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Mrs. Gantry is Elmers mother. He plans to quit the church and get a good job selling real estate. A brooding look at revivalist religion in which the over-the-top acting of Burt Lancaster steals the show . And when his hero joins the Methodist Church, Lewis takes full advantage of the opportunity to satirize another sect. 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. It seemed that perhaps the world had taken a step away from irrational belief. It would end Sunday entertainment, curtail freedom of speech, and put restrictions on the rights of Catholics. Already a member? Shortly Frank meets more of real life than he is prepared for. He uses the church to further his own ambitions for power and fame. The result would be the fascist state against which Babbitt, in anticipation of 1984, warns. Elmer thinks he is fat and pompous, but respects him nonetheless. "Elmer Gantry - Summary" Literary Essentials: Christian Fiction and Nonfiction After college, he attends a Baptist seminary and is ordained as a Baptist minister. WebHappy Birthday # 75..Barbara Lynn Herzstein, better known as Barbara Hershey, An Actress. I kept asking him about steelwhat its made of, what its used foruntil one day he said in exasperation, I dont care about steel. Since he is ordinarily only a caricature, we cannot consider him a believeable human being; and when Lewis tells us that he has a conscience, we refuse to believe it. We didn't want to make just any bourbon--we wanted to make the best bourbon. User Ratings WebFull IPTV List channels worldwide With 20000 channels + 40000 Movie and series. Bains and Naylor confront Elmer at the Seminary and tell him he must marry Lulu. Elmer tries to seduce her, but once she has become devoted to him he gets bored with her and treats her cruelly. Infuriating and erratic, but brilliantly creative, the Canadian-born British artist and writer Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957) was an always, Elman, Ziggy (originally, Finkelman, Harry), Elman, Mischa (actually, Mikhail Saulovich), Elmira Business Institute: Narrative Description, https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/elmer-gantry, Lewis, Sinclair (7 February 1885 - 10 January 1951). There is a great deal of fantasy in the novel, but it is weird and crude and goes badly with the realism. WebToday universally recognized as a landmark in American literature, Elmer Gantry scandalized readers when it was first published, causing Sinclair Lewis to be "invited" to a jail cell in New Hampshire and to his own lynching in Virginia. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. Elmer starts his career as a Baptist and then joins up with a charismatic but equally unprincipled female revivalist preacher. Sharon Falconer is an equally striking example of his satiric power. Mahlon Potts is the influential minister of the First Methodist Church in Zenith. Be the first to contribute. They were outside of respectable societylike Kingsand I am not sure but that this was better for their art and their happiness than to be classed as lecturers, tax-payers, tennis-players, suburban householders, and lovers of dogs.' Schorer, Mark, Afterword, in Elmer Gantry, Signet Classics edition, New American Library, 1967, pp. . He becomes the symbiotic antithesis to Sister Sharon: while he tells of heading toward the depths of hell for his many sins, she tells of being saved from that fate if repentance is forthcoming. After he had become a celebrity, Lewis usually managed to avoid controversy over his books by being out of the United States when they appeared. More information about the Trylons Lancastic! His flamboyant preaching style makes a big impression on the small town. Binch stopped gulping his fried pork chops and held out a flabby, white, holy hand.. ****. The Allegory of Lov, Lewis, Sinclair To revisit this article, select My Account, then View saved stories. Gantrys fame continues to grow, and he is soon preaching at churches across America. WebDownload scientific diagram | 7 Vibro compaction employing wooden gantry, 1939. The pious but stupid Eddie complains that [E]verything we Baptists stand for is threatened by those darn so-called liberals . He is referring to the practice of open communion, which is favored by liberals, as opposed to the closed communion of the fundamentalists, according to which only Baptists are allowed to participate in the rite. The incident is not strictly necessary for the plot, and Leffertss father never appears in the novel again. They also decried the growth within the church of the higher criticism, that sought to understand the Bible based on modern methods of scholarship. Anative of the midwestern United States, Sinclair Lewis (18851951) chronicled through novels, THE LITERARY