clips from 1972 documentary about an evangelist con artist Marjoe

[BootinUp]

won an academy award

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjoe_Gortner

[NYC_SKP]

1. Recommended. (nt)

love it!

[Mr.Bill]

2. I remember that clown.

He sort of tried to blend rock star appearance with an evangelist program. He didn't last long.

[Warpy]

3. "Glory Gee to Beezus!"--Marjoe Gortner

He wanted to blow the lid off what a racket evangelism was. Unfortunately, people who believe that stuff only clung harder to their beliefs.

The rest of us had all our suspicions about those tent revivals confirmed.

[murielm99]

5. I agree that he was trying to blow the lid off evangelism in this documentary.

I think some of the people here who are commenting have not seen it.

I ordered it recently from Netflix and watched it again. In some ways, it is dated. It was interesting to see how many people still smoked. And the slang was so drug-oriented.

Marjoe was taught to be a con artist, from the time he was a child evangelist.

This documentary came out just about the time all the televangelists were getting off the ground. They are no different from Marjoe, and I wish more people had taken warning, before people like Pat Robertson became so powerful.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. Absolutely Marjoe was doing an exposé.

After having been raised in this culture and made to perform on stage from the time he was a small child, he managed to de-program himself and made one last tour of the circuit for the purpose of filming this documentary.

[libdem4life]

4. I've seen people get in a large circle and men stand behind every one of them. The minister is in

the middle and starts this stuff like Marjoe, and goes around the circle putting his hands on their foreheads and I've seen it with my own eyes, not even a push, and people fall straight backwards and the others catch them. It's called "slaying in the Spirit". Usually, if you don't go down, it means you weren't healed or are an unbeliever. I know that goes on at that Cruz church.

[Tx4obama]

6. I loved his film "When you comin' back, red ryder?"

It is just about never shown on TV anymore and never has been released on dvd - but I found the whole film on YouTube a few months ago.

Rated R.

A terrifying and very obscure thriller from 1979, this film stars Marjoe Gortner as a psychotic Vietnam vet who holds an entire diner full of people hostage, forcing them to act out a demented play of his improvised creation. Co-starring Peter Firth, Pat Hingle, Candy Clark, Hal Linden, and Lee Grant. Rated R, for mature audiences only due to graphic language and scenario.

More info here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080129/

p.s. The first half of the film sets everything up for the explosive last half

[Douglas Carpenter]

10. now that is one freaky movie

[Francois Jeopardy]

7. There was a rumor that a sequel was in the works

about Marjoe and his later years as an actor and onward. Supposedly it was one of the makers of the original and the guy behind the doc "Paul Williams: Still Alive" that is behind this.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

8. This from the past, too

[Douglas Carpenter]

9. it is a great documentary and there are any number of this kind of con artist. But it would be a

Last edited Mon Oct 21, 2013, 01:18 PM - Edit history (1)

mistake to imagine that all or most fundamentalist/Pentecostal type preachers are conscious and intentional con artist. There are a lot more poor preachers than there are rich ones. The biggest problem lies not with the willful con artist preachers - but with the true believers who spread this destructive and self-destructive message - not out of avarice but out of complete and utter sincerity.

[BeyondGeography]

12. He was in the Marcus-Nelson Murders, the pilot for Kojak

Pretty awesome for a TV movie. He played the real killer. Very well, I might add.

[Douglas Carpenter]

13. I found the full documentary here on youtube - it is one hour and 28 minutes long

[BootinUp]

14. Thanks!