movement in tatters. Lulu, on second thoughts, makes amendments in the papers later, when she is saved from her pimp who beats her to pulp for losing money and Elmer comes to her rescue.
A grand mass was in progress when a fire gutted and Sharon perishes in the fire.
Elmer moves on with his life with his suitcase whilst the rest of the Sr Sharon's gang decide to continue her good work.
When Elmer is asked to continue his preaching, he just says, "When I was a child, I understood as a child and spoke as a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things." (1 Corinthians 13:11)
I could swear that many of Jean Simmons' demeanour and mannerisms were much like Audrey Hepburn's.
They managed to bring forth many controversial issues like the poor records and management of funds by the evangelist group, the gullibility of people to religion and the sinful lives that the preacher are or have had without creating much of adverse publicity. I was pleasantly surprised to see a forewarning at the start of the film of the sensitive nature of the story and the unsuitability of the story to the young impressionable minds of children.
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