WORK Jones is too frothy, but when she appears halfway through, she adds bubbles to a long movie that was starting to go flat. Lewis made the point that Protestantism has nurtured America in the same way it has nurtured Elmer. He really shines as a tarnished, immoral salesman who spends Christmas at a bar and leaves with one of the ladies during the Great Depression in the heartland. And Tom Cruise, and the whole celebrity-studded cult of Scientology; Cruise jumping on Oprahs couch or in his fantastic role as the preacher of male supremacy in Magnolia. Salesman Elmer Gantry, salesman teams up with evangelist Sister Sharon Falconer to sell religion to 1920s America. But in the house of Elmers mistress, Lulu Bains, they sing and read Seeing Nelly Home, Old Black Joe, Beulah Land, Farm and Fireside, and Modern Priscilla. Another famous name was Aimee Semple McPherson (18901944), a female evangelist who clearly resembled the fictional Sharon Falconer. While there are multiple factors for this, a significant part of this increase is due to the incarceration of formerly released individuals [], On the afternoon of Saturday, June 30, Minneapolis was one of 600 cities and towns across the country to come alive with thousands of people vigorously and collectively denouncing the U.S. governments federal immigration policies as part of the Families Belong Together nationwide march. Sharon soon fires her assistant, Cecil Alyston, and appoints Elmer as his replacement. In 1944, his son Lieutenant Wells Lewis was killed in action in France during World War II. Additionally, this positive representation of the necessity of revivals to faltering churches is soured by the probability that Falconers revivals take advantage of the lower class. The last date is today's One cleric suggested that Lewis should be imprisoned for five years, and there were also threats of physical violence against the author. TAKE NOTE: The films opening title sequence includes this advice: Due to the highly controversial nature of this film, we strongly urge you to prevent impressionable children from seeing it!, You can read the full Sinclair Lewis novel Elmer Gantry online at Project Gutenberg Australia, here:http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300851h.html, You might want to watch some Patti Pagemaybe Whatever Lola Wants, here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSsH_i6xpf8. I am Sharon Falconer now! He joins the staff of a metaphysical cult but is fired when he is caught stealing from the collection plate. While managing to cover up certain sexual indiscretions, he is thrown out of the seminary before completing his BD because he is too drunk to turn up at a church where he is supposed to preach. In 1905, after two years study, he is ordained. But the only good ministers of the Gospel seem to be those who, like Dr. Bruno Zechlin, the Old Testament scholar at Mizpah, have given up their religious beliefs. But what did he know of the forces which cause wars, personal or class or national; what of drugs, passion, criminal desire; of capitalism, banking, labor, wages, taxes; international struggles for trade, munition trusts, ambitious soldiers? He is friendly but self-important; everyone thinks he is popular, but in fact he has almost no friends. This site built with Project Largo from INN and proudly powered by WordPress. Part of a tipper lorry became wedged underneath a gantry in a crash on the M5 on Thursday, 2 March. Meanwhile, Babe Ruth was closing in on the home run record. Lancaster's vitality as a sinful preacher lights up the screen "Love is the morning and the evening star! Af It's a first rate film! She turns to healing the sick not because she has a gift or a calling for it but because it is more profitable than mere evangelizing: the whole evangelist business was limited, since even the most ardent were not likely to be saved more than three or four times. Elmer borrows a hundred dollars from Shallard, who is now a minister and is married with three children. Bell, a Black youth who had recently transferred out of Central to the High School for Recording Arts, was on Centrals campus to visit one of his former teachers. He dies in a gambling den. Her main supporter is worldly William Morgan (Dean Jagger) who believes in Falconer, and sees Gantry and Lefferts for the opportunistic impediments they are. I am above sin! Lewiss description of the service at which Elmer succumbs is compelling in its evocation of the rampant emotion of the occasion. Elmer Gantry has been called the purest Lewis by Schorer. DIED: 1963, Oxford, England While working for the Daily Courier in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1908, he wrote an editorial about fraudulent evangelists, which suggests that the seeds of Elmer Gantry were already being sown. He