Found floating around the internetz...

[onager]

What a time capsule!

The 1972 documentary Marjoe.

Quick recap: Marjoe (yep, from MARy and JOsEph) Gortner was the youngest evangelist to ever work in California. His parents put him on the Fundie traveling freak-show circuit at age 6, whooping up the faithful at tent-show revivals.

He made loads of money, stolen by his parents and managers, and ended up broke with substance-abuse problems.

In 1972, he went back on the road to preach. With a documentary film crew, specifically to expose the whole thing as a scam. That's where the movie came from.

One priceless moment: Marjoe relaxing among stacks of money after preaching a tent revival, lighting up a joint.

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

After that he tried to launch an acting career without much success. He did appear in a few Grade-Z movies and TV shows.

Speaking of Grade Z, I found Marjoe while searching on stuff like "grindhouse" and "midnight movies." I also came across an interesting trilogy of French Existentialist cinema from the 1970's - French Postcards, French Schoolgirls and Kinky French Nurses.

Funny thing is, nobody seems to speak French in any of those movies. I believe this is a comment on the essential normative invalidity of labels in the post-modern world, or maybe a statement on the randomness of the universe. I will have to check with the philosophers in R/T again.

[Warpy]

1. My favorite bit in the movie is the line when he's counting the spoils

"Glory gee to beezus!" It summed up the whole thing very nicely, especially since nobody he was with seemed to think it had ever been anything but a scam.

I wish PBS would show that one again and again, but it's been buried ever since Reagan gave half the country to the pig ignorant fundamentalists.

[PassingFair]

2. Another interesting tidbit:

Dan Barker of the Freedom from Religion Foundation
got his start working for Katherine Kuhlman.

I used to be fascinated by her as a child.
There wasn't much on TV Sunday mornings back
then.

My mother pulled the plug on Katherine Kuhlman
when I started practicing "trembling" like
she did.

I thought she was super creepy and glamorous at the same time.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

3. i saw Marjoe when it was in the theaters in the fall of 1972.

Fascinating documentary. I was in my first semester of college in San Antonio. My religion professor suggested we go see it.

We had to take 2 religion courses as part of our liberal arts education and the intro course was "Nature and Function of Religion" which blew my mind. All the profs had gone to Princeton or Harvard (This was at a Presby school.)

"Marjoe" was either nominated for Best Documentary or maybe it won an Oscar. Or both since those are not mutually exclusive.