Film

Elmer Gantry

Name: Elmer Gantry
Genre: Drama
Released: 1960
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, Arthur Kennedy, Dean Jagger, Shirley Jones

Burt Lancaster tears into the role of his career as a fast-talking revival preacher who turns Bible-thumping into showbiz, seducing crowds and Jean Simmons' true believer alike. Adapted from Sinclair Lewis, it's a big, brassy, unapologetically theatrical portrait of American hucksterism — equal parts sermon and striptease. Watch it for Lancaster's teeth-and-grin performance and for a film unafraid to call religion a con when it wants to be.

TMDb rating

7.3

If you liked this

Nightmare Alley1947

Before Gantry there was this: a carnival grifter graduates from mind-reading scams to full-blown spiritualist preacher, and the film watches the con curdle into self-destruction with noir-black clarity.

But Bleaker and colder than Gantry — this is noir fatalism, not showman's swagger, and it ends without any of Lancaster's redemptive heat.

The Rainmaker1956no page yet

Lancaster again, this time selling rain instead of salvation, with the same swagger and same seductive lies — a warm companion piece that shows he could do the con with a wink instead of a growl.

But It's romantic comedy at heart, so anyone wanting Gantry's moral rot and menace will find this far gentler stuff.

The Apostle1997

Robert Duvall wrote, directed and stars as a preacher who is Gantry's opposite number — flawed, violent, but genuinely believing every word he preaches. It's the sincere flip side of the same coin.

But Slower and more meditative than Gantry's carnival energy; this one sits with guilt and grace rather than performing them.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Marjoe1972

Marjoe Gortner was a real child evangelist who grew disillusioned and let cameras film his own revival tricks being performed and explained — literally showing you the machinery Gantry only dramatizes.

This Oscar-winning documentary follows a real evangelist demonstrating, on camera, every trick of stagecraft and crowd manipulation used to fake divine ecstasy — it's Gantry's playbook, performed for real.

But It's grainy, low-budget seventies documentary filmmaking, not Lancaster's Technicolor swagger — and the real thing is queasier than the fiction.

There Will Be Blood2007

Paul Thomas Anderson pits a fire-and-brimstone preacher against an oil baron and lets showmanship curdle into pure American greed. Same instinct for turning belief into business, staged with operatic dread.

But It's punishing and glacially paced next to Gantry's brisk theatricality — a slow-burn epic, not a barnstorming sermon.

Leap of Faith1992no page yet

Steve Martin plays a traveling faith healer running an elaborately rigged revival tent, all smoke machines and fake miracles — the con made explicit, funny, and cynically modern.

But Broader and glossier than Gantry, with a studio-comedy sheen that softens any real menace in the fraud.

Sweet Smell of Success1957

Lancaster, again magnetic and monstrous, plays a Broadway columnist wielding influence like a whip. Same actor, same hunger for power through charm — just traded the pulpit for the press box.

But No religion here at all; if it was specifically Gantry's evangelist milieu you wanted, this swaps it out entirely for showbiz journalism.

Paper Moon1973

A Depression-era Bible-selling grifter and the possibly-his-daughter he's stuck with, conning small towns for cash — lighter, funnier, but cut from the same cloth of religious hucksterism as sport.

But It's tender where Gantry is scorching; this is a road movie about family, not a reckoning with faith.

Network1976

A prophet-madman preaching rage instead of salvation, turned into a ratings sensation — the same warning about charisma monetized, just moved from tent revival to television studio.

But It's satire about media, not religion, and its fury is aimed at broadcasting rather than belief.

The Music Man1962

A charming traveling salesman cons a whole town into buying instruments and belief in itself — Gantry's con-man engine, dressed up in show tunes and sunshine instead of sermons.

But This is pure musical comedy with a happy ending; anyone wanting Gantry's teeth will find this toothless by comparison.

The Righteous Gemstones2019

A modern TV dynasty of televangelist grifters, related by blood instead of a single conman's charm, taking Gantry's central joke — religion as family business — to gleefully profane extremes.

This raunchy HBO comedy imagines an entire dynasty running Gantry's exact scam across generations, mining the hypocrisy for pitch-black laughs instead of moral reckoning.

But It's crude, sweary, and purely comic — if you want Gantry's gravity and consequence, this trades it all for shock-value gags.

The Miracle Man1919no page yet

A silent-era ancestor of Gantry's whole con: a gang of grifters stage fake faith healings around a supposed miracle worker, decades before Sinclair Lewis put the same trick into a novel.

Decades before Gantry, this silent melodrama already had a gang faking miracle healings for profit — the urtext for every fraudulent-faith story since, including this one.

But Silent, mostly lost in complete form, and creakier melodrama by modern standards — real patience for the format is required.