befriends Frank Shallard. He denounces other churches for their laxity in condemning sin. He is an opportunist, a rogue, a charlatan. Go out slowly! External Reviews Elmer Gantry begins in 1902. As the years went on, however, compromises were reached, and these can be seen in the career of Elmer, who begins as a fundamentalist and winds up as the pastor of a large, urban church. Indeed, why doesnt he? Source: Martin Light, Mantrap and Elmer Gantry, in The Quixotic Vision of Sinclair Lewis, Purdue University Press, 1975, pp. He is also too bad to be true. The speech is a roaring success. The supporting staff performed equally well. 12630. On his return, Elmer meets J. Hes the all-American salesman: hed believe, really believe, in anything he thought youd buy. When she overhears Gantry seducing their pianist, she fires them, but Gantry convinces her to reconsider. Elmer Gantry was first published in the United States by Harcourt Trade Publishers in March 1927, dedicated by Lewis to the American journalist and satirist H. L. Mencken. He became known in the 1920s for his books that satirized the spartan materialism and intolerance that The debate between fundamentalists and liberals is conducted amongst the students at Mizpah. 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. During this period, traditional religious believers were deeply disturbed by the encroachments made on faith by science and secularism. The select mini requires bed leveling and will eventually need you to do a gantry support modification as it is only supported on one side. The film leaves the realities of these mystical happenings up to interpretation, and so gives the congregants active, if small, roles in the narrative. British actress Jean Simmons as Sister Sharon, the evangelist Elmer falls for is similarly too airy. Webthe return nicholas sparks ending explained; Nach Altersklassen. I believe! He urges Elmer to become a minister. He hires a new secretary, Hettie Dowler, who replaces Lulu as his mistress. As a preacher, he shamelessly plays on peoples emotions and their fear of Hell. 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. If there are three dates, the first date is the date of the original After two years as a salesman, Elmer meets Eddie Fislinger at his church in Kansas, and he decides he wants to be a preacher again. After Sharon dismisses him in favor of Elmer, Cecil tries to conduct a rescue mission in Buffalo. Lewiss famed businessman character, George Babbitt, and pastors in the community discuss the merits of holding a revival in Zenith. Nathaniel Benham is a trustee of the Methodist church in Banjo Crossing and the father of Cleo. In the following essay excerpt, Light examines quixotic elements in Elmer Gantry. Close Alert. One famous evangelist was Gipsy Smith (18601947), an Englishman who made twenty-six trips to the United States. 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. Having ridiculed the unfortunate Dr. Binch, Lewis removes him from the scene and never mentions him again. I can kiss you like this Quickly she touches his cheek, Yes, or passionately, terribly passionately, and it would only symbolize my complete union with Jesus! 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. Cecil Aylston is Sharon Falconers assistant. That night she seduces him. On publication in 1927, Elmer Gantry created a public furor. There they meet their host, Deacon Bains, and his daughter Lulu, an ingenue whom Gantry continually tries to seduce. 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. ", Movie Lacks Something, But a Stunning Lead Performance Isn't It. He wears fine clothes, yet he rides the railways like a vagabond. Introduction of Gantry Girder. Source: Bryan Aubrey, Critical Essay on Elmer Gantry, in Novels for Students, Thomson Gale, 2006. Mark Schorer, in his biography of Lewis, records a remark that Lewis made to his friend Richards Brooks in 1946. Fired from the ministry after going drinking rather than contacting his new church, he works for two years as a traveling salesman. Although it's difficult to know if Gantry's spiritual motivation is genuine or merely a ploy, throughout the film, one is kept guessing. Elmer seems a demonic figure. The psychological factor that works against Elmer is the mechanics of the conversion experience. As in the violent, unpredictable climax, Elmer Gantry lives and dies on a kind of roiling energy, a reaction that seems to be happening But we sure view it differently 80 years after the book and 55 years after the movie debuted. PG. Dooley, D. J., The Art of Sinclair Lewis, University of Nebraska Press, 1967, pp. In the mid-1920s, Elmer Gantry is a hard-living, smooth-talking traveling salesman who often uses Christian references in his sales pitches to his largely Christian clients. Gantry's entire