Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Categories: 1927 books | 1960 films | Christian fundamentalism and evangelicalism | Literary characters | Best Picture Oscar Nominee | Best Actor Oscar (film) | Best Supporting Actress Oscar (film)
Elmer Gantry
Elmer Gantry is a novel by Sinclair Lewis as well as a 1960 film 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 Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, Arthur Kennedy, Dean Jagger, Shirley Jones, Patti Page, Edward Andrews and John McIntire .
Adapted by Richard Brooks, who also directed, the movie ends about half-way into Lewis's massive novel. Among the events in the novel not in the film is a later affair between Elmer and the now-married Lulu (played by Jones).
It 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.
When the movie first played on television, the entire subplot involving Lulu as a prostitute was cut out because it clashed with Shirley Jones's then-wholesome image as the mother of The Partridge Family.
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