The Film Experience web site has an insightful look at Richard Brooks' classic 1960 film Elmer Gantry which won a Best Actor Oscar for Burt Lancaster's incredible performance as the charismatic conman/preacher with a passion for sex and profit. The film was eons ahead of its time in predicting the popularity of scoundrels who use religion to dupe weak-willed "sinners" out of their hard-earned money by promising redemption for them. In the contemporary age, Gantry clones have used the power of television as a tool to reach masses of people in a way that old time crooks like old Elmer could never dream of. Today, the use of religion as a method to con the gullible and the desperate is probably at an all-time high, thus making Brooks' film more relevant than ever. Click here to read.
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