Lol. That made me flash on Hazel Motes from Wise Blood and laugh.
Such a great and funny book. Huston's film is good but doesn't quite nail it.
Yeah, the film has issues with tone. I imagine the producers probably pressured to lighten up and insisted on the stupid music cues and pushing the gorilla road show story over the main stories. I met Brad Dourif once at a fan convention and we discussed the film for about 30 minutes. I think he was just happy not to be talking about the Sci-Fi channel crap he makes now. I don't think one person knew him from Cuckoo's Nest either.
I still believe Jesus is just a trick on niggras though. lol.