Reviews (23)

" Im On My Way"
An Oscar winning turn for Burt Lancaster and and Shirley Jones. Richard Brooks ,a terrific writer/director brings to the screen the saga of a bible salesman and all his tall tales.

Its a period piece ..but if you look closer whats old is new. Human nature..being what it is has cycles...and Religion has its own time and eternal ways.

You couldnt get a better cast that includes; Dean Jagger, Arthur Kennedy, and even the lighter Hugh Marlowe.( Edward Andrews)

Elmer Gantry,s success in the revival business is jeopardized when a prostitute comes back into his life( how many times has that occured before in literature?)

Richard Brooks superb screenplay..and Andre Previn,s riveting score add to the auroa of this fine film..with Lancaster ..playing ....himself.

SERMONS OF THE ZEALOUS PREACHER WERE NEVER MORE MEMORABLE!
Even if you find yourself falling asleep during a sermon, you won't be able to here. Brother Gantry won't allow it. Brother Gantry is the zealous, fiery new preacher who is here to warn the world that we're all sinners... and we'll go straight to hell if we don't repent! Repent and join the big baseball team headed by "Jesus Christ, himself!". As Elmer Gantry, Burt Lancaster is at the epitome of his charm and dynamic personality as the smooth-talking, fire-and-brimstone preaching character who brings an evangelical woman's (Jean Simmons) religious organization to prominence through his zestful sermons. It will work out just fine... as long as the people don't know that Brother Gantry is a lusty sinner himself, his best friend a blonde prostitute (Shirley Jones, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for this role) and his flexible morals and ideals are hidden. Lancaster won a Best Actor Oscar for the role, and deservedly so, for he is Elmer Gantry: his sparkling blue eyes, and mile-wide smile set the standard of a persuasive salesman, selling religion to those manipulated by his exacting pull. Richard Brooks' incredible screenplay and crisp direction make "Elmer Gantry" the great Burt Lancaster film of all time.

love is the evening and the morning star!
Elmer Gantry, (Burt Lancaster), is a travelling evangelist with one eye on the Lord and one eye on the ladies! Elmer put's his amazing gift of the gab to use by preaching in tent meetings. Along the way he meets Sister Falconer, (Jean Simmons), who takes him under her wing, there working relationship soon turns personal.

Elmer Gantry is one of the greatest, (in my opinion), movies ever made. Burt Lancaster won his only oscar for his dynamic manic performance as the charlatan with a heart of gold. His preaching style is bombastic, his personal life morally bankrupt. It's really eerie how he resembles a number of "Evangelists", that I have come across in person or on the television. Elmer Gantry truly represents a lot of the tele-evangelists that have come and gone over the last 50 years or so as does Sister Falconer.

Watching Burt Lancaster in full flight as he belts out his sermons and slides across the platform is a true joy to behold. It's a really great actor in his prime, and wonderfully entertaining.

All in all it's a great romp with fantastic dialogue, wonderful performances and it's controversial theme packs a punch even today when Tele-evangelist, whilst know less popular, are still racking in the big bucks and filling stadiums with willing followers. To the Christian, let this film be a lesson for all of us, there are wolves in sheeps clothing around.

Thanks for reading and enjoy and maybe be educated by this wonderful film.

Two sides to a coin
In response to the reviewer who said this film was anti christian and to pass on this trash. I would like to say that this film represents a view of some peoples distasteful view of religion , but sure not all people feel this way. Un fortunately in this world, their are people who use religion to exploit and manipulte people- This is just a fact of life- Then there are people who see the true beauty in religion and and utililze it to help people obtain a higher good - Unlike this reviewer, I would suggest you do not pass on this trash! It is an outstanding film which really makes you think !

Move It On Over Kathryn Kuhlman, Kenny Hagin & Benny Hinn!
Burt Lancaster as Elmer Gantry & Jean Simmons as Sister Sharon Falconer. Elmer is a slick salesman who falls head over heals (HA, pun intended) for the self ordained healing prophetess preacher woman who certainly must have been modeled on Amy Semple-MacPherson's Four Square Gospel Church in exsistence today.

THE best Upton Sinclair novel in my humble opinion, with a top notch screenplay that follows the novel fairly well, given what you could actually film in 1960. The book itself is much more dicey & really delves into the character of Elmer and his weaknesses for booze, unfaithfulness of all kinds, and sex and is a great study into the mind of a master manipulator.

This film has a timeless quality given the New WORD FAITH MOVEMENT goin on. Call it "Name It & Claim It" Message or The "Health & Wealth" Gospel but Elmer & Sister Sharon could go up against the 1950/60's Kathryn Kuhlman, 1970/80's Kenneth Hagin or Kenneth Copeland, or our new millenium savior, Benny Hinn, ANY OL' DAY! A TRUE GEM of a film, not to be missed!

