Adapted from the novel Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
The title character is an ambitious and hypocritical preacher who rises to fame and power with a golden tongue, saving souls in public while ruining lives in private.
I am utterly fascinated by this adaptation. I can practically hear the screenwriter's pitch: "Yes, I know the story seems like a blatant, satirical attack on Christianity in America, and obviously no one wants that, but what if in the movie...we were only attacking revivals?" Even if Richard Brooks never actually said that, that's pretty much what it boils down to. In both versions, Elmer was studying to be a minister when he was kicked out of school, but in the book it was after he was ordained. In both versions, Elmer serves as an evangelist with Sharon Falconer, but, though she leaves his life in the same way, what he does next is completely different. The book shows him rising through the ranks of the Methodist church; the movie just ends there with him giving up evangelism. Book Elmer serves many churches; film Elmer only serves Sharon Falconer's revivals. Though Sharon does have a significant impact on Elmer's life in the book, they're only together for a relatively brief period of time, whereas she's in most of the movie. The film also adds several lines of characters wondering why people need revivals when they can just go to church; in other words, it distances churches from people like Elmer Gantry. Granted, the film does show a bit of hypocrisy on the part of other, more traditional ministers, but this is very slight compared to the book.
Then there's the character of Jim Lefferts. In the book, he's Elmer's college friend, a self-proclaimed atheist who walks out of his life when Elmer decides to pursue a career in ministry. In the movie, he's a skeptic reporter who follows Elmer and Sharon around, and at first tries to make them look bad, but later becomes more of an ally. The Jim of the movie never says he's an atheist, and interestingly, loses an argument with Elmer because he can't decide whether or not he believes that Jesus was divine. In both versions, Jim is one of the least hypocritical characters, but in the book he's firmly anti-Christianity, whereas in the movie, while he isn't exactly a Christian, he isn't exactly not a Christian either. The film is careful not to portray atheism in too positive of a light. Elmer even has a line when he's criticizing Jim in which he accuses him of blindly following several atheistic writers, and he includes Sinclair Lewis. I couldn't quite decide if this was a joking or serious attempt to distance the film from the original material, but I enjoyed it either way.
While most of the significant changes seem to serve the purpose of becoming more palatable to a Christian audience, the film also makes several fascinating changes to the way women and sex are portrayed. In both versions, Elmer is a major womanizer. The first time this really gets him into trouble is when he is still a student preacher and falls for a deacon's daughter named Lulu. In the book, they have a thing for a while, but then he gets annoyed with her, and she really wants him to marry her (she even tries to convince him she's pregnant at one point). Someone sees them together, which kind of forces Elmer to propose, but he manages to push her towards this other guy and arrange it so that people find them together and she ends up having to marry him instead. Then, much later, when Elmer is married to somebody else whom he doesn't even like (who doesn't exist in the movie), Lulu comes back into his life, and they have an affair for a while until he gets tired of her and meets someone else. Unfortunately for him, that someone else is setting him up so she can blackmail him later. In the movie, on the other hand, Elmer is kicked out of school for being caught having sex with Lulu in the church (in the book he was kicked out for an unrelated reason). Instead of being forced to marry someone else, movie Lulu becomes a prostitute, who comes back into Elmer's life when he's trying to eliminate vice from the city (which is also something that happens in the book, but Lulu is not involved). Then Lulu is the one who tries to blackmail him, but she has a change of heart when she realizes she's still in love with him. For the most part, I don't really object to these changes to Lulu's character; I think they work pretty well in the movie. In the novel Lulu is portrayed as weak and whiny, so I like that she's more empowered in the film.
On the other hand, I kind of hate some of the changes made to Sharon's character. As I mentioned earlier, she's not actually in very much of the book, but she has a huge impact on Elmer's life, mainly because she's the only woman he ever respects, with the possible exception of his mother. She insists that he stop smoking and drinking, which in the book he does for the rest of his life; in the movie he only sort of gives them up. Novel Sharon makes it clear that she appreciates Elmer's talents, but remains in charge; film Sharon basically puts him in charge and frequently talks about how much she needs him. In the book, Elmer intends to seduce her, but ends up being seduced himself. In the movie, he talks her into sleeping with him. I actually said, "Ew, no" out loud multiple times during that scene, mostly because in the book she's so clearly the dominant personality in their relationship, and the movie makes her seem like a naive little girl being guided by a strong man of the world. Of all the myriad changes that clearly intentionally altered the tone of the story, that's the one I most objected to. Overall, Sharon's character was fairly consistent, but the movie makes her significantly weaker for no good reason.
I don't mean to imply that this isn't a good movie because it is. I just have trouble believing that it was truly the best adapted screenplay of that year. I think Sinclair Lewis would have considered the filmmakers cowardly for shying away from some of his more biting satire, and for dis-empowering his strongest female character. However, given the controversial nature of the story and that this was 1960, I'm almost surprised that the adaptation wasn't even less faithful.
Next up: Judgment at Nuremberg, the second movie adapted from a teleplay to win this award.
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