repertoire is performed with encyclopedic thoroughness and accuracy. Lundquist, James, Sinclair Lewis, Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1973, pp. The college president declares that he is a born preacher, and everyone urges him to become a minister. They had a son, Michael, in 1930, the same year that Lewis became the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. He is a well-educated Englishman in his early thirties with a colorful past. FAQ In his travels he comes across the traveling revival show of evangelist Sister Sharon Falconer. He advises Elmer not to denounce vice directly, by naming names and giving addresses of illegal drinking places, because the owners of such buildingswho of course have no knowledge of any illegal activitiesare often leading church contributors and attacking them would jeopardize their support for the church. She is a monstrous creation who seems to grow in size with each revelation of her craziness. 11744. He graduated from Yale in 1908 and worked in various jobs in the publishing industry, including editor, reporter, manuscript reader, and reviewer. In Zenith, when a group of local clergymen meet as the Committee on Public Morals, they reveal a distinct lack of brotherly love amongst themselves: They all detested one another. Sharon is a woman of many selves: she is imperious and efficient, but also vulnerable. Lewis divorced his wife in 1928, and married Dorothy Thompson. He had learned to assemble Jewish texts, Greek philosophy, and Middle-Western evangelistic anecdotes into a sermon. Franks mentor has been Father Pengilly, a fanciful figure whom we have already discussed. Pengilly is an old Methodist pastor who is something of a saintly figure. The evangelist Sharon Falconer, although she is not attached to any particular church, is no exception to the anti-religion theme. Elmers next position is at a church in Monarch. They hypnotize themselves, says Jim Lefferts to Elmer, trying to persuade him not to go along with it. Dr. Otto Hickenlooper is a prominent Methodist minister in Zenith, and one of Elmers rivals. He is a gigantic, larger-than-life character. It was both a popular and critical success, selling 295,000 copies in the first year. Lewiss version of what passed for religion in the United States of the 1920s brought him threats against his life and gave his name the same rhetorical function in Protestant fundamentalist sermons as that of Clarence Darrow, Darwin, and the devil himself. After collecting money from the patrons, Gantry takes a drunken barfly back to his hotel room. This abridged version of Sinclair Lewiss novel of the same name focuses on Elmer Gantry, a con man expelled from seminary school, and Sister Sharon Falconer, a character loosely based on evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. Continuity mistake: At the end, there is a scene in a burning church. It looks like we don't have any synopsis for this title yet. In a notable passage Lewis tells us sympathetically of the problems of the rebel, of the preacher or the writer who suffers from sensitivity and innocence: He was supposed to cure an affliction called vice. Elmer starts to detest her when he finds out that she is cold, sexually. In Zenith, Elmer meets Bishop Toomis, a prominent figure in the Methodist Church. Elmers start at religious leadership is rocky. But it's Elmer's past, which catches up with him in Zenith, that may be his, and by association Sister Sharon's, downfall. But he did not achieve the heights of success he had enjoyed during the 1920s. He fell in love with Sharon when he first met her, and is devoted to her. Some characters from Lewis even read Sinclair Lewis himself; the Reverend Philip McGarry asks his friend Frank Shallard to forget that you have to make a new world, bettern the Creators, right away tonightyou and Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells and H. L. Mencken and Sinclair Lewis (Lord, how that book of Lewis, Main Street, did bore me ).. WebIn the 1920s, Elmer Gantry entertains a group of fellow salesmen in a speakeasy with his ribald jokes and easy charm. Taken from the classic Sinclair Lewis novel of the same name, director Richard Brooks garnered an Oscar for Best Screenplay for his adaptation, and Burt Lancaster won his sole Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Elmer Gantry. WebElmer 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. Jim observes his defeat from his bed, laid ill with a bug no doubt divinely-sent. WebElmer turns to Rigg for help, who hires a detective to dig up incriminating evidence against Hettie and her husband. At their next revival, the tent catches fire and kills a hundred people, including Sharon, but Gantry climbs over trapped women and escapes. Many of the people attending the revivals would then be