Elmer Gantry

Burt Lancaster was one of a handful of male movie stars who served as role models for me when I was a young boy.  He was strong, virile, and courageous.  I wish I could have been more like him in my youth.  

I remember watching Burt Lancaster at the Oswego Theater in The Flame and the Arrow (1950), The Crimson Pirate (1952), South Sea Woman (1953), Vera Cruz (1954), Trapeze (1956), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961).  Elsewhere, I saw him in Seven Days in May (1964), The Train (1964), and The Professionals (1966).

Burt Lancaster was born in his parents' house at 209 East 106th Street in the Borough of Manhattan in New York City on November 2, 1913.  After being a gymnast at DeWitt Clinton High School, he developed skills as an acrobat and joined the Kay Brothers Circus.  Lancaster enlisted in the U.S. Army at the beginning of WWII, after which he returned to New York and took up acting. After performing in only one stage play that lasted just three weeks, he attracted the attention of a Hollywood movie agent, Harold Hecht, with whom he later formed a production company (see May 1, 2016 blog post -- Marty the Movie).

Burt Lancaster's first film, The Killers (1946), is a classic example of film noir and effectively launched his career as a movie star.  In it, he portrays The Swede, a man whom two professional killers are sent to murder.  As Lancaster said in the film, "I did something wrong...once."  Even though he was rubbed out early in the movie (based on a short story written by Ernest Hemingway), he is the leading man (opposite the glamorous Ava Gardner) and appears in the rest of the film in numerous flashbacks.

Burt Lancaster was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actor, but lost: From Here to Eternity (1953 - losing to William Holden in Stalag 17 - see blog post of 4/2/16), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962 - losing to Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird), and Atlantic City (1981 - losing to Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond).  However, in 1960, he won his Academy Award for Best Actor as Elmer Gantry.

Elmer Gantry, the movie, was written and directed by Richard Brooks.  Besides Burt Lancaster, it starred Jean Simmons and Shirley Jones.  In addition to the above Academy Award, Jones won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and Brooks won an Academy Award for Best Writing (Screenplay - based on material from another medium - book written by Sinclair Lewis).  The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture but lost to The Apartment (see my blog post, Shut Up and Deal, January 1, 2017).

   

The character Elmer Gantry "is a hard-drinking, fast talking traveling salesman with a charismatic personality."  One day in the late 1920s, he enters the tent of the traveling evangelist, Sister Sharon Falconer (Simmons).  Gantry is attracted to her and uses his cunning to join her entourage.  He eventually becomes her confidante and lover.  Falconer's rise to the top of her profession is shattered when Gantry is blackmailed by a prostitute (Jones) who was his former lover.  Everything Falconer and Gantry worked for comes crashing down when their tent becomes engulfed in flames.

         

My favorite scene in the movie is when Gantry confronts Sharon about his true feelings for her.

Gantry:  You wouldn’t know the truth if it bit you.  It’s you I want, Sharon.  No one else.  I want you so bad, I’m in pain half the time.  I would like to tear those holy wings off you and make a real woman out of you.  I’d show you what heaven was like.  No golden stairways or harp music or silvery clouds.  Just ecstacy!  Coming and going!

Sharon:  Do you really think I’m competing for your glorious body?

Gantry:  You’re damn right you are.  Every woman competes with every other woman for every man.  The truth, Sharon.  You want it.  You want it just as much as I do.  You want it with me.  When are you going to make up your mind to take it? 

Sadly, Burt Lancaster died on October 20, 1994 (at age 80) as a result of his third heart attack.  His body was cremated and, at his request, there was no funeral nor memorial service (all similar to my brother Ted).