In MY TOP 25 FILMS of ALL TIME. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Two great stars but not worth the time.
As a fan of both Jones and Clift I was hoping for a hidden treasure here. This short [63 minutes] Italian production seems more like a movie missing its first hour. Both stars give it their best effort but its basically a mess. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Just as David O. Selznick and Alfred Hitchcock had clashed while filming Rebecca, the meddlesome producer left his Hollywood imprint on the troubled production of Vittorio De Sica's Terminal Station. Selznick's career was fading fast, and while self-exiled in Europe he seized on the notion of melding De Sica's masterful neorealism with a daring but otherwise conventional studio romance, casting big stars in a turgid melodrama about a Philadelphia housewife traveling in Rome (Jennifer Jones, Selznick's wife) who must choose between marital fidelity or illicit passion with a lovestruck Italian (Montgomery Clift) as she prepares to depart from Rome's coldly modern Stazione Termini. After De Sica's 89-minute Terminal Station tested poorly with audiences, Selznick cut the film to 64 minutes (excising most of De Sica's neorealistic atmosphere), added an 8-minute prologue of Patti Page singing two moody ballads to pad the truncated running time, and still failed to attract audiences with his gauchely retitled Indiscretion of an American Wife.

Both versions are included on Criterion's magnificent DVD, allowing latter-day viewers a revealing comparison/contrast between Selznick's commercial taste (glossy and sentimental) and De Sica's artistic vision. Indiscretion turns Jones's overwrought character into a dimensionless focus of guilt and shame, lacking the moral depth of Terminal Station, in which her dilemma is more compellingly explored. Inevitably, only De Sica's version achieves Selznick's original goal: It's a remarkable hybrid of neorealism (with its authentic setting populated by people of all classes, subtly affecting the story) and Selznick's heavy-handed moralizing (with a partial dialogue polish by Truman Capote). Commentary by film scholar Leonard Leff and liner notes by critic Dave Kehr further illuminate this clash of formidable talents, illustrating how both films, gloriously restored, serve the divergent purposes of their creators. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (6)

MAGIC IT'S MAGIC
It seems that the deities who preside over the fate of the movie lovers have heard my prayer of last year.

Criterion has just announced the release of INDISCRETION OF AN AMERICAN WIFE in its catalogue for August 2003. The studio will present both versions of the movie. So be patient and avoid the Roan Group DVD until then.

A DVD zone masterpiece.

THE SELZNICK HOLLYWOODSAW CUT MASSACRE
Well, firstly I think people should be aware that the european version of Vittorio de Sica's INDISCRETION OF AN AMERICAN WIFE is 120 minutes long and that the U.S. release presented here by The Roan Group lasts...63 minutes. The hour long neo-realistic scenes shot by the italian director had been cut by a David Selznick fearing that the american audience could be shocked by the 1953 italian reality. The Dream Factory couldn't accept a movie that would have awakened the nice sleepers of America.

So, what's left of the movie is watchable, nothing more. Jennifer and Montgomery spend a lot of time running through Rome Main Station and cruise a few symbolical figures that have lost all their impact.

So let's hope that the european version will appear soon in the Criterion catalogue. Just production notes as bonus feature. No more than average sound and images.

A DVD for the garbage can.

Mature drama with great performances
The running time on this film is only 63 minutes which is really quite enough time considering that it is basically plotless and is mainly a one hour farewell between an American housewife and an Italian man she is having an affair with. You will really not notice the plot weaknesses, however, because of the intense performances from the stars and the wide array of emotions this film brings forth. Jennifer Jones, although really too sophisticated and regal for a Philadelphia housewife, is quite good here and gives the best performance in the film. An early scene where she sits in the train caressing a dress that she has just bought for her daughter is simply a marvel - we can read everything in her face and we can easily see how her thoughts drift from her daughter to her lover. Montgomery Clift is gorgeous beyond belief here (this was a few years before the devastating car accident which scarred his face) and his acting is okay except he starts out with an Italian accent which totally disappears halfway into the film. The film was photographed at Rome's new (at the time) Terminal Station and was filmed at night to avoid crowds and day to day business in the immense station. Jennifer Jones' smart suit was designed by Christian Dior, who had just appeared on the fashion scene. The Roan Group dvd is excellent and presents a sharp image that is free of nicks and scratches. Some added features would have been nice but all we get here is a cast and crew summary and a brief page about the making of the film.

brilliant, mesmerizing piece
Indiscretion takes place in one locale only, Rome's main train terminal. It chronicles the final moments of an ill-fated tryst between an Italian man (Montgomery Clift) and an American housewife (Jennifer Jones). But do not be fooled by the simplicity of this synopsis. Indiscretion is a multi-layered, surrealist script which, by focusing on the love affair between two people, takes a very courageous, analytical look at the clockwork behind the man's actions and the realities and demands of the society which formulates and steers those actions. In this story, it explains how this clockwork dictates and rules our lives, for better or worse. This analyzation is non-judgemental, and thankfully so.