working-class individuals. The new Wellspring Church has been built, and Elmer is awarded an honorary doctorate from Abernathy College. He survived for a while by interpreting some of the Biblical stories as symbols that revealed the glory of God and the leadership of Christ. The movie was not just a group of scenes depicting sex and violence. He is soon invited to preach at one of her meetings. On his first visit in 1889, he held campaigns in cities from Boston to San Francisco. (Courtesy of Degebo, Berlin, Germany.) He is a social climber and a publicity seeker. WebElmer Gantry. In the novel, when Elmer takes up his first appointment in a small-town Methodist church, one of the first questions the fundamentalist trustees asks him is, Do any monkeying with this higher criticism? Against the tide of modernist thought that included science and secularism, fundamentalists insisted on the truth of their core doctrines, including the virgin birth, the physical resurrection of Jesus, the atonement, the infallibility of the Scriptures, and the second coming of Christ. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. Sharon believes she is above sin and that she can do anything she wants to because she is Gods messenger. 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. Ad Locust is a traveling salesman for the Pequot Farm Implement Company who befriends Elmer on the train to Monarch. He looks stern and Elmer is afraid of him. "Elmer Gantry", directed by Richard Brooks, is one of his best. He returns to it in the context of Sharons revival meetings. Elmer is the great man steadily making his way upward in the worldthe man of immoderate personal ambitionand the great man hasnt time for scruples. 23 Feb. 2023 . She is a widow who owns a millinery and dressmaking shop. Well, he didn't disappoint here, either, with a fantastic performance as those of you who have seen this already know. | It might seem that the last thing in the world Lewis wanted was sympathy for Elmer Gantry, whom he regarded, he told Allen Austin years later, as a hypocrite through and through. Yet he wrote in the Nation in 1928, Actually, I like the Babbitts, the Dr. Pickerbaughs, the Will Kennicotts, and even the Elmer Gantrys rather better than anyone else on earth. Furthermore, he told Betty Stevens that the Babbitts were my children and I wanted to reform them. Sit down and take in everything this film is offering, you won't be disappointed. Some day he would be a bishop, yes, but even that was nothing compared with the fact that he had won a victory over his lower nature. He kneels in prayer, but in that instant he sees Cleo and at once thinks of seducing her. Like Sharon, she drew huge crowds and practiced faith healing. Everyone congratulates him on his conversion. According to Mark Schorer, in his introduction to Sinclair Lewis: A Collection of Critical Essays, No novel in the history of American literature outraged its audience so completely, and very few novels in American literature had a larger immediate audience. The book was banned in Boston and other cities and denounced from hundreds of pulpits. This is indeed what happened to Dr. Bruno Zechlin, one of the faculty at Mizpah, who lost his fundamentalist faith even before he received his theological doctorate. Judson Roberts, the enthusiastic, apparently confident evangelist who converts Elmer, admits to himself that his preaching is dishonest. We are going to find the golden Scriptures written in our own hearts, we are going to sing together, laugh together, rejoice together like a gathering of April brooks, rejoice that in us is living the veritable spirit of the Everlasting and Redeeming Christ Jesus!, Declining from this spirituality, she gives her gospel-crew a pep talk: lets hit people hard for money-pledges. It took a long time before I watched this movie on VHS. Yes, sir-ree, it might feel simplistic but at least it's fair and square. Your email address will not be published. This film is not only good; it misses being great by a narrow margin. WebA second-division British psychedelic band with a tangled history, Elmer Gantry & the Velvet Opera recorded a couple of albums in the Pink Floyd/Soft Machine/Tomorrow/Nice mold in the late '60s without coming close to establishing a solid identity of their own. Schorer analyzes the novels lack of conflict and dramatic counterpoint; there are no obstacles to Elmers success, since the good characters are weak and play only peripheral roles and there are no competing orders of value, since everything is corrupt. Gary H. Mayer, "Love is More Than the Evening Star: A Semantic Analysis of Elmer Gantry and The Man Who Knew Coolidge". He is encouraged to stay in the church by the Reverend Andrew Pengilly, and he ends up as a minister of a Congregational church in Zenith. Elmer Gantry is a film that exposes hypocrisy and greed among religious leaders who seek to exploit gullible citizens looking for something in which to believe. 