Elmer Gantry is an all-American boy. He’s interested in money, sex, and religion. This barn-burner of a drama was directed by Richard Brooks and stars Burt Lancaster in a role that won him his only Oscar. It’s the story of a con man who realizes that shouting loudly about the Lord is the best con he can possibly pull (and it might just get him into the habit of Sister Sharon (played by Jean Simmons)). In perhaps the only time in film history until Fight Club, the author of the novel, Sinclair Lewis, actually told Brooks to take the criticisms of the book and use them to make the movie better. Maybe that’s why they denounced the author by name in one of Gantry’s signature sermons. Plus, the mother from The Partridge Family plays a woman of ill repute. How can you beat that?

Blood, sweat, and snake oil. Burt Lancaster delivers the role of a lifetime while selling us all on Old Time Religion.