Glory! Glory!

Unfortunately this made for t.v. movie is not easy to come by and has not seen a lot of air time, but should you be lucky enough to watch it, you will enjoy the music, the story and the acting. It's listed as a comedy, though I have to say it seemed more like an off beat drama. Overall an excellent show to watch.

This 1989 HBO movie is one of my all-time favorites. This is about a televangelist who dies and leaves his "ministry" to his less than exciting son, played by Richard Thomas. James Whitmore is absolutely brilliant as the ministry's CFO and overall manager. With the ministry going down the tubes with Thomas at it's head, he stumbles across a rock performer (Ellen Greene) who is well into sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. He convinces her to come and perform at his services - which she agrees to when she discovers he is syndicated across the country. She becomes Sister Ruth and steals the entire show. The film unfolds from this premise into a truly hysterical satire of the entire televangelist communities. I crack up every time I watch this - and must say that the music and performances of Ellen Greene are great! The movie was originally presented in two parts for a total running time of 3 hours, 18 minutes. I, too, have tried in vain to find it commercially released. I DID find a VHS version of it on E-Bay, but they cut the film almost in half to fit on one VHS, so I didn't bother. I am very glad I taped it at the time it was aired, so I DO have the entire film on an old VHS tape. Not the greatest quality, but watchable. I just recently converted it to DVD to archive it before the tape turns to dust! Hopefully, HBO will actually release this gem some day on DVD! But if you get a chance to see it, don't pass it up!

We enjoyed the cheesy acting! We recorded this movie years ago, and watched the VHS tape so much, we have worn it out. We've invited friends and relatives to watch it with us. I can't speak for them, whether they enjoyed it or now. My wife loved all the songs, she can sing them verbatim. We've been looking for this movie to own on DVD for years since our VHS tape is fading out.

I can not really explain the effect this movie had on us, other than we love Vincent. I have a Vincent at my shop, and I think of this movie every time I call for him. I wish he could see this movie.

This movie is absolutely top-drawer. It was released right around the time when there were numerous scandals in the news regarding TV evangelists. The acting was wonderful and the writing was stupendous. I recommend viewing this movie if you ever have the chance to see it. I have been somewhat dismayed, however, to find that there is apparently nowhere to purchase this movie... and I have tried just about everywhere. If anybody out there has any pull with anyone, please see that this movie gets another chance to see the light of day!

This was regarded as British director's Lindsay Anderson first foray into television. Its a light satire on televangelism with Richard Thomas an anaemic evangelist taking over his father's ministry. His sermons go down poorly, funds begin to dry up and and he comes across a rebellious rock performer (Ellen Greene) who becomes Sister Ruth, makes her songs more religious and creates a storm rejuvenating the ministry but sex, drugs and rock n roll are never far behind.

This was an entertaining television two parter but you kind of think that L'Infant terrible of the British new wave cinema was holding back some of his punches.

It does have a Television movie sheen about it but Ellen Greene oozed sex appeal and Richard Thomas was in his element for this entertaining dig at some of the celebrity preachers of the time.