99107. The affair threatens to destroy Gantry, but Rigg hires a detective to besmear Hettie, and she and her husband are forced to sign an affidavit declaring Gantrys innocence. As Elmer (Burt Lancaster) is a saleman with a powerfully persusive tongue who joins up Sister Sharon Falconer (glamorous Jean Simmons) along with her colleagues , Sister Rachel (Patti Page) , William L. Morgan (Dean Jagger) touring grass-roots evengelist circus during the depressed twenties . He looked back and saw her, quite alone, holding up the white wooden cross which had stood by the pulpit, marching steadily forward, a tall figure pale against the screen of flames.. This is a film that has outlasted its time. Both time and cost are saved by the high efficiency. By so doing they give themselves an advantage over the general public. The fundamentalists believe that if even one thing in the Bible is questioned it is only a matter of time before faith is undermined completely. Elmer would probably not be able to answer this question. It is the hour! The clash between fundamentalists and liberals comes to a dramatic and violent climax in the final incident involving Shallard. Harry Sinclair Lewis, best known as Sinclair Lewis, was born on February 7, 1885, in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. "Religion and Sports: Three Muscular Christians in American Literature". During the 1930s and 1940s, Lewis published a further nine novels, as well as plays and short stories. 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. This short scene is written from Elmers point of view. Initially, he is an enemy of Elmer and tries to prevent him from becoming president of the student body for the second time. Special Effects winner, with presenters Polly Bergen and Richard Widmark. Napap would bring about nationwide censorship of novels, plays, paintings, and movies. His portrait of a golden-tongued evangelist who rises to power within his church-a saver of souls who lives a life But unlike Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantrys rise is depicted negatively. George Babbitt, the namesake of one of Lewis' best-known novels, appears in Elmer Gantry very briefly during an encounter at the Zenith Athletic Club. One device after another is employed to introduce him to new denominations and round out the picture. He is a complete hypocrite and a complete opportunist. To increase his vocabulary he begins a word list: incinerate, Merovingian, Golgotha, Leigh Hunt, defeasance, chansonromantic-sounding words. B. And even if you saw the big sign outside, you probably wouldn't know that this is specifically an Ethiopian restaurant, and a very good one. Like a priestess she takes him to the chapel, a shrine with hangings, a crucifix, statues of the Virgin, and heathen idols, including a naked Venus. Lewiss reputation as a satirist of American life continued to develop in the 1920s with the novels Babbitt (1922), Arrowsmith (1925), Elmer Gantry (1927), and Dodsworth (1929). Elmer reads Browning, Tennyson, Dickens. And if I could still only be sure about the virgin birth! And yet Im not a liar! In "Elmer Gantry," Burt Lancaster gives one of the all-time great screen performances. Reverend Andrew Pengilly is the old pastor of the Catawba Methodist Church. There, Gantry befriends the Methodist bishop and is appointed pastor of a church in Banjo Crossing. Gantry befriends a famous criminal attorney, T. J. Rigg, who becomes his adviser and confidant. Elmer attends Mizpah Theological Seminary, a Baptist institution in Babylon, in the Midwest. Probably the most significant thing to know about this film is that the story is set in 1927. Mark Schorer, then of the University of California, Berkeley, notes: "The forces of social good and enlightenment as presented in Elmer Gantry are not strong enough to offer any real resistance to the forces of social evil and banality." It must have been for acting against type, coming off wholesome musical Oklahoma! Gantrys beliefs are left ambiguous, as are his motives for evangelizing. One should imagine instead, I think, that she might have the same great-grandaddy as President Lyndon Baines Johnson: Baptist preacher George Baines. Thus Rebecca West could write incisively about the religious and historical perspectives of Elmer Gantry: The passages in the book which present to one what Mr. Lewis regards as the proper attitude to religion are disconcertingly jejune. Miss West goes on to say that like Mark Twain, who in Connecticut Yankee looked at medieval Europe and said, My, werent they dumb? Lewis has no sense of the struggle of the human mind to evolve from chaos to the achievements of his age.