Elmer Gantry

“If there was a dollar to be made—Gantry would make it … If there was a soul to be saved—Gantry would save it …”

Nobody in the tent knows how Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster), a loud, glad-handing salesman, found his way into the sermon business, and he is in no hurry to tell them. Richard Brooks follows him through the revival circuit of 1920s America, where he pairs up with the evangelist Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons). Every town they fill is another town that could learn what he is, and the closer he gets to her, the more he has to lose.