Heavily targeted here are religion (monks and clerics are always nearby, following scenes between the couple), mortality and the fleeting nature of life (sinister clocks tick away, leaving less and less time available to the lovers), social and political authority (the threatening and humiliating experience of being arrested by a foreign authority), the universal compassion of humanity (the sick passenger and the ripping up of the police charge), the institution and sanctity of marriage (the pictures of the woman's child, her nephew representing and reminding her of the importance of the family), among many others. They are presented here for one reason alone: to demonstrate the complexity of the human experience, and to quite brutally prove what type of influence the world around us has on making subjective decisions. The viewer, as a result, is apt to be asking themselves over and over, "What is she going to do? ... What is she going to do?" Like the recent German film Run Lola Run, we see the power and significance that the ramifications subjective decision-making holds.

Indiscretion is rare piece of cinema in that it analyzes and exposes without making moralistic critiques. How this film could have been made in the 1950s is something of a conundrum to me, though I imagine it has something to do with Truman Capote working on the script, Montgomery Clift's genius, and of course a very unique director!

To make this experience all the more interesting is the real-life drama which unfolded between the two lead actors in this film. In the film, Clift was the catalyst for the couple's love, desperately trying to turn the fate of his lover in his direction, ultimately failing. Off-screen, it was Jones who tried to do so, ultimately failing due to Clift's sexual orientation.

This film is a gem. If you're interested in films which unabashedly strip the human experience naked, this is for you. If you're looking for an feel-good, life-affirming Hollywood script stay clear.

A flawed Masterpiece
When I first saw this film I was captured by the grainy Black and white realism and surrealism of the cinematography. I found myself disappearing in a past life somewhere in Italy in a train station and feeling like a fly on the wall as these two people were going throughout the different changes that emotions and time restraint love can cause. I love this movie because of that. To me that is what a film should do. Displace you. Unfortunately as most will observe something is missing. Namely part of the film. For some reason or another censors and others who felt the film was too long. Ridiculous as it is. Made many cuts and have left us with just a part of something that may have been great. Some people criticize Jennifer Jones as a bit too overacting but some people are very edgy in moments of change and despair. Montgomery Clift is so brilliant that it's hard to not see the differences in acting styles between him and Jennifer and that may make some think that there is no chemistry between the leads but I don't agree. Anyone who has researched about the making of this film should know that Jennifer Jones was very much in love with Montgomery Clift and completely devastated when she found out about his sexual orientation. This only adds to the emotional background for the story and propels the film even further in my opinion. Victorio De Sica did a masterful job in directing everything from background players to the many other actors who had little parts here and there to add color to the story. One day maybe we will see a restored version of this film and see Victorio's masterpiece as it should have been presented. ... Read more

Description

In a world overflowing with musical imitators, The Singing Rage- Miss Patti Page remains an original! Now the barefoot girl from Claremore, Oklahoma, is back!Always beautifully dressed and coiffed, she performs 18 delightful staged numbers of the classic songs that made her famous.

Patti Page has released over 80 albums and 157 singles (with sales of over 70,000,000)- an astounding 110 of which reached the Billboard charts. She had 13 Gold Records.

A musical pioneer, she was the first to record with the now-standard overdubbing process, singing lead and background vocals. She was also the first artist to become a "crossover" sensation.

Patti’s beauty, vocal purity and unpretentious style have placed her in a category of her own, earning her the respect of fellow artists and love of millions of fans. "The Patti Page Sound" can be both warm and fiery hot, religious in feeling, but also provocative. But whether happy, melancholy or brazen, it is always real!

V.I.E.W. Video is proud to present "Patti Page Video Songbook, an outstanding historical tribute to one of the greatest pop and country artist ever!

SONG SELECTIONS:
1) How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?
2) I Don’t Care If The Sun Don’t Shine
3) I Went To Your Wedding
4) Melody of Love
5) Oklahoma Blues
6) A Blossom Fell
7) Smiles
8) Tennessee Waltz
9) Mr. & Mississippi
10) When Your Lover Has Gone
11) Everyday I Fall In Love
12) You Call Everybody Darling
13) Would I Love You?
14) In The Blue Of Evening
15) Way Down Yonder In New Orleans
16) Sunny Side Of The Street
17) Father, Father
18) This Is My Song

DVD BONUS FEATURES
- Fun Facts & Trivia Subtitles
- Biography of Patti Page
- Digitally Mastered Audio & Video
- Interactive Menus
- Instant Access to Song Selections
- Dolby Digital Audio ... Read more